Gangseo Korean BBQ for rare pork cuts: Gwangseonjip

Gwangseonjip is a place that sells special pork cuts! It is great for group dinners too, and I really recommend it—the owner’s selection and thoughtfulness are so good!

I love samgyeopsal (pork belly), but lately I have been really into special cuts, you know?! But there are fewer places selling them than you would think 🥲 Then I heard there was a place near Kkachisan Station specializing only in special cuts, so I went!

Gwangseonjip location and hours

Gwangseonjip Kkachisan Station Main Branch is on the first floor of Somang Building, 149 Gomdallae-ro, Gangseo-gu, Seoul, South Korea (서울특별시 강서구 곰달래로 149 소망빌딩 1층). It is open daily from 16:30 to 24:00, all year round!

The key thing is that it opens at 4:30 p.m.! Keep that in mind, because it will be closed if you go at lunch 🙌 But it is open until midnight, so it is also great as a second stop!

And this is really important: there is no separate parking lot, so if you drive, you will need to use a nearby public parking lot! I just took the subway, and I think that was much more convenient 😌

Getting there from Kkachisan Station

Gwangseonjip is a five-minute walk from Kkachisan Station Exit 2! Come out of Exit 2 and walk straight in the direction of Gomdallae-ro.

The owner gave us vitamin C, pineapple enzyme, and honey as complimentary extras! Such incredible thoughtfulness...!!!

Crunchy-chewy kkodeulsal and tender-chewy ppolsal

Kkodeulsal ₩15,900

The one thing you absolutely have to eat here is kkodeulsal! It is a rare cut that comes in only a tiny amount from one pig, and just as its name suggests, it has a crisp, springy chew when you bite into it! It is not the kind that melts softly like regular pork belly; the more you chew, the more bouncy resistance you get?! I kept reaching for it because of that texture 😳 Another plus is that it is not overly fatty, so it does not get greasy even when you eat a lot!

Ppolsal ₩15,900

The second cut I want to introduce is ppolsal! Ppolsal is, literally, pork cheek meat. There is very little of it from each pig, making it one of the more precious special cuts! If kkodeulsal is “bouncy,” ppolsal is more “chewy yet tender.” Since it is a facial muscle, the grain is dense, so it definitely has a satisfying bite!

I ordered the set, and it was more than enough for two people! There was plenty of meat, plus lots of sauces and vegetables to eat alongside it, such as bracken fern, garlic chives, and mung bean sprouts, so it was great to put together exactly the bites I liked!

The set’s secret weapon: braised green-onion kimchi

And when you order the set, they give you braised green-onion kimchi! This is seriously the secret weapon...!!! It has well-fermented green-onion kimchi with pork in it too, and it is truly a delicacy!

The combination of ppolsal and kkodeulsal is so good~ Personally, kkodeulsal was more my taste..!

Five-layer pork belly is also included in the set by default! Honestly, it is so delicious that it almost goes without saying, haha.

When we ordered alcohol, they gave us hangover relief medicine too! We drank and even took the hangover remedy before we left, haha.

Finishing dishes that are great after the meat

We finished every last bit of meat (?)—every last bit from the pot lid—but there are so many finishing dishes too!

• Perilla oil makguksu (buckwheat noodles) (₩6,900): Nothing beats this for cutting through the richness after meat! The nutty aroma of perilla oil comes through, making for a clean finish!
• Pork-skin dolsotbap (stone-pot rice) (₩8,900): This dish is a real specialty! It has pork skin in stone-pot rice! If you like that chewy texture mixed into the rice?! Scrape up the scorched rice at the bottom too, and you will be seriously full!

I can confidently recommend Gwangseonjip to anyone who wants to properly enjoy special cuts near Kkachisan Station, or anyone getting a little tired of the same old pork belly places! The prices are not especially cheap, but these are rare cuts, so I think they are worth it 😌