Set A with imperial cut pork at Choryang Saenggalbi, Yeongdeungpo

Spotted in the meat alley near Exit 4 of Yeongdeungpo-gu Office Station

There are tons of restaurants near Exit 4 of Yeongdeungpo-gu Office Station. Walking down the alley, you'll find pork, beef, lamb, chicken, gopchang (grilled intestines)... every kind of meat imaginable. In this neighborhood packed with meat spots, Choryang Saenggalbi caught my eye with its black pig logo.

Choryang Saenggalbi hours / Weekdays 15:00–23:00 / Weekends 15:00–22:30

At first I thought it was a chain. Turns out it wasn't!!🫢 A pork galbi spot you can only find right here at Yeongdeungpo-gu Office Station — Choryang Saenggalbi 🐷

Green onion kimchi and a custom-made briquette cast-iron grill

I'd made a Naver reservation in advance, and the table was already set when I arrived.

The first thing that caught my eye was the green onion kimchi🤤 I love it but rarely get the chance to eat it! Pork with green onion kimchi — just that combo alone got me excited for tonight's dinner.

And on one side of the table sat a briquette cast-iron grill.

They said it's custom-made using cast metal — a place that even made its own grill just to make the meat taste better. It gave me the sense that they care about the cooking process, not just the ingredients and side dishes, which made me even more excited to taste the meat.

Ordering Set A with the imperial cut

I debated what meat to get and ended up choosing Set A, which includes the imperial cut.

Choryang Saenggalbi Set A / 200g fresh galbi + 100g flower hanjeong (pork jowl) + 100g imperial cut / includes kimchi jjigae, cheese egg custard

I was curious what exactly the imperial cut even was..🤭

My meat arrived soon after 🤤 From left: fresh galbi, flower hanjeong, imperial cut. Here's one of Choryang Saenggalbi's standout features — the staff grill it for you themselves. A meat place that grills for you is always a win 👍 They oiled the briquette cast-iron grill first and waited a bit for it to heat up.

Cook up nicely, meat~

Since the staff kept coming by to tend the meat, all we had to do was watch it cook to perfection 😂 They flipped it nonstop. They even pulled out the smoke-extraction hose and held it up so we wouldn't be bothered by the smoke,,

Definitely add the cheese egg custard

While waiting for the meat to grill, the kimchi jjigae (kimchi stew) and cheese egg custard arrived. Both are excellent, but the cheese egg custard especially was a flavor I'd never had anywhere else — my first time trying it at Choryang Saenggalbi. The slightly charred top from melting the cheese was memorable too,

The mix of cheese and egg tasted pretty great.

If you're not ordering the set and just going with individual meat menus, I'd definitely recommend adding this cheese egg custard (₩5,000). While enjoying the tasty kimchi jjigae, cheese egg custard, and rice for a bit, the pork finished grilling, juices dripping.

Once the meat is done, they pull it out to the side of the grill like this.

House-made scallop jeotgal with kkwariggochu

The meat dipped in salt or ssamjang was tasty, but the house-made scallop jeotgal (salted scallop relish) sitting up top was also excellent 🫢 Meat + jeotgal + lettuce-perilla wrap combo, nailed it 👍

And the grilled kkwariggochu (shishito-style peppers) also boosted the appetite alongside the meat. Being able to try the meat in so many flavor combinations is such a huge plus 👍

Eat the imperial cut while it's hot

The imperial cut was what I was most curious about in Set A.

It's a cut with a lot of muscle, so the owner urged us to eat it quickly before it cooled. I should've listened!! 😂😂 It was so delicious while hot, but the last piece I saved for the end turned chewy😢 Please eat the imperial cut while it's still hot🔥

Added 180g of fresh galbi — only ribs 8 through 14

The meat was so good,, I added 180g of fresh galbi 😋 They grilled this up quickly and deliciously too, and I ate my fill.

Turns out the reason the fresh galbi won us over was that they only select and sell ribs 8 through 14, which have the best ratio of lean meat to fat 😂

You could really call this Choryang Saenggalbi's signature attention to detail. From carefully choosing the rib cut to custom-making the grill, you can feel how much thought went into making the meat taste even better in every possible way. Truly satisfied ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Other things worth noting beyond the taste

• The owner is genuinely kind.
• Tables range from 4 to 8 seats!

• The restroom is inside the restaurant. Nice.
• Free corkage service too.. except for alcohol already sold in-house (soju, beer, makgeolli)! Bringing a bottle of wine to pair with the meal sounds great 🍷

Modeled after the 1960s pork galbi alley of Choryang-dong, Busan, this is a great place to end the day with a satisfying piece of fresh galbi on your way home from work!