Family Korean BBQ in Busan with a kids' playroom: Daepae Maket

A Korean BBQ restaurant with a playroom near Daeyeon Station

One weekend evening, I was craving pork belly for the first time in a while and wondered where to go, so I visited a meat restaurant near home in Daeyeon-dong. I had always been curious because it was always busy when I passed by, and even late on the weekend there were lots of regulars! It has branches all over Korea, not just Busan, but I visited the Daeyeon Branch, the closest one to my home. It is only a 20-second walk from Exit 5 of Daeyeon Station, so getting there is easy; as a local, it is about a 10-minute walk from my house. Let me introduce this Daeyeon-dong favorite, where I was happy with both the price and taste :)েষ্ঠ

Daepae Maket Busan Daeyeon Branch (대패마켙 부산대연점) has such a large sign that it immediately catches your eye when walking near Daeyeon Station. The big sign stands out, and because people are always coming and going, I could tell it was busy every time I passed. There were especially many families dining here. There is an indoor playroom for children, plus an outdoor kids' zone and claw-machine area, making it a great restaurant to visit with kids.

We even had to wait on a previous visit, so this is a popular Daeyeon-dong spot with a queue at peak hours!! You can join the waitlist through Catchtable, so you do not have to stand in front of the restaurant for ages, and there are separate waiting chairs where you can sit comfortably.

The counter has detailed parking information. Drivers can use the partner lots: Sin Parking Lot, Modeun Parking Lot, Gagahoho Parking Lot, and Ashure Parking Lot. Each table receives one hour of parking support, and a detailed map of the partner lots is available at the counter, so keep that in mind when parking! The dining room was packed. Even though I visited late in the evening, perhaps because it was the weekend, there were so many people, from families to groups of friends and acquaintances.

There is also a kids' zone in one corner, with cameras installed so you can check on children while they play, making it easier to relax over your meal. Separate men's and women's restrooms are also tucked into one side, which was convenient during dinner.

Events and ordering

A fun challenge event also caught my eye! Daepae Maket Busan Daeyeon Branch is currently running a challenge to eat 3 kg of thin-sliced pork within 60 minutes. If you succeed, the meat is free, and you receive ₩200,000 cash plus ₩300,000 in meal vouchers! If you fail, though, you pay the regular price, so it could be fun for anyone confident in their love of thin-sliced pork.

You can order on the tablet at each table, and the first meat order must be at least 500 g! You can mix two types of meat according to your preferences, while additional orders start at 200 g, so there is no need to order too much at the beginning. It is also nice for anyone who wants to try two kinds of meat at once.

There is also a receipt photo-review event you will not want to miss! Write a review and choose one item: icy water naengmyeon (cold noodles), bibim naengmyeon (spicy mixed cold noodles), or a drink. Pay in advance at the counter after ordering, write the photo review, and show it to a staff member to receive it right away. There is soft-serve ice cream for departing guests, too! Each guest gets one free cone when leaving, and extra cones are ₩2,000.

The ₩2,000-per-person self bar

After ordering, I found the centrally located self bar, which was kept clean and hygienic! Staff regularly came by to maintain it, so everything stayed neat. Various sauces are in the middle, with ssam vegetables and other produce on both sides for you to take as needed. I already liked that it is a Daeyeon-dong restaurant suited to children, and the well-kept self bar made me like it even more.

The self bar has an incredible range: kimchi, bean sprouts, green-onion kimchi, chilies, garlic, ssamjang, perilla leaves, salted seafood, pickles, corn, garlic scapes, pickled radish wraps, sausage, sundae (Korean blood sausage), bracken fern, rice cakes, potatoes, mushrooms, onion, shredded scallion salad, and all kinds of vegetables for wraps. It was great to be able to enjoy all this for ₩2,000 per person and choose different things to eat with the meat.

Sauces include curry powder, spicy fire sauce, scallion sauce, sesame oil, and soy sauce with onions. Each one has a large, clear label, making it easy to pick what suits your taste.

Thin-sliced pork belly that unfurled easily on the grill

Our four servings of thin-sliced pork belly arrived. At ₩4,900 per serving, it is an easy price to enjoy! They say it uses Duroc pork raised on chestnuts, known for its savory flavor. The thin slices arrived rolled up, and the quality looked fresh at a glance!! It was not rock-hard frozen pork, either, so it looked as though it would gently unfurl as soon as it hit the grill. When thin-sliced pork is frozen too solidly, it stays tightly curled and you have to flatten every piece yourself. But the condition of the meat at Daepae Maket Busan Daeyeon Branch looked good right away, so I was excited before even grilling it.

Even the side dishes served immediately were a little different. The eomuk-tang (fish cake soup) came in a kettle instead of the usual earthenware bowl, haha. With autumn about to turn chilly, having warm fish cake soup included from the start felt so nice before the meat. Cheese and sauce also came with it, and each person gets sauce in an individual small dish, which felt hygienic. We brought the remaining side dishes from the self bar ourselves. I liked being able to take only as much as we wanted, without waste, and choose according to our tastes.

The fish cake soup stayed piping hot all the way to the end. The longer it simmered, the deeper and richer the broth became from the fish cakes, which was lovely.

Once the grill had heated up, we placed the meat on piece by piece. Just as expected, the rolled slices unfurled beautifully the moment they hit the grill. Thin-sliced pork belly can sometimes be awkward to grill depending on its condition, but at Daepae Maket Busan Daeyeon Branch it did not clump or stick together, so grilling was really easy. Since the slices are thin, they cook quickly, making it easy to put several on at once. I tried the cooked pork dipped in an oil sauce. Sesame oil is available at the self bar, and salt and pepper are at every table, so you can make your own oil dip. The pork belly with that nutty oil sauce was mild and savory, and it paired so well.

With green-onion kimchi and salted seafood alongside it, is that not the ultimate rice-stealing combination? Haha. The green-onion kimchi seasoning was sweet and spicy and matched the pork belly so well that I kept reaching for it with every bite.

The wrap vegetables were fresh, too—I honestly lost count of how many wraps I made. Vegetable prices are not cheap these days, so I loved being able to eat such a varied selection of ssam vegetables without limit.

The cheese grilled alongside the meat was another little pleasure I could not skip. It was thick, mild, and nutty, delicious on its own or dipped in whichever sauce you like.

Being able to have unlimited sundae and sausage at a meat restaurant was a distinctive bonus. Because it was unlimited, I did not expect much from the quality at first, but after trying them, the wrap vegetables were fresh and both the sundae and sausage were good overall. It did not feel like an afterthought just because it was unlimited; each item tasted decent and was great to grill with the meat.

Bibim naengmyeon and a departing soft-serve cone

The humid weather had me craving cool noodles, so I ordered bibim naengmyeon. This place is especially good for naengmyeon, haha. The sweet-spicy sauce and crisp cucumber really woke up my appetite. Having it after the meat cut through the richness nicely, so I highly recommend it as a finishing dish!

Finally, there is a takeaway zone to use as you leave! You can serve yourself a soft-serve cone, then push the lever all the way up after use. The cones beside it were individually covered in plastic, so they were hygienically managed too. It tastes like classic vanilla ice cream, but having one each on the walk home after dinner was cool and lovely. It felt like finishing with ice cream during a gentle stroll, ending the meal on a happy note.

Daepae Maket Daeyeon Branch offered good-quality thin-sliced pork belly plus plentiful side dishes and vegetable wraps through the ₩2,000-per-person self bar! These days I keep thinking about thin-sliced pork belly that cooks quickly and can be eaten right away, and since both the taste and selection were good, I think I will visit often, haha. I am fairly particular about meat, so cleanliness matters to me too; the self bar was maintained regularly and the restaurant was spacious, making for a comfortable meal. With a kids' zone and high chairs as well, I think it is a good choice for anyone seeking a Daeyeon-dong restaurant with a playroom to visit with children! As a Daeyeon-dong local, it is easy for me to reach and I was satisfied overall, so I expect to stop by from time to time.