Hapjeong pork rib BBQ with a bokbunja highball: Champpoppo Jjokgalbi

I was trying to figure out where to eat meat in Hapjeong today when I heard a jjokgalbi (pork rib) restaurant had just opened, so I went to check out [Champpoppo Jjokgalbi Hapjeong Branch]! There aren't many places to get Hapjeong jjokgalbi, so I was oddly excited(?). The name sounds super lovey-dovey, so it stuck in my head the first time I saw it...

Where is Champpoppo Jjokgalbi Hapjeong Branch? Hours and parking

• 📍 Location: 77 Yanghwa-ro 6-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul, 1st floor
• 🕓 Hours: Daily 17:00–01:00 (last order 00:00)
• 📢 Indoor restroom / no parking on-site
• 🅿️ Parking: Hapjeong street public parking (₩6,000 per hour)

What Champpoppo Jjokgalbi Hapjeong Branch looks like from outside

[Champpoppo Jjokgalbi Hapjeong Branch], where you can try Hapjeong jjokgalbi, is about a 7-minute walk from Hapjeong Station Exit 5. It's about the same distance from Sangsu Station Exit 1 too, so it's a decent spot whether you're coming from Hapjeong or Sangsu!

Inside Champpoppo Jjokgalbi Hapjeong Branch: reservations and waiting

Inside there are about 10 round tables. I went right at the weekend opening time of 5pm and there were already 2 groups there. (By around 5:30pm, people without reservations were already starting to wait, so I'd recommend booking through Naver Reservation if you're planning to go!)

Especially if you're going on a weekend evening, booking ahead will save you some peace of mind.

Seeing all these pro-looking posters gave off real Hapjeong jjokgalbi expert vibes haha

Here's a tip for eating well — give the guide on how to grill jjokgalbi properly a read first

When you order jjokgalbi, it comes pre-grilled so it takes about 15 minutes to arrive. While you wait, if you're up for the receipt review event, go for it! The more people who post, the better the quality of the items provided haha. **Note: the restroom is indoors and clean**

Free side dishes: sweet corn and chicken porridge

The side dishes turned out to be more varied than I expected. The first thing that caught my eye was this👇

Bubbling sweet corn! Nutty and great to nibble on while waiting for the ribs — I finished it all hahaha. Stuff like this seems minor but you just keep reaching for it...

Another basic that comes standard: chicken porridge! Warm and soft, good for taking the edge off hunger if you show up starving. My friend, seeing the chicken and egg sitting together, said it's kind of brutal to have parent and child together like that... a single tear...

Besides that, there were simple everyday side dishes, a few pieces of pork skin, and something I thought was potato but seemed more like yam. I was busy picking at all this before the jjokgalbi even arrived haha

Champpoppo Jjokgalbi Hapjeong Branch menu and what the sets include

Jjokgalbi is orderable starting from 3 servings minimum. [Champpoppo Jjokgalbi Hapjeong Branch] has a fairly varied side dish lineup among Hapjeong jjokgalbi restaurants, and the set menu composition especially was so good it made ordering hard. You can tweak the set menu composition a bit too, worth noting~~

For drinks there's soju/beer along with draft beer and highballs, so you can pick to your taste.

[What we ordered] 🍴 Chiletan Set 🍺 Bokbunja highball

The ribs: 2 soy-marinated plus 1 seasoned

This is the set menu composition of 2 soy-marinated plus 1 seasoned. It's a 2–3 person portion, so there was quite a lot of it. (But we ended up eating it all between the two of us anyway)

You just grill it bone-side down for another 2–3 minutes and it's ready to eat, which was great. Each table has cotton gloves and plastic gloves, so you use them to hold the jjokgalbi as you eat. Jjokgalbi really does taste best when you pick it up and tear into it by hand haha. But it's hotter than expected, so the cotton gloves are a must!!

There was more meat than I expected, and about half of it was already cut, so it was easy to tear apart. The soy jjokgalbi wasn't salty and the sweet sauce paired well with the tender meat, while the seasoned jjokgalbi had a sweet yet lingering spicy kick that I liked haha. The base seasoning is already on the spicy side, so if you're spice-sensitive it might be quite hot??

Chiletan rice balls

The rice ball in the set comes topped with crunchy cartilage and flying fish roe — just mix it well and eat.

The rice was fluffy and didn't clump together well, and since I actually prefer rice like that, I just scooped it up with a spoon as I mixed haha. The chewy texture of the cartilage plus the popping burst of the flying fish roe made it great to eat alongside the jjokgalbi😋

Cheese steamed egg

And it just feels incomplete eating meat without steamed egg custard, doesn't it. The salty, nutty flavor of the cheese added into the egg custard meant that after eating the spicy seasoned jjokgalbi, a spoonful of egg custard felt like it gently reset my spice-hit mouth.

Bokbunja (black raspberry) highball

After seeing another table order a highball, we immediately ordered a bokbunja highball too!! Since it's bokbunja (black raspberry), I expected something sweet, but the alcohol flavor was actually stronger than I thought. So if you're expecting a sweet highball, it might taste a little different than you imagine

Is Champpoppo Jjokgalbi Hapjeong Branch worth a visit?

This is all lean meat.

Overall it's easy to get to from both Hapjeong and Sangsu stations, and the jjokgalbi being pre-grilled made it easy to eat comfortably. Both the soy and seasoned versions had meaty, satisfying cuts that were fun to tear into haha. The basic side dish and side menu lineup was solid too, so it was a good place for two people to eat well and feel full — a nice, easy spot to visit whenever you're craving Hapjeong jjokgalbi~!