Changwon Korean BBQ with grilled aged pork: Godansu

Godansu Changwon Yongho Branch: location and visitor information

Even from the outside, Godansu Changwon Yongho Branch feels like you are heading downstairs into a hidden secret hideout, haha.

• Address: B1, 18 Changidaero 464beon-gil, Seongsan-gu, Changwon, Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea
• Hours: 17:00–23:00 / last order 22:00
• Closed every Monday
• Parking available
• Corkage available (fee applies)
• Private rooms seat 8 to a maximum of 12 people

As soon as I stepped inside, the aging refrigerator was packed with meat, haha. Godansu says it selects fresh, high-quality meat from the owner’s family farm! They say they always approach it with the thought that it is food for their own family. 🤩

A stylish interior and a group room for up to 12

The interior is more spacious than I expected, and the décor is incredibly polished and hip!! Don’t those iron bars at the end totally bring a prison to mind? Haha. They somehow make me want to eat grilled meat even more, haha. The group room holds up to 12 people, so it is perfect for a gathering too. 🤩

There are four cuts—pork belly, pork neck, pork jowl, and pork skirt meat—and for two people, I ordered two servings of pork belly plus one serving of pork jowl, haha.

Banchan and chawanmushi-style steamed egg

A lovely spread of varied banchan (Korean side dishes) and dipping sauces was set out!

Every single side dish was delicious, and I cannot believe the chawanmushi-style steamed egg comes as a complimentary basic service.. 💓

It was sooooo soft that it melted away. 😍 I guess I really do love steamed egg.. ❤️

All the accompanying sauces are Godansu’s own handmade sauces. ✨ There is a sweet gochujang (red chili paste) sauce with pineapple, Godansu-style salted squid sauce, a pesto made with spinach, basil, and almonds, and a doenjang (fermented soybean paste) sauce with sansho pepper powder. I tried them all, and every one suited my taste and was delicious, haha.

Pork belly and pork jowl grilled by a professional

You can tell from the color of the meat, right?! Its freshness practically bursts through the screen. As befits a rising favorite pork restaurant in Yongho-dong, the fundamentals were solid. And the biggest advantage!! A professional griller cooks it beautifully for you. 👍🏻 Once it hit the grill, it looked even more appetizing. 🤩

No, seriously.. I think the lighting over the table is amazing.. It is magical lighting that makes you focus only on the meat. 🫢 What are we going to do about that sheen on the meat?! Meat grilled by a professional really is different. 😋

The delicious smell as it cooked really got my salivary glands going..

A commemorative photo of the fully grilled meat. ⭐️

Then I properly started digging in, haha. First, the juices were insane~ and it just melted in my mouth~ Both the pork belly and pork jowl were so delicious that it was hard to pick a winner. 🥹 I explored every one of those perfect-match house sauces and devoured it all so happily. Rolling up some thin scallion and dipping it into the pineapple gochujang was seriously perfection. 💓

Add a little wasabi to the basil-and-spinach pesto, and it becomes another notch more refined. Just writing this post is making my mouth water again.. I snapped photos quickly, then just concentrated on eating, haha.

Soft tofu doenjang-jjigae with enough rice for two

Still wanting more after the meat, I ordered soft tofu doenjang-jjigae (fermented soybean paste stew) and one bowl of rice! Haha. Soft tofu in the doenjang-jjigae I love.. Godansu.. you really are on another level. 👍🏻 They gave us what felt like two servings of rice, too, haha. The owner is incredibly generous. We ordered one bowl and shared it between the two of us, haha.

I broke up the soft tofu into nice bite-sized pieces and mixed it well, haha. Whew.. I wanted to immediately mix rice into it, but I held back because we had to share it!

I politely served some into my bowl and mixed it with rice >0< I truly highly recommend the soft tofu doenjang-jjigae, the Korean dessert. The rice disappeared in no time. I was so full after finishing that I even gave up on going to a second-round café, haha.

For me, Godansu even gets a pass as a blind-date spot, haha.