Seocho Korean BBQ with scallion salad and spicy-sour sauce: Gyodaepae

I heard a shop specializing in chilled thin-sliced pork belly, not the frozen kind, had opened near Gyodae Station in Seocho, so I went, haha. Thin-sliced pork belly (daepae samgyeopsal) is usually frozen, so a chilled-pork specialist? How could I walk past that! I went right away. Okay, Gyodaepae review time :))

Gyodaepae location and opening hours

• 23 Seocho-daero 48-gil, Seocho-gu, Seoul, 1st floor (Gyodaepae)
• Mon–Fri 11:30–23:00 / Break 15:00–17:00 / Last order 22:30
• Sat 17:30–22:30 / No break / Last order 22:00
• Closed every Sunday
• No parking (use a nearby public lot)

Seocho Gyodae Station pork BBQ spot: Korean pork, frozen pork belly, chilled thin-sliced pork belly, Gyodaepae

Get off at Gyodae Station on Line 3, take Exit 14, and walk about 5 minutes. You'll spot a bright blue sign in the alley. The owner is apparently a meat master with 22 years of experience!!

Gyodaepae, ta-da!!

Round tables vs. rectangular tables

There are round tables and rectangular tables. There were two of us, so we sat at a round one to be cozy and close, haha. But for using table space, the rectangular one wins, hands down!!

Gyodaepae Set 500g: what's in it and the price

Gyodaepae Set 500g ₩48,000 ➡️ ₩43,000 (chilled thin-sliced pork belly + chilled thin-sliced pork neck + frozen thin-sliced pork belly). Soju ₩5,000, 2 bottles.

The grill was much bigger than I expected, haha. Way too much grill for the two of us, because we don't cook a lot of meat at once, we grill slowly. A small grill would've been fine for us, but Gyodaepae's grill was enormous!! haha

Side dishes

Seasoned radish, napa cabbage kimchi, seasoned bean sprouts, scallion salad

Gyodaepae's house sauce: skip the ssamjang

And honestly, forget everything else, this sauce is just insane,, seriously unreal,, This time too I went all-in on one thing, so I didn't even bother with wraps and just dunked everything in the sauce like crazy.

The meat came out right away. The ones on top are the chilled thin-sliced pork belly and chilled thin-sliced pork neck.

The one in the bowl, still frosty cold, was the frozen thin-sliced pork belly.

Chilled pork neck on the left, chilled pork belly on the right.

I'll hide the frozen pork belly underneath for now.

Okay, let's see how good it really is. Seriously, do people who work around Gyodae Station keep all the good food to themselves?! There are so many great spots for company dinners around Gyodae,, you can come over and over and never run out, right? haha

Why you keep spreading pork fat on the grill

Now spread the pork fat. The grill is built to drain the oil away, so unless you keep coating it with pork fat, the thin slices burn completely. I rubbed away diligently!!

We're slow eaters, so I gently laid down just 3 slices of the chilled pork neck first! As expected of thin-sliced pork, it cooks super fast, and because it's chilled it sizzled and cooked the moment it hit the grill.

Remember this: the sauce at Gyodaepae near Gyodae Station is a total bully. How did they make it so good?! We had ssamjang and everything, but we kept dipping only in this sauce, haha. What even is this sauce!! Spicy and sour, it does it all by itself 😍

Cheers while the meat cooks ❤️

How was the side doenjang soup with dried radish greens?

And the dried-radish-greens doenjang (fermented soybean paste) soup that came as a side. Is this really a side?! It was the best of the side dishes that came with the meal! It felt like we'd ordered a whole menu item, and I was glad we didn't order any extra sides,, haha

It was packed with ingredients and not spicy. If you were hoping for a little kick, you might be a bit disappointed.

Chilled thin-sliced pork belly dipped in sauce with scallion salad

Next, bring on the chilled thin-sliced pork belly~ I wanted to cook a lot at once, but we eat slowly and a big batch gets hard, so we put a little on at a time and cooked it in several rounds :))

Cheers again while it cooks ❤️

Gyodaepae owner, I don't know what this sauce is, but it's so good, haha. With this many side dishes, this sauce beat them all, haha. Wrapping a big pile of scallion salad around the meat and dunking it deep in the sauce is just top-tier,, If you come to Gyodaepae, please eat it this way, really, really!!

I grilled every side dish on the table too, and the grill got super colorful, haha. But!! What beats every side dish is Gyodaepae's house sauce!!

Chilled vs. frozen thin-sliced pork

Okay, another meal finished happily to the very end. It was my first time at a chilled thin-sliced pork belly specialist. Chilled is similar to frozen, but the texture was softer and even nuttier!!

Lastly, the frozen thin-sliced pork belly that was hiding in the jar. Frozen takes a bit longer to cook than chilled, so I grilled a lot at once!! Mostly because it was so hot,, hehe. If you're looking for thin-sliced pork belly near Gyodae Station, or a great spot for frozen thin pork belly, head to Gyodaepae, go go go go!! That's the end of the review :))