Yangjae Station BBQ with wasabi and green onion kimchi: Gukgojip

I was looking for somewhere to eat meat near Yangjae Station and ended up at Gukgojip. It's a place where you grill beef galbisal over charcoal! It's about a 3-minute walk from Exit 4 of Yangjae Station, so it was easy to find. Great accessibility, so I'd highly recommend it for group gatherings!! The full verdict is at the very bottom.

Where Gukgojip is and what the restaurant feels like

Gukgojip is about a 3-minute walk from Exit 4 of Yangjae Station. It was easy to find being close to the station, and since it's right on the ground floor of the building, it was visible right away! A good spot to visit after work too.

Once inside, the place was bigger than I expected. It was neatly arranged overall, and the tables were spaced generously, good for eating with several people! And those backed chairs!! They were really comfortable..! At work dinners, sitting on regular chairs for a long time hurts my back ㅠㅠ

Gukgojip's basement room for group dinners

And besides this spacious ground floor, there's also a bookable space in the basement! Highly recommend for a work dinner! There's room for several people to sit together, and since it's a place for grilling meat, I'd recommend it for office get-togethers!!

The name Gukgojip actually felt like an unusual name for a meat restaurant, but apparently it started in a traditional market in 1970, specializing in gukbap (soup with rice) and meat. Seeing that it has such a long tradition made me more excited, haha.

What's on the lunch menu at Gukgojip

The lunch menu was also more varied than I expected. There's yeolmu naengmyeon (cold noodles with young radish greens), yeolmu bibimbap, and the yeolmu bibimbap set (yeolmu bibimbap + jeyuk + bean curd). There's also Hanwoo seolleongtang (Korean beef bone soup) and Andong gukbap, plus jeyuk bokkeum (stir-fried spicy pork) and chogye guksu (cold chicken noodles). It's not just a meat restaurant with only meat dishes — there's a wide range for lunch, so I'd recommend it as a lunch spot for office workers in Yangjae!

And besides the menu items listed above, there were even more lunch options! There's galbitang, a jeyuk sampler, a pork belly set meal, and a gabrisal set meal. There's also cold noodles and ramyeon. If you visit during lunchtime, there are quite a lot of choices to pick according to your taste. I especially thought the pork belly set looked delicious~

As for the meat menu, there were many varieties — beef galbisal, LA galbi, handmade fresh galbi, seasoned beef galbisal, pork skin, pork belly, gabrisal, seasoned galbi and more.

And while looking around the restaurant, I was really surprised to see so many celebrity autographs!! There were tons of signatures on the wall.

Side dishes and the free biji stew

Once we ordered the meat, the side dishes came out first. Fitting for beef galbisal, there was a wide range of sauces too — salted seafood, salt, wasabi, doenjang (soybean paste), and even pickled vegetables. I usually get tired of eating just meat and can't eat much, but with this many options I never got bored and could try lots of combinations. Thank you, haha.

Lettuce wraps came out too, along with green onion kimchi!!!!! and pickled onions. Especially with the green onion kimchi there, I knew I had to try it with the meat!!!

And when you order meat, a bean-curd stew comes free. Free bean-curd stew!!!!!! Having something with broth while eating meat is basically a golden rule~ Eating the meat and taking spoonfuls of the stew in between was nutty and lovely.

Ordering beef galbisal for two plus the vegetable platter

What we ordered was 2 servings of beef galbisal and a vegetable platter.

As soon as the meat arrived, it looked fresh overall. A vivid red color.

The color of the meat looked good and the texture looked clean, so I was excited even before grilling it! Hehe.

And we also ordered one extra serving of seasoned beef galbisal. Seasoned beef galbisal is seasoned with garlic. Since eating just one dish would've been a shame, we decided to try both the plain beef galbisal and the seasoned version.

Charcoal-grilled beef galbisal: which dipping sauce was best

The meat was grilled over charcoal. They placed the beef galbisal on the grill plate and cooked it slowly, and watching the meat turn golden brown over the charcoal alone made me drool.

And the classic move of grilling mushrooms until water pools inside them haha. Once the meat was cooked through, I tried the first bite.

At first I dipped it in salt, then tried it with salted seafood. Even though it was the same meat, the feel was a little different depending on the dipping sauce, and it wasn't tough at all — it was so good!!

The wasabi, green onion kimchi and beef combination

Next I tried it with wasabi and green onion kimchi together. The wasabi + green onion kimchi + meat combo was genuinely delicious. (Highly recommend!!!!) Personally, I kept reaching for this combination. If you like green onion kimchi, you absolutely have to try it with the meat.

There was also white kimchi, so I tried that with the meat. I made a one-bite combo of white kimchi + meat + lettuce wrap — putting the meat on the lettuce and adding the white kimchi made it clean and good.

And the vegetable platter was grilled too. The mushrooms we grilled together were really delicious. Asparagus and kkwari peppers were also grilled over the charcoal together. Eating the grilled vegetables between bites of meat was a pretty great combination.

How seasoned beef galbisal differs from the plain cut

Now it was the seasoned beef galbisal's turn. Since it's seasoned with garlic, it was quite different from the plain beef galbisal. It was placed over the charcoal and grilled to a golden brown. Since it's seasoned, you have to flip it often so the seasoning doesn't burn!

Once the seasoned beef galbisal was fully cooked, I tried it right away. It definitely looked more appetizing because of the seasoning. I could taste the garlic seasoning, different from the clean flavor of the plain beef galbisal! If you want to enjoy the distinct flavor of beef, go for the plain beef galbisal; if you prefer seasoned meat, I'd recommend the seasoned beef galbisal!

Gukgojip verdict in one line

It had been a while since I had such a generous serving of good-quality beef galbisal. Personally, I highly recommend the combo of beef galbisal with wasabi and green onion kimchi!! If you're looking for a meat restaurant near Yangjae Station or a spot for a work dinner, consider Gukgojip.

• 3-minute walk from Exit 4 of Yangjae Station
• Spacious, fairly clean restaurant
• Good atmosphere for visiting with a group
• Decent option for a work dinner
• Fairly varied lunch menu
• A huge number of celebrity autographs
• Free bean-curd stew with a meat order