Busan pork belly restaurant for a family dinner: Bulmak Yeolsam Sajik

Bul(fire) mak(changs that will) yeol(get you fired up) sam(gyeopsal). This is a Sajik-dong BBQ joint open until 2am.

This spot was picked by Dolkkochi, a Sajik-dong native! I went with my in-laws. It was my first visit, but Dolkkochi said she'd been a few times before. Here's how four of us ate ourselves full!

Where is Bulmak Yeolsam Sajik in Sajik-dong, Busan?

Bulmak Yeolsam Sajik is on the 1st floor at 3-1 Seokpo-bukro, Dongnae-gu, Busan. Head up from Sajik Stadium toward the market, and it's across from Seokpo Royal Castle.

Oops... I photographed the outdoor menu board, and some prices have gone up by ₩500–1,000 since!

Set menus and what four of us ordered

Bulmak Yeolsam Sajik's set menus are: pork set ₩48,000 (raw pork belly x2 + raw makchang x2 + grillable cheese + doenjang jjigae x1), beef set ₩55,000 (beef brisket x2 + beef makchang x2 + doenjang jjigae x1), and pork+kkodeulsal set ₩46,000 (raw pork belly x2 + kkodeulsal x2 + grillable cheese + doenjang jjigae x1).

There are coupons available through Naver reservations, and you can get up to ₩5,000 off by leaving a receipt review!

What we ordered (for 4)

• Pork set ₩48,000
• Kkodeulsal 150g ₩9,900
• Raw makchang 150g ₩9,900
• Bowl of rice ₩1,000
• Mul naengmyeon ₩6,000
• Soju ₩5,000 x2
• Beer ₩5,000
• Drink x1 ₩2,000

The space is split into table seating and floor seating.

Side dishes: tofu kimchi and Korean kimchi for the grill

The side dishes were solid BBQ-restaurant basics. My personal favorite was the tofu kimchi! There's nothing better as a drinking snack before the meat even hits the grill... haha.

They also gave us domestic napa cabbage kimchi for grilling (the owner made sure to emphasize it was domestic... lol) — nice and grillable, well-fermented, so it grilled up perfectly. With the tofu and kimchi as basic sides, Dolkkochi's soju was going down smooth...

How was the pork set's samgyeopsal and raw makchang?

The pork set comes with pork belly served alongside makchang. It was good quality pork belly with a nice fat-to-thickness ratio, plus some cartilage bits mixed in. It came out sprinkled with parsley on top.

Bulmak Yeolsam has one special sauce — this spicy-sweet red gochujang sauce. It's meant for dipping makchang, but it also went great with the pork belly!

Then came the makchang! It's said to be aged with 16 secret ingredients. Maybe that's why — there was zero funky smell, which I loved. The doenjang sauce and BBQ sauce were both tasty, but the gochujang sauce was our clear favorite! It was pre-grilled already, so it was easy to finish cooking too.

Doenjang jjigae and grillable cheese

The doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew) that comes with the pork set! A touch salty, but it had generous meat, tofu, and vegetables in it, so my father-in-law cleared his bowl of rice in no time.

Cheese was also included in the set — lightly grilled and dipped in condensed milk, it was a nutty, sweet-and-salty treat!

Extra order: kkodeulsal (chewy pork jowl)

I was curious about kkodeulsal, so we ordered it as an extra. The owner told us it's even better grilled together with cheese, so we wrapped the leftover cheese with the kkodeulsal.

Kkodeulsal is thinner than pork belly, and the chewy texture was really fun.

Mul naengmyeon and the slushy-soju performance

After eating a good amount of meat, cold noodles were a must, right? The mul naengmyeon comes with seasoned julienned radish, and I wondered if it would actually work — but the seasoning wasn't too strong, so it went surprisingly well!

Every table at Bulmak Yeolsam has a rubber mallet, and when you order soju, the owner does a frozen-slush soju performance for you lol. The owner here had great energy, was really kind and passionate, so it made for a fun family dinner.

It's close to Sajik Baseball Stadium too, so it's a great spot to hit after catching a game!