Siheung Korean BBQ five-cut platter with crispy pork skin: Hamdon

What kind of place is Hamdon Jeongwang Main Branch?

I wanted to eat properly aged pork in Jeongwang-dong, so I headed to Hamdon Jeongwang Main Branch! It's near the central shopping street of Jeongwang-dong, so it wasn't hard to find.

🚗 For parking at this Korean BBQ restaurant, just park at the Park-C lot right in front and they'll register it for you :)

It's at the very end of the Rodeo street heading toward Sanhwa E-mart in Jeongwang-dong, across from Namhansanseong Galbi — keep that in mind when you go! This is the entrance to Hamdon 🖤

Hamdon Jeongwang Main Branch specializes in Jeju aged pork, and you can actually see the meat aging right in front of the store, which I found fascinating +_+ It really gave off the sense of a place that takes aged meat seriously, so my expectations were already sky-high before I even started eating haha

Even though it's a Korean BBQ place, the main branch is clean and spacious, so it seemed like a good spot for a family meal, a friends' gathering, or a work dinner! Even when I visited during an awkward mid-afternoon time slot, customers kept coming in haha

Hamdon uses Jeju pork aged for 504 hours! You can feel the pride in that, and it built my anticipation before eating haha

The Snowflake Special: 63,000 won, only 10 plates a day

Hamdon also offers a grilling service, so staff cook the meat perfectly for you! You just get to watch it grilling nicely and pop it straight into your mouth 😍 That day we ordered the Hamdon Snowflake Special 🖤 Hamdon Snowflake Special, ₩63,000

House-made side dishes, muksabal and fresh minari at Hamdon

After ordering the meat, the basic side dishes come out first — Hamdon says they make all their banchan (side dishes) in-house!

There was actually a pretty wide variety of side dishes. Pickled vegetables, kimchi, green onion kimchi and other things that pair well with meat came out as standard, along with a refreshing mukbap (buckwheat jelly soup) as a default side!

And fresh minari (water dropwort) comes out raw like this — wrapping it around the meat is amazing!

The mukbap was so refreshing~ Since it's summer, I think a cold dish like this is better than hot soup! It was cool and tangy, and it really got my appetite going haha

Finally, the Hamdon Snowflake Special we ordered arrives +_+ Since it's a menu sold only 10 plates a day, I was extra curious about it — it's not something you can order just anytime, and there's something about limited-quantity menus that just makes you want to try them even more, right??? haha

The staff grilled the meat deliciously for us haha, so exciting watching this whole spread while waiting for the meat

And the rice here is red yeast rice — you can see reddish grains scattered among the white rice haha. It tastes even better too!

They grilled the meat nicely over high heat, and the smell alone while it was cooking was amazing 😍

Five cuts on the platter: snowflake, chuck flap, premium neck, belly, skin

The best part of the Snowflake Special is being able to try multiple cuts at once — it comes with snowflake cut, chuck flap, premium neck, pork belly, and pork skin. The snowflake cut and chuck flap aren't available separately on the à la carte menu, so you have to order the Snowflake Special to try them haha

Snowflake cut (nunkkotsal): the most tender cut of the five

The moment I saw the snowflake cut, I just knew it was going to be delicious hahahaha. True to its name, the fat spreads through the meat like snowflakes — visually, it was the first thing that caught my eye!

The charcoal fire here is also on point, so the meat couldn't help but grill up perfectly haha

I ate a piece of the snowflake cut right as it finished grilling, and it was seriously incredible! So freaking good

It was tender and juicy, with a savory flavor bursting through my mouth. The fat had just the right amount of richness without ever being tough — soft to chew, with a crispy finish at the fatty edges — it was so, so good I could've cried ㅠㅠ

Chuck flap (salchisal): the beefiest-tasting pork cut

The chuck flap had its own distinct charm too — rich savory flavor with a tender texture that chewed almost softly in the mouth haha. Trying multiple cuts really let me feel the differences between them, which was fun

And the neck and pork belly were still grilling — look at that color, gorgeous 👍

Staff grilling service: how the table-side grilling works

Having staff grill the meat made it so much easier to eat haha

Since aged meat varies in thickness and grilling time by cut, timing it right actually matters quite a bit — so it was great to be able to eat comfortably and deliciously without worrying about that!

How to eat Hamdon's minari wrap

Roll up the minari with a piece of meat and gochujang (red chili paste) together and enjoy

Haha my husband dutifully followed the instructions! The minari wasn't tough at all, nice and tender, and wrapped as a ssam (wrap) it was so delicious!

Pork belly and premium neck on the charcoal

The pork belly had that savory richness and chewy texture that's just so good haha. Since it's pork belly with the skin still attached, it suits people who like a chewier texture than regular samgyeopsal — Hamdon's pork belly let you feel the meat, fat, and skin all together, with a deep savory flavor 👍 This place really is seriously delicious (I mean it, seriously)

The premium neck also had that deep aged-meat aroma and flavor, and even though it's neck meat, it was never dry — soft, with juices bursting out haha. The outside was seared golden brown, but biting in, the inside was moist and so good 👏🏻

The biggest surprise at Hamdon: the crispy pork skin

Honestly, the thing that really shocked me was how good the pork skin was. I normally don't like pork skin elsewhere and never order it myself (I'll eat it if it comes free as a side, lol), but here I'd genuinely recommend ordering pork skin separately just to try it!!!

It was seriously chewy, crispy, and incredibly delicious!!! One of the reasons people go to Jeju to eat black pork is for that chewy pork skin texture, and I could really taste that same thing here at this Jeongwang-dong Korean BBQ restaurant hahaha

So I ended up thoroughly enjoying a wide variety of meat 💗 If you're looking for a truly delicious restaurant in Jeongwang-dong, definitely go to Hamdon Jeongwang Main Branch!!! It's a place where you can eat genuinely delicious aged Jeju pork with a flavor that's anything but ordinary — highly recommend 👍