Bangi Food Alley Korean BBQ: medium-rare samhap, Chowon Salt Grill

I visited Chowon Salt Grill (초원소금구이), a hot spot for brisket samhap with outdoor seating in Bangi Food Alley.

Where is Chowon Salt Grill in Bangi Food Alley, and what's the vibe?

Chowon Salt Grill is easy to find, right inside Bangi Food Alley, halfway between Songpanaru Station and Jamsil Station. When the weather is nice they set up outdoor tables, but it rained the day I went, so only the folding doors were open.

Inside there are several round tables, and for bigger groups the staff push tables together, so it works well for group gatherings and team dinners. It has a cozy pocha (Korean pub) vibe, so it was great for a date too.

The restroom is inside and unisex, but it was clean, so no complaints.

Chowon Salt Grill menu and prices

The one and only signature dish at Chowon Salt Grill is beef samhap: special beef cuts including brisket, scallops and aged kimchi, eaten together as a trio. There are also side dishes like beef yuksashimi (raw beef), brisket doenjang (soybean paste) stew, brisket doenjang ramyeon and fried rice.

You can order the stew spicy. I meant to ask for spicy, but I forgot and just ordered it as is... oh well.

There's an Instagram event too. Follow and tag them in a story and you get a free bottle of soju! I meant to do this as well, but I forgot, oops...

Looks like the singer Lee Mujin has been here too. We ordered samhap for each person, plus brisket doenjang stew and, to finish, fried rice. We went all in.

• 2-person samhap ₩56,000
• Brisket doenjang stew ₩8,000
• Fried rice ₩5,000
• Soju x 3 ₩15,000
• Total ₩84,000

Tips on how to enjoy the samhap are written up all around the restaurant.

• Cook the beef medium-rare
• Eat the scallop as soon as it turns opaque
• Dip it in the special soy sauce

What comes in the basic table setting?

Each person gets an individual small plate, the special soy sauce and a set of utensils.

A scallion salad (pa-chae) comes out too, great with meat, and the tangy seasoning made it delicious.

The basic beef dips (sesame oil with salt, ssamjang, and salt), plus water and paper cups, round out the basics. Before the meat arrived, the staff put onion, garlic and garlic stems on the grill.

What's included in the 2-person beef samhap?

The 2-person samhap at Chowon Salt Grill came with special beef cuts including brisket, scallops, aged kimchi and mushrooms.

Brisket, several other cuts and mushrooms: you get to try many kinds of beef.

Rain meant no outdoor seating, but with the windows open on a rainy day it was even more romantic.

Hanwoo (Korean beef) samhap is something you keep thinking about once you've tried it. After eating it once in Sadang, I couldn't find anywhere better, and finally I've found it in Bangi-dong!

It's a spread with nothing but the good stuff.

The cuts are big and the color of the meat is gorgeous. The portion is quite generous once you start eating. The scallops were fresh with no fishy smell, and the kimchi was tangy, the textbook example of aged kimchi.

How to grill brisket and scallops medium-rare

The key to the samhap at Chowon Salt Grill is a hot grill: put on the brisket first, then the scallops, and cook everything medium-rare. Time to properly grill this samhap spread!

You should heat the grill well and then cook over low heat, but while my husband was away I put everything on right away, so it took a while... ^^ Normally it should cook right away.

Still, brisket cooks in no time. Rather than cooking it crisp, go medium-rare, just until the pink is gone! When one side is crisp, flip it and cook only until the color changes.

Scallops are the same: don't overcook them, just until they turn opaque, and they taste great.

Brisket, scallop and aged kimchi samhap: how it tastes

Brisket + scallop + aged kimchi: the brisket samhap is done! The sour aged kimchi cuts the brisket's fat, and the combination is amazing.

Dip it in the special sauce and top it with a chili pepper for a cleaner finish. The sauce is sweet and sour and goes well with the juicy brisket. It tastes a bit like the sauce for beef intestines.

The brisket is delicious even on its own, without the scallop and kimchi. The fat is nutty and so tasty.

It's good enough on its own, but once you've tried samhap there's no going back! I wanted to add more scallops midway. I grilled the remaining brisket and enjoyed it as samhap too.

Cut the onion once it's cooked a bit so it's easy to eat. Cooked onion is just that good.

Rib fingers, flap meat and short rib meat

Is this what they call rib finger meat..? I grilled the other cuts too. It melts in your mouth and is crazy juicy, and again, the less you cook it, the nuttier it tastes.

The scallop is good with aged kimchi, but even better with the scallion salad.

The flap meat (budaechalsal) looks big and high quality. I grilled it last. Thick cuts have a special aroma, I think, that nutty, steak-like smell.

I only cooked the flap meat lightly too. Since it has to be cut and cooked more, I sliced it into bite-size pieces and finished it over low heat. From here on I'd forgotten all about samhap.

The meat alone works as a rice thief and as drinking food. Can you see the juices flowing?

But of course you have to try it as samhap. The quality of the meat and the freshness of the scallop matter, but I think the aged kimchi is what completes samhap... the aged kimchi is seriously good.

Finally I grilled the short rib meat too. Maybe because we'd eaten stew and rice, I started getting really full. Still, the beef keeps going in... every single piece was free of any gamey smell and melted in my mouth. So good.

How is the brisket doenjang stew (rice included)?

The brisket doenjang stew at Chowon Salt Grill is ₩8,000 with rice included, and it's huge, almost enough to be a meal. It came out when we started grilling, and it can be made spicy, so if you like spicy food, ask for it when you order!

It has lots of brisket, and the tofu, zucchini, onion and scallions are big and plentiful.

A bowl of rice is included, so one comes out. We split it so we could have fried rice later. I think you could have a filling meal with just this rice and stew.

It has a bit of a cheonggukjang (fermented soybean) feel, like countryside doenjang stew. It tastes more upscale than the doenjang stew at ordinary cheap BBQ places.

Is the fried rice worth ordering to finish?

The fried rice at Chowon Salt Grill is ₩5,000, with scallions, kimchi, seaweed flakes and cabbage. It isn't too strong and is tasty. I ordered it clutching my bursting stomach.

It's perfect as a final palate cleanser. Take a bite, then a spoonful of doenjang stew, and it feels like your full stomach keeps resetting.

It's even better topped with aged kimchi. We scraped up the leftover aged kimchi and fried rice to the last bit.

They also gave us Mentos when we paid and left. Beef leaves your mouth greasy, but eating one of those freshens it up.

Verdict: is Chowon Salt Grill worth it?

Chowon Salt Grill is great even if you just eat the beef, and a good samhap spot when you want to eat it a different way. It has outdoor tables and a nice interior, so it's romantic in any weather, and I was happy with the taste, portions and service. If you're looking for a team-dinner spot in Bangi-dong, beef samhap in Bangi Food Alley, or a BBQ place in Jamsil, I recommend Chowon Salt Grill!