Jonggak Korean BBQ, free corkage natural wine: Jonggak-ap Nosang

I was craving tasty meat grilled over a charcoal brazier, and a friend told me to try Gogikkun Kim Chunbae haha. When I looked it up, it was already known by word of mouth as a good place for company dinners among Jonggak BBQ spots! I went and the meat quality and the food were both great, so here's my review :)

Jonggak-ap Nosang Gongyeong Juchajang (고기꾼김춘배 종로직영점) at a glance

• Good meat quality, great for group dinners
• Free corkage, whatever the drink and however many bottles

Where is Jonggak-ap Nosang in Jongno?

Jonggak-ap Nosang is on the 5th floor of the building with the Sherlock Holmes escape-room café, near Jonggak Station! It's a BBQ place for group dinners in Jonggak, so I assumed it would obviously be on the ground floor, but it was hiding on the 5th floor haha. I thought that was funny, and then we walked in and it was pretty full! There were lots of foreign tourists too, so I thought, oh, this really is a word-of-mouth place.

Inside and seating

The inside is bigger than I expected, and every table has a partition, so it felt private. The lighting is soft and the mood is nice, so I thought it would work as a date spot in Jonggak too. I reserved ahead, and the table was already fully set when we arrived!

Menu and prices

The set menus come in plenty of variety, and ordering à la carte also looked good! These are the prices on the menu.

• Premium set ₩167,000
• Hanwoo cake ₩197,000
• Recommended set ₩99,000
• Pork A set ₩69,000
• Pork B set ₩119,000
• Hanwoo yukhoe (raw beef) & sea urchin ₩59,000
• Sirloin ₩44,000 / chuck flap tail ₩49,000 / chuck flap ₩49,000 / rib finger ₩44,000
• Pork belly ₩17,000 / special pork neck ₩17,000 / pork jowl ₩24,000
• Asahi draft beer ₩9,000
• Corkage free

Can you bring wine to a Jonggak BBQ restaurant? Free corkage terms

Corkage is free here. Apart from the drinks they sell, there's no limit on type or number of bottles, which is the best 🫶 Another big draw is exactly this free corkage!!

I've been into natural wine lately, and it's hard to find natural wine at a BBQ place, so I brought a bottle, and it went so well with the meat!

Side dishes and wrap vegetables

The wrap vegetables were super fresh and in great shape, and there was a nice variety of side dishes to eat with meat: white kimchi, gungchae (stem lettuce), green onion kimchi, and onions.

The ₩99,000 recommended set: how much food for 2 people?

The recommended set comes with today's hanwoo (Korean beef, 150g), pork neck (200g) and pork belly (150g), a generous amount. It was truly plenty for 2 people, and both the hanwoo and the pork looked gorgeous!

Hanwoo we grilled ourselves at a place that grills for you

Normally the staff carefully grill everything for you, but we wanted the fun of grilling it ourselves, so we just did it haha. We put the hanwoo on the brazier first!! The charcoal is good and the meat quality is good, so even grilled by ourselves it was so delicious.

Pork neck that beat the pork belly

The pork neck in the set was tastier than the pork belly 🤤 Wow, was pork neck always this good.. Grilled golden brown, it was juicy and tender and melted in my mouth!! Now I get why my meat-loving friend recommended it haha.

Meal menu: half-and-half naengmyeon and kkakdugi fried rice

Eating only meat felt like a shame, so we also ordered the half-and-half naengmyeon (cold noodles) and kkakdugi fried rice (fried rice with diced radish kimchi)! I always agonize over spicy bibim naengmyeon or broth-style mul naengmyeon, so getting half of each was so good? haha I thought every BBQ place urgently needs this..

Overall verdict on Jonggak-ap Nosang

I visited Jonggak-ap Nosang on the recommendation of a friend who really knows food! The meat quality is clearly good, so it was delicious, and I liked that corkage is free too haha. There are lots of other branches, and from now on if I see Gogikkun Kim Chunbae, I think I can eat there with confidence!