Three pork cuts at ₩18,000 each, Yeongdeungpo Korean BBQ: Dongnaejeong

The eternal dilemma at a Korean BBQ place: stick with one cut and really savor it, or order a bit of everything?

We didn't land on an answer that day, so we just ordered one serving each of gabrisal, pork belly, and galmaegisal haha. Thanks to that indecision, we got to properly compare all three cuts on a single brazier!

If you're weighing your options near Yeongdeungpo-gu Office, look no further!! Today's spot is Dongnaejeong Yeongdeungpo-gu Office Main Branch, a white-charcoal direct-grilling pork restaurant.

Dongnaejeong Yeongdeungpo-gu Office Main Branch

Dongnaejeong: the Korean BBQ queue within walking distance of Yeongdeungpo-gu Office Station

Dongnaejeong Yeongdeungpo-gu Office Main Branch is a white-charcoal direct-grilling pork restaurant you can walk to from Yeongdeungpo-gu Office Station. You can tell how serious Dongnaejeong is about its meat right from the entrance haha!!

Domestic 1+ grade fresh female pork, white charcoal direct grilling, Jeju-style melchorim specialty — that description alone earned my trust!

It was surprising to see the brazier come out full of pebbles with white charcoal nestled inside.

100% domestic fresh meat, and 100% sesame oil sourced directly from Suin Grain Market!

And the staff grilled everything from start to finish, so all we had to do was hold our drinks.

We went at 6pm on a Friday and the retro dining room filled up fast — a little later and we might have had to wait, haha.

Gabrisal vs pork belly vs galmaegisal: three cuts, ₩18,000 each

Prices at Dongnaejeong: gabrisal 160g for ₩18,000, whole pork belly 180g for ₩18,000, and galmaegisal 160g for ₩18,000!! All three cuts are priced the same, which makes comparing them easy.

Order one serving of each like we did, and you've got a full three-cut course for ₩54,000!!

Whole pork belly, 180g: grilled as one slab, then cut into cubes

The whole pork belly comes out as a long slab, grilled until the surface is crisp, then cut. Since it's white charcoal direct grilling, there's no greasy off-smell — just a subtle smokiness.

Pop a thick cube in your mouth and the outside is chewy-crisp while the inside stays juicy — of the three cuts, this is the most crowd-pleasing, can't-go-wrong option.

Maybe because it's 1+ grade female pork, the fat isn't greasy at all — it's nutty and pleasant to chew, which was another highlight!!

Gabrisal, 160g: crosshatched scoring and a springy bite

Gabrisal comes out as a thick chunk with crosshatch scoring, and as it grills, oil seeps into the cuts, turning the surface into a golden-brown net pattern.

True to being a cut that only yields a small amount per pig, the marbling is dense!!

Chew into it and it stretches chewily before bursting into savoriness — that's the charm, and it's my personal pick!

Galmaegisal, 160g: lean but satisfyingly chewy

Galmaegisal is the leanest cut of the three, but it's chewy rather than dry, which makes it great to eat between the two fattier cuts! The more you chew, the more the deep, pure pork flavor comes through, and it paired best with the sesame oil salt dip.

Cooked to 80%, then dunked in Jeju-style melchorim

To enjoy Dongnaejeong properly, you have to follow house rule number 4!!

Grill the meat to about 80% done, then dip generously in melchorim.

The Jeju-style melchorim that arrives bubbling in an earthenware pot is a sauce made by simmering anchovies and aged kimchi down into a rich, salty concentrate — deeper and more layered than your typical melchorim (fermented anchovy sauce).

It felt less like a sauce and more like receiving a whole side dish, so after finishing the meat, there was the added fun of fishing out the aged kimchi inside haha. Dip the slightly underdone, juicy meat deep into the melchorim, wrap it in a perilla leaf with a slice of pickled garlic on top — and that's the complete Dongnaejeong bite!!

There's a whole lineup of sauces too — spicy dadagi jang, sesame oil salt dip, and wasabi — so it's fun to switch up the combination for each cut.

The shishito peppers and foil-grilled king oyster mushrooms at the edge of the brazier were also secretly addictive rice thieves haha.

Visiting Dongnaejeong as a pair? Order one serving of each cut

The two of us walked out full and satisfied after three servings of meat plus sides — a great Friday evening. If you're visiting as a couple or a pair, I'd recommend ordering one serving of each cut like we did, just to compare.

If you're near Yeongdeungpo-gu Office looking for a BBQ spot where someone else does all the grilling for you, I genuinely recommend this place!! Haha.