Nonhyeon BBQ tip: grill pork shoulder with pork belly at Daepae Market

It had been a while since I had thin-sliced pork belly, so I visited Daepae Market Gangnam Nonhyeon Branch, a Korean BBQ restaurant in Nonhyeon that's known as a great spot!

This is actually my go-to spot again! Among the Korean BBQ restaurants in Nonhyeon, it's great value and you can eat until you're stuffed!

Where Daepae Market Gangnam Nonhyeon Branch is and when it opens

Daepae Market Gangnam Nonhyeon Branch is located at 49 Hakdong-ro 2-gil, 1st floor, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. It's open 24 hours.

⏰ Hours: 24 hours. Since it's open around the clock, this is a great Korean BBQ restaurant in Nonhyeon to visit late at night or in the early morning!

Inside Daepae Market and the on-site pork slicing room

As soon as I walked in, the wall covered with celebrity signatures caught my eye.

The inside is bigger than it looks from outside! There's plenty of room further in, so I'd recommend it for group gatherings or company dinners too!

On one side, there's a space they call the live slicing station.

When an order comes in, they slice the meat thin right there on the spot with a meat slicer and bring it out.

What the 2,000 won self-serve bar includes

In the middle of Daepae Market Gangnam Nonhyeon Branch, there's a neatly kept self-serve bar.

There is a 2,000 won per person fee for the self-serve bar, but with fresh wrap vegetables plus plenty of vegetables to grill, it's great value.

They're also running a Naver receipt review event, so it might be worth joining.

What we ordered at Daepae Market and what it cost

• Thin-sliced pork belly (100g): ₩4,900 × 1
• Thin-sliced pork shoulder (100g): ₩4,900 × 2 + × 3
• Fresh rice: ₩1,000
• Self-serve bar: ₩2,000 × 2

Since I'd been here before, I mostly ordered the mild pork shoulder that suited my taste perfectly.

Thin-sliced pork belly and pork shoulder, 4,900 won per 100g

The meat, sliced right after ordering, came out rolled up in pretty little curls, lightly drizzled with sesame oil on the surface, and the nutty aroma tickled my nose.

As soon as the grill heated up, we piled on the vegetables we'd loaded up at the self-serve bar along with the meat.

The tip: grill pork shoulder together with fatty pork belly

Here's a small but important tip — since pork shoulder is low in fat, you should grill it together with pork belly, which renders fat nicely.

The savory pork fat dripping from the belly soaks into the minari, bracken fern, and mushrooms, adding richer flavor.

Seasoning the meat and vegetables lightly with the sesame oil, salt, and pepper set on the table makes it taste even better as you grill.

In particular, putting napa cabbage kimchi and green onion kimchi on the lower part of the grill and drizzling a bit of sesame oil to sizzle them makes the tangy, rich umami explode.

Since the meat is so thin, it's also great that it cooks quickly the moment it hits the grill.

You can enjoy it just lightly cooked for a soft texture, or cook it a bit crispier for a crunchy outside and chewy inside — both are delicious in their own way.

My friend ate hers with spicy-sweet sauced green onion salad, while I had mine with tangy, crunchy pickled onions.

The salty-sweet soy sauce dressing cut through the richness so well that I kept eating without getting tired of it.

Wrapping the meat with the fragrant, wilted minari and chewy bracken fern was delicious — the vegetables' strong aroma paired well with the meat's nuttiness.

Adding three more servings of thin-sliced pork shoulder

We ordered 3 more servings of pork shoulder.

The additional meat was also sliced right after ordering, keeping the same fresh, bright pink quality as before.

Paired with the tangy grilled green onion kimchi, it wasn't greasy at all — the clean finish meant I kept enjoying it right to the end.

DIY fried rice made from the leftover kimchi and vegetables

As we were finishing up the meat, we still had quite a bit of kimchi and vegetables left from the self-serve bar, so we added a bowl of rice and made a quick DIY fried rice.

We used scissors to finely cut up the leftover meat, grilled kimchi, minari, and bracken fern, then added the fresh rice and stir-fried it all.

We generously drizzled on the sesame oil from the table for extra nuttiness, then added fresh perilla leaves from the self-serve bar for fragrance.

There is a fried rice dish on the menu too, but making it ourselves from the leftovers was great value and an absolute treat.

Is Daepae Market in Nonhyeon worth it?

From the freshly sliced meat quality to the all-you-can-eat self-serve bar, Daepae Market Gangnam Nonhyeon Branch was a satisfying Korean BBQ restaurant in Nonhyeon. It's such a good spot for pork belly and pork shoulder that you'll want to come back regularly — definitely worth a visit!