Jongno Korean BBQ dinner set with hanwoo, pork neck, and belly for a

I had plans on a weekday evening in Jonggak and decided on Korean BBQ for dinner. There are plenty of grill houses around Jonggak Station, but the place I visited that day was Jonggak-ap Nosang Gongyeong Juchajang, where you can eat both hanwoo (Korean beef) and pork at once, with a staff member grilling everything for you from start to finish.

Getting from Jonggak Station to Jonggak-ap Nosang Gongyeong Juchajang

Jonggak-ap Nosang Gongyeong Juchajang is about a 4–5 minute walk from Jonggak Station Exit 4. It's close to Cheonggyecheon Stream too, and since the area is packed with offices around Jonggak and Jongno, it's a decent spot to reach for dinner after work or when you're looking for a Jonggak group-dinner place. The restaurant is on the 5th floor of the building, so on your first visit just check the sign, head into the building, and take the elevator up.

If you're driving, there's no dedicated parking lot for the restaurant, but you can use the nearby Bosingak public parking lot.

• Address: 17 Samil-daero 17-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul, 5th floor
• Hours: Daily 12:00–23:00
• Last order: 22:00
• Parking: No dedicated lot / use Bosingak public parking
• Reservations: Available via Naver Reservation

The atmosphere and seating on a weekday evening at 8pm

The interior felt a little different from a typical Korean BBQ place, with dark wood tables and chairs under low lighting. The overall mood was dim and calm rather than the usual bustling grill-house energy, making it a good spot to sit and chat with company over a meal. Even though it was fairly late, I noticed several tables with large groups, and with plenty of seating I could see why people choose this place for Jonggak work dinners or group gatherings.

When I visited around 8pm on a weekday, it felt like over 80% of the seats were filled, with many tables seating groups. The interior is spacious with group seating, and having staff grill the meat from start to finish made it easy to talk while eating during a dinner gathering.

We had reserved ahead and were shown to our seats. The tables weren't packed right against each other, and partitions here and there made it easy to talk with my group despite how many customers were there. At a work dinner, it's often hard to focus on conversation when someone has to keep grilling — but here, since the staff handle everything from grilling to cutting, that wasn't an issue.

What's in the ₩99,000 recommended set, and what we ordered

The menu ranges from individual cuts of hanwoo and pork to a variety of set combinations. Rather than sticking to one type of meat, we wanted to try a bit of everything from beef to pork, so we ordered the recommended set.

• Recommended set ₩99,000 (today's hanwoo 150g, pork neck 200g, pork belly 150g)
• Diced-kimchi fried rice ₩8,000
• Half-and-half naengmyeon ₩7,000

The recommended set comes with 150g of hanwoo along with pork neck and pork belly, which makes it easy to decide when you can't choose just one kind of meat. You don't have to order beef and pork separately — you get both at once — which seemed like a solid Jonggak Korean BBQ option for a group dinner.

The side dishes and sauces

Before the meat arrived, the table was set with an array of side dishes. Lettuce and shredded green onion came along with white kimchi, pickled onion, green onion kimchi, and gungchae (a leafy pickled side), all good pairings for grilled meat.

There were several sauces too — ssamjang (soybean dipping paste), salt, and garlic sauce — so the same meat could taste a little different each time. When I wanted to taste the meat on its own, I dipped it lightly in salt; when the richness built up, I'd add a bit of shredded green onion, pickle, or white kimchi. With pork neck and pork belly still to come, having these palate-resetting sides in between was welcome.

Charcoal was set up at the side of the table with myeoljeot (fermented anchovy sauce) placed on top. Myeoljeot is the dipping sauce meant for the pork in the recommended set — it tastes best when heated, so the staff put it over the fire before the meat even arrived.

Q. Do you have to grill the meat yourself?

During my visit, staff grilled everything themselves — the hanwoo, the pork neck, and the pork belly. Being able to leave the grilling and cutting to them and just focus on eating and talking was one of the most comfortable parts of the meal.

Today's hanwoo, with charcoal aroma lingering in the first bite

The recommended set from this Jonggak Station favorite, Jonggak-ap Nosang Gongyeong Juchajang, arrived. It's a great-value set made up of today's hanwoo along with pork neck and pork belly. The beef looked well-marbled, likely striploin or sirloin, with good thickness and a perfect ratio of lean meat to fat.

The hanwoo was grilled first. Before it hit the grill, I noticed the marbling was quite distinct — it looked to me like striploin or sirloin, though I didn't confirm the exact cut.

When the staff member placed the hanwoo over the hot charcoal, the smoky aroma rose up immediately. This charcoal aroma was the thing I remembered most about Jonggak-ap Nosang Gongyeong Juchajang. I've had charcoal-grilled meat many times, but the smell coming off the charcoal here was noticeably strong.

As the surface of the hanwoo started to cook, the savory smell of the meat mixed with the charcoal aroma, and I kept glancing over while it grilled. The staff kept checking the doneness and flipping it, so we didn't need to touch anything ourselves. With high heat, the outside cooked quickly while the inside was pulled off at just the right moment, not overdone.

For the first bite of the well-cooked hanwoo, I kept it simple with just a touch of salt. It was tender the moment I bit down, releasing savory juices that had been held in the marbling. There was no toughness at all — it just melted apart, and that first bite of hanwoo was satisfying.

What stood out compared to beef grilled on a regular pan was how the distinct charcoal aroma lingered subtly as I chewed. Adding the garlic sauce brought out an extra savory note, making it even tastier — the flavor wasn't sharp, just a gentle accent that suited the hanwoo well. The charcoal smell never overpowered the meat, but it stayed faintly present from the moment it hit my mouth through to after swallowing.

I also tried it wrapped with lettuce and side dishes. Adding something crunchy to the tender hanwoo gave it a nice bite, pairing differently with the savory juices than eating it plain. Still, personally, hanwoo tasted best to me with just a light dip in salt, without piling on too much.

Diced-kimchi fried rice ₩8,000 and half-and-half naengmyeon ₩7,000

The diced-kimchi fried rice and half-and-half naengmyeon (cold noodles) we'd ordered for the meal arrived around the same time. Diced-kimchi fried rice is exactly what it sounds like — kimchi cut small and fried together with meat. Topped with dried seaweed flakes, sesame seeds, and chopped green onion, it smelled savory the moment it landed on the table.

Taking a big spoonful, the kimchi seasoning was evenly worked through the rice. The crunch of the kimchi against the fluffy rice was the highlight, with bits of meat throughout adding extra savoriness.

The ₩7,000 half-and-half naengmyeon also arrived. Whenever I eat Korean BBQ, I always debate between mul-naengmyeon (cold broth noodles) and bibim-naengmyeon (spicy mixed noodles), so I liked that this place serves both in one bowl. One side held cool broth noodles, the other held noodles mixed with red seasoning, so I could alternate between them. I tasted the noodles first, then saved the rest to eat alongside the pork later.

I tried the beef with garlic sauce on top of the diced-kimchi fried rice. Rice and beef together is simply unbeatable — the two play off each other nicely, and the garlic sauce brought balance to the whole bite, making it even tastier.

Thick-cut pork neck (200g) with myeoljeot

Once we'd made our way through the hanwoo, the staff moved right on to grilling the 200g pork neck. Since pork has more thickness, the pork neck went on the grill first. The staff cooked it thoroughly on both sides, then turned it to cook the edges as well — with such a thick cut, having someone else handle the grilling was especially convenient. We didn't need to keep checking doneness with tongs ourselves; we could just eat and talk. At a typical group dinner, one person is often stuck grilling the whole time, throwing off everyone's pace, but the advantage at Jonggak-ap Nosang Gongyeong Juchajang is that the staff grill everything from start to finish.

I tried the finished pork neck with just a dip of salt first. The charcoal aroma was amazing. I'd expected a thick cut like this to be dry, but it was far juicier than expected. The outside had a slightly chewy char from the charcoal, while the inside stayed moist and tender. The more I chewed, the more the clean pork flavor came through alongside savory juices.

I also tried it dipped in myeoljeot, and the umami it added made it even better. I've been really into myeoljeot lately, and pairing it with charcoal-smoked pork neck made me pretty happy.

From the second bite on, I added shredded green onion and lettuce wraps. The crisp green onion brought a fresh contrast to the thick pork neck, and adding ssamjang gave it a richer flavor.

Pork belly, wrapped in the half-and-half naengmyeon

I ate the pork belly wrapped in the half-and-half naengmyeon! Naengmyeon and pork never fail together. The savory fat met the spicy seasoning of the bibim-naengmyeon and it was genuinely delicious. I paired it with the mul-naengmyeon too, and its clean flavor and chewy noodle texture worked well together. The cold broth cleared away the greasiness left behind from the meat.

While we were still eating the pork neck, the staff started grilling the pork belly alongside it. Pork belly cooks faster than pork neck, so it went on the grill once the neck was partway done. With layers of lean meat, fat, and skin, its texture was distinctly different from the pork neck.

I tried the golden-grilled pork belly with just a dip of salt first. The salt sharpened the belly's characteristic savory fattiness — the skin had a chewy bite, while the inside combined tender lean meat with moist fat for great texture. Best of all, the charcoal aroma rose subtly the more I chewed, so it was plenty tasty with just salt.

I also tried the pork belly on top of the diced-kimchi fried rice. The tangy, salty kimchi seasoning in the fried rice worked well with the savory pork belly — the crunchy kimchi cut through the richness of the fat, and with bits of meat and seaweed flakes mixed in, each bite felt quite hearty.

How it felt as a spot for a Jonggak group dinner

I tried the meat several ways — dipped lightly in salt, paired with side dishes and sauces, or piled on top of the diced-kimchi fried rice. Even with the same meat, the flavor and texture shifted slightly depending on what I paired it with, so I never got tired of it, even by the end.

Jonggak-ap Nosang Gongyeong Juchajang, this Jonggak favorite, was busy even at 8pm on a weekday. With just one recommended set, we got to work through hanwoo, pork neck, and pork belly in turn, and having staff grill everything from start to finish made it easy to keep talking through the meal.

What I liked most was how deeply the charcoal aroma soaked into the meat. Adding the diced-kimchi fried rice and half-and-half naengmyeon rounded out the meal from meat to a full dinner. With dim lighting and wood interiors keeping the mood calm, this is a place worth remembering if you're looking for a Korean BBQ spot near Jonggak Station, or a place for a Jonggak group dinner or gathering where you can eat hanwoo and pork together.