Dangye-dong Wonju BBQ with self-serve bar and mak-guksu: Yeon Makchang

Today's post is about Yeon Makchang Dangye Branch, a new spot near Wine Han Jan in Dangye-dong, Wonju :)

📍Yeon Makchang Dangye Branch 66 Cheonsa-ro, 1st floor, Wonju, Gangwon, South Korea Hours: 16:00–24:00 (Mon•Tue•Wed from 17:00) Reservations, wifi, group seating available, separate men's/women's restrooms, parking available (free parking in front of the store), waiting area O

Why a 6pm reservation at Yeon Makchang Dangye Branch beats peak time

Yeon Makchang Dangye Branch has been packed since not long after it opened, so I went in right before peak time with a 6pm reservation. I'd walked past the place before and seen the huge crowd and thought, wow, is it really that good...? Well, I finally made it today! haha

Seeing that crowd back then scared me (?) so I came right before peak time with a 6pm reservation, heh

Oh, they also run a 10% discount for soldiers and pregnant guests? There's a bus terminal in Dangye-dong so you see a lot of soldiers around — I love events like this🔥 I hope Yeon Makchang Dangye Branch's good example leads to more and more shops in Wonju offering discounts for soldiers, pregnant guests, and so on✨

There were a decent number of tables inside too. When I glanced back at the restaurant on my way out, it was already buzzing with people (glad I came early...)

How ordering works: 3 servings minimum, yeon and teuk makchang half-and-half

At Yeon Makchang Dangye Branch, your first order has to be at least 3 servings, but when I asked the staff, mixing servings turned out to be possible. So we ordered 2 servings of yeon makchang mixed with 1 serving of teuk makchang.

I glanced through the menu and it said the first order had to be 3 servings?? But I wanted to try both yeon makchang and teuk makchang..ㅠㅠ what to do, what to do — so I quietly asked the staff, and turns out you can mix them! (Yay!) We ordered yeon makchang x2, teuk makchang x1, chon doenjang jjigae, and rice

The basic side dishes come set like this, and for kimchi or wrap greens you just use the self-serve bar

What's on the self-serve bar: scallion kimchi, white kimchi, baby cabbage

The self-serve bar at Yeon Makchang Dangye Branch was pretty stacked. Kimchi, wrap greens, even ingredients to grill — you could take as much as you wanted.

But seriously, the self-serve side dishes are amazing lol — starting with regular kimchi, then scallion kimchi, white kimchi, pickled veggies, and for wraps there's lettuce, perilla leaves, plus baby cabbage lol lol. You could also grab as much enoki mushroom and scallion as you wanted, which was so nice✨

Par-grilled makchang: how long it takes on the grill and how it tastes

The makchang comes already par-grilled once, with the fat well drained off, so it didn't take long to finish cooking on the grill — I liked that.

I also grabbed some ring-shaped rice cake from the self-serve bar to grill, and it actually goes surprisingly well with that spicy sauce? Tastes kind of like spicy tteokbokki sauce?? Might be a matter of taste haha

Tried the makchang first — hm, not chewy at all and the gamy smell was well handled, so it was easy to eat without any fuss. Apparently 40cm of a single pig counts as makchang, but Yeon Makchang Dangye Branch only uses the tastiest 20cm portion of that (guess that's why it's not chewy). And when the 3 servings first arrived I thought, eh, that's not much — but once we started wrapping it up, grilling rice cake, and digging into the stew and rice, it turned out to be just right for two people

Chili, scallion and perilla leaf go into the makjang dipping sauce

Ugh, got fooled... on my side there was only 'how to enjoy pork belly' printed, nothing else visible — turns out on the other side there was actually 'how to grill and eat makchang properly'..?? And here's what I discovered: those chili peppers, scallions, and perilla leaves I'd been wondering what to do with — turns out you're supposed to mix them into the dipping sauce..!!

(Quickly adding them in even though it's late.jpg) My date hates perilla leaves so I scooped them all up, and now the dipping sauce looks like a little vegetable garden, which I love ..^^

Finishing with mak-guksu at Yeon Makchang, plus a dessert slush at checkout

The noodles at Yeon Makchang Dangye Branch aren't thin wheat noodles but mak-guksu (buckwheat noodles), available in bibim (mixed) or water broth versions. I wasn't expecting much but it was delicious — I'd definitely recommend pairing it with pork belly.

Right as we started getting full, of course we needed noodles to finish lol. Turns out Yeon Makchang's noodles are mak-guksu with a choice of bibim or water broth versions??!! For someone like me who prefers mak-guksu noodles over thin wheat noodles, this was a win. I really wasn't expecting much from the mak-guksu but it's seriously good!! I feel like it'd go even better with pork belly, so if you're ordering, I'd recommend the pork belly + mak-guksu combo🫶🏻

Full and heading to the counter to pay, when — wait, a dessert slush? Can't say no to that;; so we each knocked back a cup of slush to finish ..haha. If you're looking for a solid, reliable makchang spot in Dangye-dong, Wonju, I'd recommend Yeon Makchang Dangye Branch — that's today's review, done!