Pre-grilled pork belly with 5 sauces in Mokpo Pyeonghwa Square: Simdon

Where's the best pork belly in Mokpo?

If you asked me that these days, I'd answer without hesitation: Simdon, in Mokpo's Pyeonghwa Square!

Pyeonghwa Square itself is such a lively strip packed with restaurants and cafés that you can easily do dinner and coffee in one trip, and Simdon was the kind of place worth making a special trip to for the meat alone.

Right in the Pyeonghwa Square strip, with parking and a café course nearby

The location alone won me over.

It sits right in the Pyeonghwa Square strip, so it's easy to wander around before or after your meal, and there's parking nearby too, so driving there wasn't a hassle. Especially if you want a coffee right after eating, there are tons of cafés around — Bagdabang, Gong Cha, Pascucci — which makes it a great date course too.

Today, let's do meat and coffee and call it a perfect day!

That's the kind of location it is.

Fully booked even on an early weekend visit — expect a wait

Fully booked even on an early weekend visit — expect a wait

But Simdon isn't just about the location. I visited a bit early on a weekend, and the place was already packed with customers! I guess a good restaurant really does get noticed. If I'd come even a little later, I probably would've had to wait — that's how many people were there.

Simdon actually offers both walk-in waiting and remote queueing, so it's worth expecting a wait if you visit during busy hours.

A BBQ place where you don't have to grill the meat yourself

The moment I sat down, my expectations went up. And here's the biggest reason I especially loved Simdon!

You don't have to grill the meat yourself! At a pork belly restaurant, conversation often stops because someone's busy grilling, flipping the meat, and before you know it one person's stuck manning the grill the whole time.

I can't tell if I came here to eat meat or to grill meat…

You know that feeling? At Simdon you don't have to deal with that. The pork belly, pork neck and pork skin all come out already grilled to perfection, so you just sit and eat.

This is a bigger perk than it sounds. It's especially great when you're with a group — nobody's stuck grilling, so everyone can dig in and enjoy it together at the same time.

Pork belly, neck and skin platter — how was the taste?

And finally, the platter arrives!

The visual alone is impressive. Pork belly, pork neck and pork skin arrive in a generous heap all together, surrounded by kimchi, bean sprouts, mushrooms and other sides. It's not just meat plopped down — it's a full spread, which gets your appetite going the moment you see it.

Simdon notes that it uses Duroc pork, known as one of the world's three major pork breeds, and honestly, the flavor and juiciness of the pork belly were quite satisfying.

What impressed me most was, of course, the pork belly! I've had plenty of pork belly around Mokpo, but personally, the Simdon pork belly I had that day was the best. Golden and crisp on the outside, moist and savory on the inside — it's delicious even with just a dip of salt, and completely different again with the side dishes.

The pork neck deserves a mention too. If pork belly has a savory, moist charm, pork neck is leaner but gets more intensely flavorful the more you chew.

And the surprise star was the pork skin! If you love pork skin, you'll be happy here. It's wonderfully chewy with real bite, so you end up grabbing piece after piece between bites of the other meats. The problem is… once you start, you can't stop.

5 sauces: myeoljeot, wasabi and soybean powder combos

Another fun part of Simdon is the variety of sauces.

Soybean powder, spicy soy sauce, ssamjang, wasabi, and myeoljeot (fermented anchovy sauce)! Once you start dipping into each one, it really never ends.

• This time, wasabi!
• This time, myeoljeot!
• Oh, this time, soybean powder!

Before you know it, the meat is disappearing fast.

I especially loved the myeoljeot combo. The savory pork flavor paired with the salty, umami-rich myeoljeot made me want a drink to go with it. On the flip side, a touch of wasabi cuts through the richness of the pork belly cleanly, so your hand keeps reaching for more. And the soybean powder takes the nuttiness up a notch!

In the end, the conclusion is… it's delicious no matter which sauce you dip it in.

Kimchi, bean sprouts, and mushroom sides

It's not just the meat that's good — the sides that come with it are also solid. Kimchi, bean sprouts and mushrooms are grilled alongside the meat, so there's fun in pairing a different side with each bite of meat.

Grilled kimchi especially pairs perfectly with the meat. A piece of pork belly with a well-cooked bit of kimchi on top needs no explanation. Add the crunch of the bean sprouts and the moist texture of the mushrooms, and you can keep eating different combinations off the same platter — I loved that.

Don't skip the cheese-bomb steamed egg

But that's not all. There's one more menu item at Simdon I really want to recommend.

The cheese-bomb steamed egg! I really recommend ordering this alongside the meat. A bubbling, soft steamed egg loaded with cheese on top — it already passes the visual test.

Eat a piece of meat, then a spoonful of steamed egg, and your palate gets reset with something soft and savory, making you want more meat again. Pork belly and cheese steamed egg is a combo that's really hard to mess up.

Finish it off with the basic doenjang rice soup

And the meal's finale is handled solidly by the basic doenjang rice soup, which shouldn't be skipped either.

Even when you're already pretty full from the meat, the smell of the doenjang rice soup gets your spoon moving again. This is the scary thing about BBQ restaurants — you're clearly full, but the rice still goes in. Especially with the warm, savory broth after all that meat, it was a satisfying way to wrap things up.

Why it's great for dates, family dinners and group meals

Simdon has a lot of strengths, but the biggest one to me is being able to eat delicious meat comfortably. Since the meat already comes grilled, you don't have to worry as much about your clothes smelling like grease, and you don't have to keep flipping meat at the table. The restaurant itself actually markets 'you don't have to grill it yourself' as a selling point.

So it's great for dates, great for family visits, and well-suited for group meals or gatherings with several people. Especially with family, having one person stuck grilling the whole time can be subtly stressful — here, everyone just eats together, which is so much more comfortable.

And the Pyeonghwa Square location itself is such a lively area that it's easy to continue on to a café after the meal. Meat, then coffee right nearby! Such a great combo. You can grab a quick coffee at Bagdabang, a drink at Gong Cha, or sit and chat a bit longer at Pascucci.

So I don't think of Simdon simply as 'a place to go eat pork belly' — it's more of a restaurant worth building a Pyeonghwa Square date or family dinner course around. And a place that's this packed with customers even early on a weekend clearly isn't drawing crowds for no reason.

In visitor reviews too, comments like 'convenient since it's already grilled,' 'delicious,' and 'the pork skin is wonderfully chewy' stand out, and it's mentioned as a spot near Pyeonghwa Square for group gatherings or dates.

Of course, you should keep in mind there can be a wait during busy hours. But I'm someone who's fine waiting for good food… honestly, seeing the place packed made me think, 'ah, I've found the right place.'

And since the meat comes already grilled, I also liked that instead of getting restless from the smell of meat grilling while you wait, you can dig right in as soon as the food arrives.

To sum up

If you're looking for a great pork belly spot in Mokpo's Pyeonghwa Square, Simdon is one I really want to recommend! The pork belly is savory, the pork neck is lean, and the pork skin is wonderfully chewy! On top of that, you get kimchi, bean sprouts and mushrooms to pair with it, plus the fun of dipping into soybean powder, spicy soy sauce, ssamjang, wasabi and myeoljeot.

And remember the cheese-bomb steamed egg. If I went back, I'd order it right alongside the meat again. And finish it all off with the doenjang rice soup! There's so much to eat that you keep going even when you're full. 😂

Above all, not having to grill the meat yourself is really convenient, which makes it great for a date, a family dinner, or a gathering with friends or a group. And since there are so many cafés around Pyeonghwa Square, a second round of coffee naturally follows the meal!

If you're looking for great pork belly in Mokpo, a place to eat around Pyeonghwa Square, someone who prefers eating over grilling, or a spot for a date or family dinner — I really recommend this place.

The best pork belly I've had in Mokpo. And a place where, after one visit, you already want to come back and try a different sauce combo. Simdon in Mokpo's Pyeonghwa Square — big recommendation from me!

Should we go for pork belly next time? Or start with the pork skin? …I'll probably end up ordering both anyway. 😂

Who grills the meat, you ask? At Simdon, we don't. We just get to eat it deliciously. 😎🥩