Korean BBQ at Moran Station: grilled kimchi first bite, Mat Chandeul

Where is Mat Chandeul Moran Branch, and what is it like inside?

Mat Chandeul Wang Sogeum Gui Moran Branch (맛찬들왕소금구이 모란점) is at 16-7 Dunchon-daero 101beon-gil, Jungwon-gu, Seongnam, Gyeonggi, South Korea (Vision Building, 1st floor), open daily from 12:00 to 23:00. There is an underground parking lot, and when it's full they help with 1 hour 30 minutes of parking nearby ("tu-roo parking").

Today's aged-meat spot is the already super famous Mat Chandeul Wang Sogeum Gui Moran Branch~! It's a one-minute walk from Exit 4 of Moran Station, right as you come out, so access is amazing hahahaha. At the entrance, fresh, good-quality cuts are laid out generously by type, and the anticipation exploded before I even went in.

Inside, the shop is stocked with plenty of 4-person tables, so it's comfortable to eat in~! Join the tables together and a big Moran company dinner is easy, and there's even a private room. Perfect for anyone looking for a group gathering spot near Moran!

What to order for two: the A Set and cauldron rice

Two of us visited Mat Chandeul Moran Branch and ordered the A Set, which includes 400g of meat and a stew, and added cauldron rice. We chose half pork belly and half pork neck, and doenjang (soybean paste) stew.

I read the menu carefully, and there's a nice variety of set menus and single items, but we went with the great-value A Set~! Half pork belly, half pork neck, and a savory doenjang stew haha. Cauldron rice for two is a whopping ₩4,000, which was seriously cheap and moving.

Receipt review event and the table salts

If you join the Naver receipt review event at Mat Chandeul Moran Branch, you get 5 pieces of grilling cheese as a free side. The table has two salts: Himalayan pink salt and Andes lake salt.

They give you nutty cheese, so neighbors, definitely join hahahaha. Grilled together with the meat, it's a work of art.

Two premium salts are neatly set out, so you can dip to your taste~! They also say the kimchi is 100% fresh domestic, so I figure the napa kimchi and the kimchi stew must be the best too!

What side dishes does Mat Chandeul serve?

After you order, Mat Chandeul Moran Branch sets out wrap vegetables, icy mukbap-style acorn jelly soup (muksabal), scallion salad, myeongi (wild garlic) pickles, other pickles, meljeot (salted fish sauce) and wasabi. The wood ear mushroom pickle and the pickled chili stood out.

Neat, tasty side dishes arrive one after another on the table, wow~! Fresh wrap vegetables, cool acorn jelly soup with ice floating in it, sweet-spicy scallion salad, fragrant myeongi, assorted pickles, meljeot and wasabi: all the helpers that lift the meat's flavor turn up.

Of the sides, I'd never tried wood ear mushroom pickle before, and it was tangy, salty and sweet, better than expected, and it goes perfectly with offal or meat~! And the zingy pickled chili in the middle was spicy, salty and appetite-opening, a real winner hahahaha

A Set with 400g pork belly and neck: does the staff grill it all?

The A Set at Mat Chandeul Moran Branch comes with 400g of pork belly and neck, plus potato slices and tteok (rice cake) sticks as standard. A staff member grills the meat from start to finish and keeps the cooked meat warm on a stone plate.

Finally the long-awaited 400g of thick, rosy pork belly and neck showed up~! Potato slices that are crispy outside and chewy inside when grilled, and chewy rice cake sticks come as standard too, so the lineup is really solid.

Mat Chandeul's biggest plus is that the kind staff grill the meat carefully from start to finish! They grill it at the tastiest temperature, so you just wait comfortably and eat, which was so nice~! Cooked meat goes on the stone plate, so it stays warm instead of cooling.

The staff-made first bite: grilled aged kimchi, pickled chili and pork

When the meat is done, the staff member thoughtfully builds your first bite~! On a nicely grilled, rinsed aged kimchi, they gently place pickled chili and a piece of meat, and I sent it straight into my mouth full of anticipation.

I understood why they handed it over to eat first the moment I took a bite, wow. The deep flavor of grilled aged kimchi, the zingy pickled chili and the savory juices of the meat come together, and it was crazy good, so exclamations came out on their own.

Next, wrap meat and wasabi in fragrant myeongi, or put crunchy kimchi and ssamjang (wrap sauce) on a fresh lettuce wrap, and it's fantastic too~! The juices bursting with every bite meant I couldn't stop my chopsticks hahahaha

How were the doenjang stew and the 4,000-won cauldron rice?

The doenjang stew in the Mat Chandeul Moran Branch A Set was packed with tofu, vegetables and brisket. The added cauldron rice was generous enough to fill two heaping bowls, and came with hot water for scorched rice and squid jeotgal (salted squid).

The stew included in the set was served too, and the savory broth had soft tofu, vegetables and brisket in it, really hearty, wow~! Slightly spicy and rich, the textbook BBQ-restaurant doenjang stew, and one spoonful of broth settled my stomach right away.

Then the long-awaited, freshly cooked, steaming cauldron rice arrived hehe. The moment the lid came off, a savory rice aroma wafted out, and they thoughtfully brought hot water too so you can make nutty scorched-rice tea (sungnyung) later.

Scooping one pot out filled two bowls to a heap, and I thought the value was insane, wow. They even freshly brought spicy, chewy squid jeotgal as a rice side, so I completely fell for the owner's generosity.

Putting savory meat on rice and mixing it into the spicy doenjang broth was seriously delicious hahahaha. Maybe because the rice is cooked right in the pot, it's glossy, the grains are sticky and sweet, and it's the best even on its own.

Finishing with scorched rice and salted squid (ojingeo jeotgal)

For the final highlight, I put one piece of salty squid jeotgal on the nicely softened, savory scorched rice, and the finish was perfectly clean~! From meat to stew to pot rice, nothing fell short, and it was a flawless Moran restaurant visit.

If you're looking near Moran Station for a high-quality Moran pork belly specialist or a hearty spot for a Moran group dinner, I recommend Mat Chandeul Wang Sogeum Gui Moran Branch without hesitation~! You'll be 100% satisfied with the comfort of having it grilled for you and the juicy flavor haha