Korean BBQ lunch date on Garosu-gil: seafood tofu stew, Sinsa Hwaro

It had been a while, so we headed to Sinsa Station for a date on Garosu-gil. Garosu-gil always seems packed, whether it's a weekday, daytime or evening. I suddenly had a craving for pork belly, so my partner and I decided to go to Sinsa Hwaro (신사화로), a well-known spot on Garosu-gil.

Sinsa Hwaro Sinsa Main Branch: hours, parking and reservations

Sinsa Hwaro Sinsa Main Branch is open daily from 13:00 to 23:00. Parking costs ₩1,000 per 10 minutes, valet is ₩5,000, and corkage is available for a fee.

• Hours: daily 13:00–23:00
• Groups, reservations and private hire available
• High chairs available
• Corkage available (paid)
• Parking available (₩1,000 per 10 minutes)
• Valet available (₩5,000)

Is the inside of Sinsa Hwaro spacious? Can it handle a group dinner?

As you can see in the photos, the inside of this Garosu-gil BBQ restaurant is clean and roomy overall. It's bigger than I expected, so it seems suitable for a company dinner or gathering near Sinsa Station.

As you'd expect from a BBQ place, the chairs let you store bags and coats, and aprons were provided. We came at lunchtime, but it looked like it would be busy in the evening. There seemed to be lots of foreign visitors to Korea too. There were quite a few foreign guests while I was eating.

Sinsa Hwaro menu and table ordering

Every seat has a table order screen, which includes pages for Wi-Fi, a Naver review coupon, various events and more.

The menu has set platters such as the full pork platter, the half platter, snowflake galbi (marbled short rib) and a Korean beef galbi assortment, plus lots of à la carte cuts like pork jowl, kkodeul-sal (pork neck-end cut), extra loin and pork belly. I highly recommend it as a BBQ restaurant near Sinsa Station.

What side dishes come at Sinsa Hwaro?

Once you sit down, the staff set out the side dishes first: salad, seasoned lettuce, kimchi and what I think was pickled kimjang (kimchi-season) vegetables?

Sinsa Hwaro half-platter, 400g (₩46,000): what's in it and how it tastes

The Sinsa Hwaro half-platter is 400g for ₩46,000.

The half-platter we ordered at this Garosu-gil favorite comes with pork belly, kkodeul-sal and pork jowl. Charcoal-grilled meat, need I say more? Meat with a gentle, subtle charcoal aroma tastes completely different from meat grilled on a pan at home.

Kkodeul-sal: chewy without being greasy

We grilled the kkodeul-sal first. It has a good balance of fat and lean meat, so you can feel the chewiness even before tasting it.

Maybe because it's grilled over charcoal, it wasn't too greasy and came apart cleanly, so I never got tired of it. The more you chew, the more the springy texture comes out, and it was really chewy.

We grilled garlic and shishito peppers alongside, and eaten when cooked just right, they're sooo good. The meat is thick, so the juices keep coming the more you chew.

How spicy is the Sinsa Hwaro seafood soft tofu stew (₩9,000)?

The seafood soft tofu stew is ₩9,000, and rice isn't included, so you have to order it separately. It arrived bubbling away!! The earthenware pot was big and there was quite a lot of stew.

There was even a whole shrimp in it. Eating only meat can get a bit heavy, but with the hot, tangy seafood tofu stew alongside, the meat went down even better than usual.

Since it was lunch(?), we decided to eat lightly and skipped rice. The stew was so delicious and savory that we finished the whole pot without rice. (It was less spicy than Shin Ramyun, though it might feel a bit spicy to anyone who can't handle heat.) I think I've graduated from being a spice wimp, because this level felt just deliciously spicy to me.

Pork jowl and pork belly: nice and thick

After crushing the kkodeul-sal, we grilled the pork jowl and pork belly too.

Just look at the thickness of that meat. Can pork jowl really be this thick? The pork jowl at Sinsa Hwaro, a great BBQ spot near Sinsa Station, had just the right amount of fat, and was tender and chewy.

Was it enough for two? Overall verdict on Sinsa Hwaro Sinsa Main Branch

For the two of us, the 400g Hwaro half-platter and the seafood soft tofu stew left us just the right amount of full. I always struggle to decide where to go when we have a date on Sinsa's Garosu-gil, so I really recommend this as a date spot in Sinsa.

If you're looking for a BBQ restaurant on Garosu-gil, I recommend visiting Sinsa Hwaro Sinsa Main Branch. It won't be a choice you regret.

📍Location: 1F, 44 Gangnam-daero 152-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Sinsa Hwaro