Icheon Korean BBQ dinner: pork belly in cabbage wraps, Neul Gogi Jip

If you're looking for a clean, tasty BBQ place in Icheon, I'd like to recommend Neul Gogi Jip (늘고기집) Icheon Main Branch. I've been back again and again, and it has everything: flavor, cleanliness, all of it. I can confidently recommend it among Icheon's BBQ restaurants.

What are parking and the atmosphere like at Neul Gogi Jip Icheon Main Branch?

You can park for free in front of the restaurant. At a BBQ place the meat matters most, of course, but I also like somewhere with tidy banchan (side dishes) and a clean atmosphere! Neul Gogi Jip ticks every box.

Fancy award certificates hang on the walls. That tells you how confident, and how well recognized, they are.

A spacious hall and private rooms for family gatherings

The moment you walk in, the space feels wide and tidy, so the first impression is great. The tables aren't cramped and the whole place feels comfortable, which is why many people come for family meals and gatherings. There are also private rooms, so it's a good Icheon BBQ spot for family get-togethers or eating with older relatives.

Choose your own wrap greens at the self-serve bar

There's a self-serve bar. If you run low on banchan or vegetables, you don't have to keep calling a staff member; you can just go get more yourself, which was handy.

I also liked the variety of wrap vegetables. It's not just lettuce; there are several kinds, so you can pick whatever you feel like that day.

What did we order for dinner at Neul Gogi Jip?

Neul Gogi Jip also has a good-value lunch special. I visited at dinner and ordered raw pork belly, beef sujji (beef tendon) doenjang-jjigae (soybean paste stew), Golden Bomb steamed egg and hwangmi pot rice.

Spicy marinated crab comes as a free side dish

The basic banchan come out neat and well made, which I liked. All the side dishes you can't skip at a BBQ place are prepared cleanly, and best of all, even yangnyeom-gejang (spicy marinated raw crab) comes as a basic side. I loved that.

The spicy-sweet seasoning had soaked in nicely, and I thought, okay, this is a real crab place. No wonder there's crab in the lunch special ;;;

How was the fresh pork belly at Neul Gogi Jip?

According to the menu, the raw pork belly is carefully selected Korean pork (hanwoo-style hanDon) charcoal-grilled belly, trimmed with the miculi step, so even the fat tastes rich and nutty.

As soon as it arrived, the ratio of lean meat to fat looked great, so it passed the looks test! Too much lean and pork belly gets dry; too much fat and it gets greasy. This one was nicely balanced, just right for eating.

Beef tendon doenjang-jjigae: the signature stew loaded with tendon

The beef sujji doenjang-jjigae is Neul Gogi Jip's signature stew, slightly spicy, with galbi-sal (rib meat) and dogani (beef knee cartilage) added for depth and texture.

True to its name, it had a generous amount of sujji, and it was one of the dishes I was happiest with. The sujji wasn't just tough; it was cooked until chewy yet tender. The broth paired savory doenjang with a slight kick, perfect with rice.

Look at that raw pork belly cooking so nicely! Can you see the other side dishes looking clean too?

Golden Bomb cheese steamed egg, free with a receipt review

The Golden Bomb cheese steamed egg is a soft, fluffy steamed egg under a blanket of cheese, and I hear it's free if you write a receipt review.

The egg puffed up all billowy, with the nutty flavor of cheese on top, so it was lovely and gentle to eat. Scooped with a spoon, it was fluffy yet moist, and the faint salty, nutty cheese went really well with the egg.

The service is top-notch too. They even cut the meat into bite-size pieces..

Fish a piece of sujji out of the stew and take a spoonful of broth, and it's savory and deep. It's a side dish I kept reaching for between bites of meat.

Hwangmi pot rice takes about 10 minutes

The hwangmi pot rice is a healthy pot rice cooked with freshly milled hwangmi (yellow rice) every day, I hear. It takes about 10 minutes to come out.

Staff-grilled pork belly: wrap it in cabbage

At Neul Gogi Jip Icheon Main Branch, the staff grill the meat from start to finish, so all you have to do is eat. The pork belly was golden outside with juicy, moist meat inside, and it was delicious.

I'd only thought of pork belly with lettuce wraps, but surprisingly, pork belly with cabbage wraps was really good.

Of course, you can't skip the classic wrap either. The meat is crisp yet juicy, a taste I keep thinking about.

It wasn't too thin, just the right thickness, so it had some chew, and even a single well-grilled piece on its own had plenty of the pork's own nutty flavor.

Finishing with nurungji (scorched rice) and ice cream

Finish with nurungji (scorched rice) made from the pot rice!

After good meat, you get to end on a sweet note with ice cream, so overall I was very satisfied with Neul Gogi Jip Icheon Main Branch.