After-work Korean BBQ in Paju Unjeong: pork belly, kimchi stew, Tannae

I'm a well-known meat lover.. 👀🤍 This day I left work craving pork belly, so I searched for a good pork belly place in Unjeong and ended up at Tannae Paju Main Branch (탄내 파주본점)! There are tons of BBQ places these days, but ones that grill over briquettes aren't so common, right? Plus the staff pre-grill the meat for you, so I was extra excited :) Let me walk you through the pork belly and marinated pork I tried 🙌

Where is Tannae Paju Main Branch, and where do you park?

Tannae Paju Main Branch is at 73 Garam-ro, 1st floor, Unit 103, Paju-si, Gyeonggi-do, open 17:00-23:00 on weekdays and 16:00-23:00 on weekends. Parking is free and corkage is free too.

An orange sign you can spot from far away! The front says in big letters that it's a briquette grill specialist. Even the exterior felt a little different from a typical pork belly place.

For parking, use the lot behind the restaurant, which has room for about 5 cars. If that's full, they said you can also park in the alley lot by the Samseong Plaza entrance!

Do staff pre-grill the meat over briquettes at Tannae Paju Main Branch?

Yes, Tannae Paju Main Branch brings a briquette fire to your table, and the staff do the first round of grilling. The first thing that catches your eye inside is that they bring the briquette fire over. Personally I found it fascinating that it's briquettes rather than ordinary gas or charcoal 👀

And best of all, the staff grill the meat first! I came tired after work, and since I didn't have to grill from start to finish, I could just cook it a little more and enjoy it, which was so convenient :) (I'm not great at grilling, so getting foolproof meat was nice.. whisper whisper)

Tannae Paju Main Branch menu and prices

Tannae Paju Main Branch sells everything from pork belly to pork neck, jowl, and marinated king pork grill. Here's what we ordered this time.

• Select pork belly, 2 servings: ₩33,000
• Marinated king pork grill (양념돼지왕구이), 1 serving: ₩17,900
• Steamed egg (계란찜): ₩4,000
• Steamed rice: ₩1,000

While eating the pork belly I wanted more, so I added the marinated pork too and had a proper meat party 🤣

Side dishes, meljeot sauce, and the included stew

The side dishes included green onion kimchi (pa-kimchi), pickled onion, garlic, corn salad, and lettuce wraps. Once we ordered meat, they brought the sides out one by one, and I especially loved the green onion kimchi. It goes well with pork belly, but with the marinated pork I ordered later it was a perfect match!

They also put meljeot sauce (salted anchovy-style dipping sauce) on the briquette fire, and it looked so good I just wanted to get it on some meat ASAP..

Another service I liked at Tannae: you can choose either blue crab doenjang stew or pork kimchi stew as your included stew. We went with the kimchi stew.

Two servings of select pork belly: how does it taste over briquettes?

The select pork belly, 2 servings (₩33,000), was thick-cut with a nice balance of fat and lean. And here comes the pre-grilled pork belly we'd been waiting for!

Since the staff put the pre-grilled meat on the briquette fire at our table, we could eat without worrying much about grilling. The briquettes are stronger than I expected, so the meat cooked fast. Watching it turn golden brown, I could hardly wait haha

And the pork belly I'd been looking forward to was really satisfying! The outside was nicely browned and the inside wasn't too dry, so my chopsticks kept going back. Maybe because it was grilled over briquettes, it tasted even better. There were various sauces too, so I tried it with salt and with meljeot sauce, enjoying different combinations :)

It was so good that even though it wasn't a small amount, it vanished in no time, and when I came to my senses I had already ordered the marinated pork too 🤣

Marinated king pork grill, 300g, with green onion kimchi

The marinated king pork grill at Tannae Paju Main Branch is ₩17,900 for 300g, a more generous portion than the pork belly. Seeing a huge piece of meat covering the whole grill, I suddenly worried I'd ordered too much.. 🤣

Marinated meat browning over the briquettes looks so appetizing, right?! The pork belly was great for tasting the meat itself, while the marinated pork had a different charm, and the combo I especially recommend is marinated king pork grill + green onion kimchi!

Eating only marinated meat can get a bit heavy, but with green onion kimchi it works well. I worried there was too much meat, but the marinade is sweet without being overdone, so I never got tired of it. Together with the green onion kimchi I mentioned, the sweet-and-salty balance is just right 👍

The included kimchi stew and steamed egg

The pork kimchi stew we picked as our included stew was as satisfying as the meat. I usually think of the free stew at BBQ places as a light side, but here the stew is packed with pork! Honestly I'd been a little disappointed that the side dishes had no cabbage kimchi, but the stew, which has cabbage kimchi in it, made up for it, and it was perfect for polishing off a bowl of rice 👍

We also ordered the steamed egg (₩4,000), which was fluffy and a nice side to eat between the meat and the stew.

Verdict: easy after-work briquette BBQ in Unjeong

Tannae Paju Main Branch, the Unjeong pork belly spot I visited after work craving meat! Grilling over briquettes was fun, but above all, the staff do the first round of grilling, so it's a place where you can eat comfortably. If you're looking for a pork belly place in Unjeong, or somewhere easy to eat meat after work, check out Tannae Paju Main Branch :)