Late-night Korean BBQ with grilled pork jowl add-on: Jipbul Taebaek

Today my carnivore other half was hunting for restaurants on Nahyeoseok-gil in Ingye-dong and said this one was a must-visit, so I'm introducing Jipbul Taebaek Suwon Ingye Branch, a Suwon Ingye-dong favorite!

Location and hours of Jipbul Taebaek Suwon Ingye Branch

• 📍 27 Gwongwang-ro196beon-gil, Paldal-gu, Suwon-si, 1st floor
• ⏰ Daily 11:30 – 1:00 (next day)
• 🚗 Parking ₩1,500 for first 60 min / ₩500 per additional 10 min, max ₩4,000

A brand-new BBQ spot on Nahyeoseok-gil: exterior and atmosphere

Jipbul Taebaek Suwon Ingye Branch sits right on Nahyeoseok-gil in Ingye-dong, so it wasn't hard to find at all. And since it's open late every day, it's great not just for dinner but for grabbing a drink with your meat in Ingye-dong.

They also sell a baekban set meal on weekdays from 11:30 to 15:00, so if you're after a lunch spot in Ingye-dong, it's worth a stop too. Being a freshly opened, brand-new BBQ place, the exterior felt clean and polished.

Inside, the space was bigger than I expected. Even though we came late in the evening, there were quite a few diners already. Despite the crowd, the tables weren't cramped, so we could eat comfortably. This place would work well for a date in Ingye-dong, a friends' hangout, or even a company dinner.

What's on the menu?

Every table has a tablet order, so we could browse the menu at ease before ordering.

True to the name Jipbul Taebaek, straw-fire pre-grilled dishes are the centerpiece, alongside pork dishes like prime ribs, samgyeopsal, pork neck, and whole pork jowl, beef dishes like hanwoo beef sashimi and yukhoe (raw beef), plus stews and naengmyeon for a full meal.

They're also running a Naver receipt review event — write a review and get guacamole tortillas or a matcha affogato. Can't skip an event like that! 😎

Side dishes, pesto sauces, and self-serve bar

After ordering, the side dishes started arriving one by one. There was a good variety, all neatly presented. What really caught my eye were the sauces meant to be eaten with the meat.

Instead of just plain salt or ssamjang, they had mushroom pesto and chamnamul (Aster scaber) with angelica root pesto, so there were plenty of ways to eat the meat. Having these unusual pairings made eating the meat that much more fun! 👍🏻

There was also a self-serve bar, so if we ran low on wrap vegetables, we could grab more ourselves. Alright, time to dig into the meat 😖

How's the beef cheonggukjang stew (₩7,000)?

The beef cheonggukjang stew we ordered alongside the meat came out first. Seeing the name, I wondered if it would taste like something between cheonggukjang (fermented soybean stew) and doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew).

Tasting it, it did have that signature nutty aroma of cheonggukjang, but milder than straight cheonggukjang, and richer and more savory than doenjang jjigae.

The stew was also loaded with ingredients! A spoonful of broth before the meat totally woke up our appetite. 🔥

This one would make a bowl of rice disappear in seconds. I always thought stew at a BBQ place was just a side, but we kept reaching for it throughout the meal. 😖

Prime beef ribs 300g for ₩32,000: straw pre-grilling and tableside grilling

We ordered the prime beef ribs today...! Next to the self-serve bar, in a glass-walled space visible to guests, they pre-grill the 6th-to-8th-rib flower ribs — said to be the tastiest cut of beef ribs — over straw and charcoal!

Finally, the long-awaited prime beef ribs arrived! Recalling the era when rice straw was used to grill meat for village prosperity after harvest, when firewood was scarce, they say the instant 1000-degree blast seals in the juices and adds a straw aroma, recreating the taste and scent that once soothed the hard labor of Taebaek's miners.

And here's what I loved about Jipbul Taebaek — staff grill the meat for you. Since they're trained professionals, we just sat back and waited. They quickly trim the bone from the meat and lay the rib meat on the grill first.

They cut it into bite-sized pieces ✂️ and even sear the cut edges evenly. While the meat cooks, we chatted with each other, waiting...

Eat the first bite plain

The staff member placed a perfectly cooked piece on our small plate and said,

Try the first piece without any sauce.

Normally I'd reach for salt or wasabi right away, but this time I did as told and ate it plain first.

Since these are marinated ribs, there's a subtle sweetness in the sauce, but it's not overly sweet or sharp. The tender rib meat blends well with the marinade, and with a faint straw aroma on top, it was delicious even plain. I completely understood why they told us to eat the first piece bare. 😖

Soy sauce + mushroom pesto combo

This time we tried Jipbul Taebaek's signature pairing. Dip the meat lightly in soy sauce, then top it with a bit of mushroom pesto! The moment it hits your mouth, the deep mushroom aroma comes first, followed by the juiciness and richness of the prime ribs. It was fun how the same meat tasted completely different depending on the sauce. 🎉

Comparing the flavors one by one like this, the meat kept disappearing....🥹

They even pick the meat off the rib bones for you

Once the meat's cooked, they move it aside and put the rib bones themselves on the grill. Meanwhile, we just kept eating the well-cooked rib meat. 🫶🏻

After the bones cooked a bit, staff picked the remaining meat off the bones for us. I'd never seen a place go to the trouble of trimming meat off the rib bones like this, and honestly, it was kind of touching. 🥹 Watching them skillfully strip the meat off was fun too.

While the bone meat cooked, they also grilled king oyster mushrooms. Topping the nicely cooked mushrooms with mushroom pesto made for a mushroom + mushroom = delicious combo 🍄

And finally, finishing off that last bit of bone meat was the perfect ending! It had a chewier texture than the rib meat, so it was a great last bite.💝

Added straw-fired whole pork jowl, 180g for ₩21,000

It felt like a shame to stop at just the prime ribs, so we added another menu item — the straw-fired whole pork jowl. This specialty pork cut, densely marbled, is pre-grilled over charcoal and straw before serving.

Once again, the staff grilled it for us.

Cut into long strips and grilled, it looked chewy and satisfying to bite into just from the visual alone 💖

Meat tteok wraps made with rice cake and soybean powder

At this point, a slightly unusual pairing appeared on the table. Thin rice cake (tteok) slices and soybean powder were set out. At first I thought maybe they grilled the tteok separately as a dessert... but the staff promptly placed the tteok right on top of the meat and grilled it!

Once the tteok turned golden brown, they rolled it up together with meat and kimchi, then dipped it lightly in soybean powder and placed it on our plate.

This is the meat tteok wrap! Since it was my first time trying this combo, I wasn't sure it would work, but it turned out way better than expected. 🫶🏻 You know that slightly greasy feeling you sometimes get while eating meat? The chewy tteok, kimchi, and nutty soybean powder cut right through that and finish things off light and clean!

Having tried it as a tteok wrap, we then went back to enjoy the pork jowl on its own. I'd assumed jowl, with all that marbling, would be a bit greasy, but it was far nuttier and cleaner than expected. With that faint straw aroma too, it was delicious even eaten plain. 😖

Overall thoughts and drawbacks — Jipbul Taebaek Suwon Ingye Branch

Overall, Jipbul Taebaek Suwon Ingye Branch felt less like a simple grill-it-yourself BBQ place and more defined by three things: straw pre-grilling, tableside grilling service, and a variety of pairings. Having staff grill for you makes it easy for a date, and for group dinners or gatherings, no one gets stuck grilling while everyone else eats.

Best of all, instead of just dipping the prime ribs in salt or one sauce, we could try mushroom pesto, angelica pesto, and more combinations, so it never got boring right to the end.

Since we visited late, we unfortunately couldn't try the limited-quantity raw prime ribs. 🥹 I'd really wanted to try the raw version, so that part was a bit disappointing — but the marinated prime ribs were plenty delicious, so next time I'll visit earlier and make sure to try the raw prime ribs too!

The space is spacious and clean, making it a solid choice for a date, company dinner, or group gathering in Ingye-dong.

If you're looking for a BBQ restaurant with a bit of a different edge on Nahyeoseok-gil, Jipbul Taebaek Suwon Ingye Branch is worth a visit whenever you're craving prime ribs with real straw aroma! I'm planning to go back again soon..! Highly recommend it to anyone hunting for a BBQ restaurant in Suwon Ingye-dong 👍🏻