Jongno Korean BBQ with a split grill: Cham Dwaejitgan

Today, I was meeting up with a close older friend again, so we decided to meet at the midpoint, Jongno 3-ga Station. While wondering where to find good pork belly in Jongno, I visited Cham Dwaejitgan Jongno Main Branch (참돼짓간 종로본점), a place with loads of reviews for pork belly near Jongno 3-ga.

Cham Dwaejitgan Jongno Main Branch: Visitor Information

• Address: 1 Donhwamun-ro 5ga-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea (서울 종로구 돈화문로5가길 1 피카디리 CGV극장 1층 1-89호)
• Hours: Daily 12:00–23:00
• Parking: Not available
• Groups: Up to 16 people

Cham Dwaejitgan Jongno Main Branch was just a short walk from Jongno 3-ga Station. The exits in Jongno are far apart, so I like restaurants that are close to the station. It was easy to get to from Jongno 3-ga Station, and Cheonggyecheon Stream is also on the walk toward Euljiro 3-ga Station, making it nice for an after-meal stroll. I wondered what the wait would be like, and as expected from a popular Jongno Korean BBQ spot, we arrived at 6:30 pm on Friday evening and barely got the last available table. What a relief.. Remote waitlisting is also available on Catch Table, so if there is a wait, put your name down there before you come.

A Space Quiet Enough for Conversation

Jongno feels like a meeting spot because it is such a central area for people living in all different neighborhoods. The space was large and fully occupied, with a group seated right next to us, but I could still hear my friend clearly. Restaurants without good soundproofing can be so loud, so I really liked this part.

We were served cabbage salad, shredded scallions, and perilla leaves, along with seasoned bean sprouts, kimchi, and minari (water dropwort). If you need more side dishes, you can get them from the salad bar beside the refrigerator. The salad bar was kept very neatly, too.

There was such a wide variety of sauces. The red sauce on the far left had a sweet-and-spicy charcoal-grilled flavor, and the one beside it was savory soy sauce. That red sauce on the far left was spicier than I expected, so be careful if you cannot handle spicy food.

There is a round opening underneath the seat. Grab it and open it to find storage space for your personal belongings. At most Korean BBQ restaurants, you are given a plastic bag for your clothes or belongings, but those bags are not exactly clean, so I do not really like them. From the individually wrapped cutlery to details like this, I could tell this is a place that takes hygiene seriously.

Ordering Black Pork O-gyeopsal and Cheongyeopsal

Menu

We originally came looking for a good pork belly place in Jongno, but it had been a while since I had seen a place serving black pork. So at Cham Dwaejitgan, we ordered two servings of black pork o-gyeopsal (five-layer pork belly) instead of regular samgyeopsal (pork belly)! They say Cham Dwaejitgan's black pork is top-grade black pork delivered directly from Jirisan. It is cross-aged in an aging refrigerator, so how could we not try it?!

Open the lower compartment beside the table and you will find packaged cutlery and wet wipes. Not many restaurants use individually wrapped cutlery like this these days, so I really loved this detail!!

Since it was just two women, we wanted to go somewhere that grills the meat for you. At Cham Dwaejitgan Jongno Main Branch, a staff member grills it directly, so we could eat more comfortably and enjoy it even more.

True to o-gyeopsal, it had a nicely generous amount of fat, so every chew was full of juicy flavor.

A Grill with a Separate Warming Area

And the grill was really great: there was one area for grilling and another for keeping food warm. You do not quite want to turn off the heat, but you still want to eat everything warm, right? I love this kind of grill because separating it this way keeps the food warmer and more delicious.

When the meat started to feel a little rich, I tried it wrapped in a perilla leaf with cabbage salad and wasabi. Try this combination! The bright sweetness of the cabbage salad and the clean kick of wasabi cut through the richness of the meat completely!!

Next, I thought I would try the Boseong Nokdon pork, and I spotted cheongyeopsal, which I love!! I did not know cheongyeopsal was hangjeongsal (pork jowl), so I ordered one serving of cheongyeopsal—otherwise known as pork jowl. It had that distinctive pork-jowl texture and was delicious. Maybe because it was Boseong Nokdon pork, there was no porky smell at all; it tasted clean.

Next up was gabrisal (pork shoulder blade)! The gabrisal was delicious too.

The finishing touch at a Korean BBQ restaurant is fried rice! I liked that this one came with egg, haha.

Why It Was Also Great for a Jongno Group Gathering

I liked how much care had gone into every little detail, from the cutlery to the grill, and the separated grill let us enjoy tastier pork belly right through to the end of the meal. It was nice to try various cuts of pork, from black pork to Boseong Nokdon pork, and there were plenty of things to eat alongside them!! There seemed to be lots of group diners, too. Cham Dwaejitgan Jongno Main Branch would be a good choice for a Jongno work dinner or group gathering. In just a few months it will be year-end gathering season, and it would be good for a Jongno year-end get-together too! + The restroom is shared by men and women, but it had foaming hand soap and was clean and nice.