Cheolsan lamb skewers for a farewell party: Yangkkochi Daejang

Yangkkochi Daejang near Cheolsan Station: a farewell party after work

Yangkkochi Daejang (양꼬치대장) is a lamb skewer restaurant right near Cheolsan Station. I went on a Thursday evening after work with a coworker, an older colleague who was leaving the company. We wanted a small, simple farewell party for two, with good food and a good chat. The location is easy to reach after work, so it was no trouble at all.

Yangkkochi Daejang location, hours and parking

• Address: 21 Ori-ro 856beon-gil, Unit 102, 1F, Gwangmyeong, Gyeonggi, South Korea
• Hours: Daily 13:00–24:00 (Fri and Sat until 00:30 the next day)
• Parking: Not available

Yangkkochi Daejang is right next to Cheolsan Station, so access is really good. It wasn't hard to find, and it's a decent spot to visit after work or pick as a meeting place.

Here's the exterior. The big sign has eye-catching colors and large lettering, so you can spot it easily from far away.

Yangkkochi Daejang atmosphere: ventilation that keeps the smell away

The inside of Yangkkochi Daejang was clean, and best of all, the ventilation was great. At lamb skewer places the meat smell can be a worry, but this was a comfortable place to eat. Green is used as an accent color both outside and inside, so the whole look feels unified and tidy.

What we ordered at Yangkkochi Daejang

We ordered 2 servings of daejang skewers (the house signature skewers) and jisamseon (a Chinese stir-fry of eggplant, potato and bell pepper). Wanting to try more, we also ordered mala xiangguo (a spicy Sichuan stir-fry) at the end. The menu has plenty of Chinese dishes besides lamb skewers, so a bigger group could share a lot of different things.

Yangkkochi Daejang events (cannot be combined)

Yangkkochi Daejang runs a variety of events: a receipt review event, a birthday event, a Naver reservation event and more. Just note that you can't combine them, so keep that in mind.

Basic side dishes and the sauces in the table drawer

The basic setting at Yangkkochi Daejang came with peanuts, kkakdugi (cubed radish kimchi), zha cai (Chinese pickled mustard stem) and pickled onion with chili. The zha cai and the onion pickles were especially good at cutting the richness of the lamb. Eating one now and then left my mouth feeling fresh, so I kept reaching for them.

Inside the table drawer there were cumin (zira), garlic salt, curry sauce, chuanliao (a Chinese dipping spice mix) and more. You can pair whichever sauce you like, and seeing that they even provide hair ties made me feel they really pay attention to their customers.

There was also a guide on how to enjoy the lamb skewers best.

How to grill daejang skewers: skip a slot on the auto-rotating grill

The daejang skewers at Yangkkochi Daejang are cooked on an automatically rotating grill, and because the meat is thick, it worked best to place the skewers skipping every other slot. Our skewers finally arrived, and the meat looked fresh from the color alone, so I was excited even before grilling. The meat is quite thick, and if you put too many on at once they don't rotate well. So we placed them skipping a slot each time.

The guide said medium to medium-well is the tastiest, but it was hard to get the doneness exactly right, so we just cooked ours until nicely golden brown.

Finally, the first bite of lamb skewer!

How the lamb skewers taste: chilled fresh meat with no gamey smell

Maybe because it's chilled fresh meat, the lamb skewers at Yangkkochi Daejang were clean-tasting with no gamey smell, and the meat was tender and juicy, so they were delicious. The thickness gave them a nice chew, and dipping them in cumin brought out the lamb's characteristic flavor even more.

The most memorable part was the curry sauce

Personally, the most memorable thing was the curry sauce. It was my first time seeing curry powder at a lamb skewer place, and the pairing turned out to work way better than I expected. The curry aroma adds a different twist, and it was a real treat.

Jisamseon alongside the lamb skewers

Next came the jisamseon! It's a Chinese-style dish made with eggplant, potato and bell pepper.

The jisamseon at Yangkkochi Daejang was seasoned just right, with soft eggplant and fluffy potato for a great texture. The vegetables were cooked just enough, making it a good dish to eat with lamb skewers.

The extra-order mala xiangguo got better the more I ate

Last, the mala xiangguo we added on!

The mala xiangguo at Yangkkochi Daejang had a slight numbing tingle and a subtle spice flavor. I'm personally not a fan of that spice taste, so at first I thought, "Hmm?", but as I kept eating, it blended with the spicy heat and turned out surprisingly tasty. It was a dish that got better the more I ate. Eaten together with the lamb skewers, it also cut the greasiness, so the combo worked well.

Yangkkochi Daejang near Cheolsan Station: who I'd recommend it to

Overall, I was satisfied with Yangkkochi Daejang near Cheolsan Station: the lamb had no gamey smell and the meat was tender 😊 I also liked the clean atmosphere, the variety of events and the attentive service. If you're looking for a good lamb skewer place or somewhere to have a drink after work near Cheolsan Station, it's worth a visit.