Seasonal sashimi and a 550g pork set at a Songpa Korean BBQ: Yukmong

My friend finished work and wanted good meat, so off we went to Yukmong Bangi Direct Branch, a BBQ place near Seokchon Lake. It's new this year and the building is really upscale and clean — perfect for a work dinner. Even better, they grill everything for you, and it's genuinely delicious, so you'd get major props for picking this place for a group dinner. My friend raved about it too. It's already word-of-mouth famous enough that foreign tourists were dropping by too!

Yukmong Bangi Direct Branch hours and parking

• ⏰ Hours: 12:00–24:00
• Break time 15:00–17:00 (no break time on Saturday and Sunday)
• ☑️ Open normally on Chuseok
• Groups ⭕ Reservations ⭕ High chairs ⭕
• ☑️ Free corkage for 1 bottle of wine or whiskey
• ☑️ ₩10,000 extra per additional bottle
• ☑️ Floor rental available (inquire by phone)
• 4 parking spots in front; try Pyeongwon Building parking lot if full

What the restaurant looks like inside the Bangi food alley

Yukmong Bangi Direct Branch sits in the Bangi food alley area, popular with office workers. The nearest subway isn't super convenient, so I got off at Jamsil Naru Station and walked over — but being newly opened, the exterior was clean and upscale.

Inside, the tables are really spacious and well spread out, so conversations don't carry between tables at all. There are seats by floor-to-ceiling windows for an open feel, and if you want more privacy, there are curtained-off spaces you can close. We arrived first, but the place filled up fast as more people came in!

What comes in the 69,900-won Korean pork sampler set (550g)

Yukmong Bangi Direct Branch sells a variety of sampler sets as well as individual dishes.

• Hanwoo pork sampler set ₩69,900 (snowflake pork neck + rib pork belly + whole skirt meat + doenjang stew, soybean paste stew)
• Caviar cheese egg custard ₩13,000
• Seasonal sashimi tasting ₩12,000
• Zero-sugar cola, 2 cans ₩4,000

Order placed! The meat adds up to 550g total, a generous portion that doesn't feel overpriced.

Side dishes and the six dipping sauces

There's a tablet right next to the table for easy ordering, and it clearly labels which sauces and side dishes are which — really handy!

Side dishes arrived before we'd even ordered: lettuce, rinsed aged kimchi, cabbage salad, japchae (glass noodle stir-fry), seasoned crab, mu-saengchae (spicy radish salad), and mala cucumber salad. The japchae was great, and the mala cucumber salad was my first time trying it — tangy and spicy, and it paired really well with the meat! All the sides were tasty, so I stayed busy mixing and matching combos with the meat haha.

The seasoned crab was especially plump haha. It's always great when crab shows up as a side dish, and here it comes really plump and meaty. But it's a bit spicy, so be careful!

Great with meat: pickled onions and ginger vinegar, ssamjang (dipping paste), Maldon salt, wasabi, and fish tamarind sauce. The fish tamarind sauce tastes like the one used in pad thai — a sauce you'd often have in Southeast Asia — and dipping the meat in it is genuinely delicious!

Staff grill the pork belly, pork neck and skirt meat for you

While we were working through the sides, the meat arrived — a very generous plate of pork belly, pork neck, and skirt meat.

The great thing here is that the staff grill everything for you. They seemed to be foreign nationals, and they spoke Korean really well, were kind and adorable!!! I asked about the sauces out of curiosity and they explained everything so patiently and attentively.

Once grilled, they set the cooked meat aside on the grill. With three different cuts, they thoughtfully separated each one so we wouldn't get confused.

The first bite has to go in Maldon salt — the best meat tastes best dipped simply in salt. Then I tried the fish tamarind sauce I'd been curious about, and it was amazing. I love Southeast Asian food, and it turns out it's delicious with grilled meat too!

We kept devouring combo after combo. I usually don't like ginger vinegar, but the yuzu in it made it refreshing and delicious. The moment the first bite hits, the juices practically burst out — the meat quality is on another level. Meat really does need to be high quality to taste this good. Not tough or chewy at all, genuinely tender and juicy... so good, my friend and I kept gasping while we ate.

They also grilled mushrooms and shishito peppers alongside the meat — the grilled shishitos were delicious.

The doenjang stew (soybean paste stew) included in the set

The doenjang (soybean paste) stew comes included with the set. In winter it has shepherd's purse, and in summer, chives, apparently. At first it had a slight cheonggukjang (fermented soybean) note and a thick, hearty texture, with big well-cooked radish inside that gave the broth a really deep flavor. Radish in doenjang stew is always a win — they know what they're doing...

Seasonal sashimi tasting for 12,000 won at a BBQ restaurant

What's unusual about Yukmong is that despite being a BBQ place, it also sells seasonal raw fish. The seasonal sashimi sampler is ₩45,000, but you can order a tasting portion for ₩12,000, so I gave that a try — wow.

Well-aged, tender and chewy — turns out they're not just good at meat, they're good at sashimi too! And meat plus sashimi is a surprisingly good combo! The last piece was, I think, steamed mullet roe? Unusual.

Caviar cheese egg custard, 13,000 won

And then, out of pure curiosity, I had to order the caviar cheese egg custard. Caviar in egg custard — a combo I never would have imagined. But there's a decent amount of caviar in it.

Eaten alone, caviar can taste a bit fishy, but paired with the soft, fluffy egg custard, the popping texture made it way more enjoyable. Loaded with cheese, and the custard wasn't overcooked — just the right doneness to eat alongside the meat. We ate ourselves completely full, the two of us.

Final verdict on Yukmong Bangi Direct Branch

Even black pork in Jeju runs over ₩60,000 for two people, but here you get a generous 550g plus a doenjang stew included, all at a price that doesn't feel expensive at all — with juices bursting out, tender texture, and genuinely great meat quality. Truly delicious! It's only just opened but I think it'll get even more popular. Definitely coming back to eat here again! Yukmong Bangi Direct Branch, so good haha.