Nowon Korean BBQ birthday dinner with beef: Junggye Gogi Party

A birthday dinner at Junggye Gogi Party Nowon Branch

For birthdays, it has to be meat, right? Haha

For this birthday dinner, I went to Junggye Gogi Party Nowon Branch (중계고기파티 노원본점). It is right near Seoul Suam Elementary School and Bulam High School!

I visited after making a Naver reservation for 7 p.m. on a weekday Monday. Huh? It was seriously packed lol

The restaurant itself is fairly spacious, but a lot of the tables were occupied.

There were lots of families and tables of larger groups eating together, so it seemed like a popular spot around Junggye for family meals and gatherings.

The Premium Set and its salt pairings

We ordered the Premium Set.

It comes with three cuts together: sirloin, chuck flap, and beef short rib meat!

It was my birthday, so of course I had to have beef haha

Before the meat arrived, they laid out a full spread of basic side dishes: garlic, ssamjang (seasoned soybean paste), kimchi, pickled vegetables, and quite a few more things.

There was Himalayan salt, perilla-leaf salt, and even curry salt lol. As someone who thinks beef tastes best with just a light dip in salt, I cannot resist this kind of thing.

I diligently tried them one by one.

I think the most exciting moment is always when the meat is on the grill lol. It would be a shame to overcook it, so we cooked the beef just right and ate it immediately. Even the time spent filming felt too precious haha

Who feels like grilling time lasts the longest? 🙋🏻♀️

Personally, I was looking forward to the chuck flap the most, and as expected, it was tender, rich, and delicious.

The sirloin became more beefy the more I chewed it, while the beef short rib meat was wonderfully springy!

Isn't this exactly what a birthday tastes like? Haha How can you possibly resist charcoal-grilled beef and drinks?

They also sell wine by the glass, so we each had one to set the mood!

On one side, they had unlimited refills of lightly frozen fresh makgeolli (Korean rice wine), too? You fill a kettle yourself with however much you want, and I had never seen unlimited makgeolli at a Korean BBQ restaurant before, so that was fascinating lol

For side dishes, just use the self-service bar and take as much as you want!

Birthday seaweed soup and a surprise celebration

And then, the long-awaited highlight of the day.

When I told them it was my birthday, they brought seaweed soup as a complimentary service.

I thought it would just be a bowl of seaweed soup, but they brought it like a whole meal with rice and side dishes, so it was more substantial than I expected.

Then, totally out of the blue, they played a birthday song throughout the restaurant lolololol. And remember, I said the place was packed that day.

Yes... I received a huge celebration.

For a moment I was so embarrassed I almost buried my face in the seaweed soup lol, but when they celebrated me so properly, it honestly did feel nice.

Finishing with Iberico pork neck and mul naengmyeon

Beef alone felt just a little incomplete, so we added Iberico pork neck, too!

After thoroughly enjoying the beef, it was pork-neck time! We had already eaten quite a bit of beef, but once the pork neck hit the grill, it still went down so easily lol. Beef and pork must go into separate stomachs... This birthday girl filled up properly on meat that day 🤍

At Junggye Gogi Party Nowon Branch, meat is meat—everything was delicious.

I finished with the classic Korean dessert, mul naengmyeon (cold buckwheat noodles in broth)! It may look mild, but it has a deep beef-bone broth base.

It is a good place in Junggye for a family meal, and especially if you are looking for somewhere for a birthday dinner, you can make an unforgettable memory! I used my birthday as an excuse to thoroughly enjoy both beef and pork that day 🎂🥩