Goseong pork galbi restaurant with private rooms: Yongchon Gogi-jip

Hand-butchered pork galbi, tried honestly by a family of 6

We stopped by Yongchon Gogi-jip on our way to a family trip to Sokcho. It's not far from Sokcho IC, so it was an easy detour whether starting or wrapping up the trip. What I was most curious about was the pork galbi they say is butchered in-house.

Yongchon Gogi-jip: location, hours and what we ordered

Yongchon Gogi-jip is located at 20-3 Yongwon-ro, Toseong-myeon, Goseong-gun, Gangwon-do, and is open Mon–Thu 12:00–21:00 and Fri–Sun 11:00–21:00, with a break time from 15:00–17:00, closed every Wednesday. There's a large on-site parking lot.

• Hand-butchered pork galbi (seasoned) 250g ₩18,000 x 3
• Hand-butchered fresh pork galbi 250g ₩18,000 x 3
• Kimchi jjigae (front leg meat & rib meat) ₩10,000 x 1
• Pollock hoe naengmyeon (water/mixed) ₩6,000 x 4

Is there parking at Yongchon Gogi-jip? A big lot for a group of six

Yongchon Gogi-jip's parking lot is so spacious that we didn't have to worry about parking at all. We were headed to the East Sea for a family trip and had booked lunch for 12:30pm. Since we came in two cars, I'd been a bit anxious about whether there'd be enough space, but the moment we arrived, that worry disappeared.

Walking in, there's a large hall with tables, and the right side is partitioned off by walls — basically usable as group rooms. One room had floor seating and the rest had table seating. We chose a room over the open hall for easier conversation. There was already another group next door, but with only two parties using it, it felt manageable. We split into two 4-person tables with 3 people each — one table ordered fresh galbi, the other seasoned galbi, 3 servings each.

What does hand-filleted pork galbi actually mean?

We were hungry, so we ordered quickly and then studied the menu properly. It said the pork galbi and samgyeopsal use only the top domestic grade. And the menu item was literally named [Hand-Butchered Pork Galbi]. There was no explanation on the menu, so I asked the owner out of curiosity. Turns out they don't buy pre-cut ribs from a supplier — they buy whole racks and butcher the galbi themselves at the restaurant. For reference, the menu only lists one name, [Hand-Butchered Pork Galbi], but you can choose between seasoned or fresh (unseasoned) when ordering.

They're running a Naver receipt review event, giving one soju, beer, or soft drink in exchange.

The side dishes that fill the table at Yongchon Gogi-jip 🍽

Once the side dishes were set out, each of our two tables got a charcoal grill plate for fresh galbi and a wire grate for seasoned galbi over live charcoal.

The side dishes were varied — soy-pickled onion, soy-pickled perilla leaves, scallion salad, green onion kimchi, water kimchi, steamed egg, and lettuce wraps. None were too strongly seasoned, just right alongside the meat. In the cities you'd usually get wild chive (myeongi) pickle, but here in Goseong, Gangwon, it's perilla leaf pickle instead.

For wraps, lettuce and peppers came in a basket, along with ssamjang and sliced garlic. Interestingly, Yongchon Gogi-jip gave each person a small side plate with shredded cabbage in soy sauce seasoning to eat with the meat. I'd only ever seen onion used that way before, so the cabbage-soy version felt unfamiliar but intriguing. In the end, it was crisp and pretty good.

I dipped the pepper in ssamjang — it was on the spicy side.

Even after all the side dishes were set, we waited quite a while longer for the meat. Since we were starving, the steamed egg vanished instantly. I think we waited more than 10 minutes. I wondered if they only start butchering the galbi once the order comes in.

Hand-filleted fresh galbi, grilled over charcoal

The fresh galbi and seasoned galbi we'd been waiting for finally arrived. Starting with the fresh pork galbi — they gave us a chunk of pork fat along with the 3 servings, and before putting the meat on, they used the fat to wipe down the grill plate.

After prepping the grill this way, they started putting the fresh galbi on to cook.

You can see how vividly colored the meat is. As it sizzled away, a savory aroma kept wafting up.

The bone side cooks slowest, so we kept lifting pieces with tongs to check if they were done.

The highlight: sweet-salty seasoned pork galbi

As pieces cooked, we shared them back and forth between the two tables, tasting both fresh and seasoned galbi together. Watching the seasoned galbi cook, I noticed something distinctly different. At a lot of other places, seasoned galbi comes swimming in liquid sauce, but here there was barely any sauce at all. More liquid usually affects the weight too, but here, even in photos, the plate was clearly mostly meat.

Yongchon Gogi-jip's seasoned pork galbi hit hard with sweet-salty flavor from the first bite — straight to the tongue and brain. Honestly, the seasoned galbi was much tastier than the fresh galbi. If the fresh galbi had been seasoned with coarse salt, it might have brought out the meat's flavor more, but it really was just plain fresh meat. The seasoned pork galbi, on the other hand, with that sweet-salty punch — how could it not be delicious?

We wrapped it in lettuce with shredded cabbage and ssamjang, and also ate it alongside the green onion kimchi.

For the seasoned galbi too, we wanted to get every bit of meat clinging to the bone, so once a piece was fully cooked we set it aside on a plate. We let it cool a bit before picking it apart by hand.

Each serving is 250g, and the portion was generous enough that we didn't need to order more — of course, we left room for dessert pear afterward.

Kimchi jjigae with rib meat, 10,000 won

While eating the meat, we also ordered a kimchi jjigae made with front leg meat and rib meat.

We ladled some into bowls to taste — the broth was tangy, properly kimchi-jjigae-flavored, yet still refreshing. There was plenty of thick-cut meat in it too, and the pork fat combined with the tangy kimchi broth to bring up a strong savory richness. It clung to the tongue in a satisfying way, so the spoon kept going back in.

Finishing with pollock hoe naengmyeon, 6,000 won 🍝

We wrapped up the meal with pollock hoe naengmyeon (cold noodles topped with seasoned raw pollock). We ordered three bowls of the water-based version and one bibim (mixed) version to share among the family. The pollock hoe turns even the water naengmyeon red, but it's not spicy.

The naengmyeon came with vinegar, sugar, and mustard sauce to add to taste. The bibim naengmyeon's base seasoning had almost no sweetness.

Waiting with Tabling and the little persimmon tree in the lot

On our way out after the meal, I noticed they use the Table-ling waiting system. Since it was a weekday lunch, there was no wait that day. On weekends or holidays when it's busy, you can join a line through Table-ling. It looked like it's on-site waiting only, not remote. If you're visiting on a weekend, it might be worth expecting a wait or calling ahead.

Full and in a good mood, a small persimmon tree caught my eye — planted at one edge of the parking lot. It looked just over a meter tall, but had quite a lot of persimmons hanging on it for its size. The trunk looked thin enough that I worried whether it could hold all that fruit haha. I guess noticing your surroundings only happens once your stomach's full.

Is Yongchon Gogi-jip worth it for a family lunch?

What stuck with me most was definitely the seasoned galbi, hand-butchered in-house. The fresh galbi wasn't bad either, but the seasoned galbi's clear sweet-salty punch from the first bite left a much stronger impression. The portions were generous enough that the whole family ate their fill without ordering extra. We stopped at Yongchon Gogi-jip in Goseong on a trip to the East Coast under rain forecasts from typhoons Danas and Chanhom. Given the bad weather, it was an ideal spot — not far from Sokcho IC, but without having to drive into the crowded downtown Sokcho. Thanks to the huge parking lot, it was an easy, no-hassle stop along the Sokcho trip route.

📌 A great meat restaurant to stop by in Goseong during a Sokcho trip — Yongchon Gogi-jip.