Daegu galbi restaurant by Sinmae Station: Dugeundugeun lunch specials

Honestly, setting everything else aside, I just think this was a restaurant where the overall experience as a visitor, as a guest, was really, really good.

These days prices are prices, and the market is the market, so I've noticed even myself getting stingier about spending or sharing what I have. But places like this, during times like this, seem to hand out a rich, generous spread of food to anyone who stops by — enough to fill you up across two whole meal periods without worry — as if telling everyone to cheer up. I found that honestly moving.

And on top of that, every single dish tasted good too. Personally, I really hope this place keeps doing well!

What kind of place is Dugeundugeun Sutbulgalbi? The Sizi galbi flagship

Dugeundugeun Sutbulgalbi is a charcoal galbi restaurant at 69 Nobyeon-ro, Suseong-gu, Daegu, in the Sizi commercial district near Sinmae Station. Turns out it's the flagship location among the Sizi galbi restaurants, and it hasn't been open very long.

The name 'Dugeundugeun' (thump-thump, like a heartbeat) has such a lovely ring to it, and it also made me chuckle since it sounds like 'du-geun' (=1200g) haha. Being the flagship location, it can only be tastier, right?

Maybe that's why they're running a grand-opening event... The dates printed on the banner outside might look different from now, but once you go in and check the in-store event image on the tablet, you'll see the grand-opening soju/beer and drinks service is actually still valid.

What is on the weekday lunch special menu?

Dugeundugeun Sutbulgalbi also runs a lunch special. Turns out the weekday-only lunch special lineup includes a pork bulgogi set, a boiled pork set, mul naengmyeon (cold noodles) + pork bulgogi, bibim naengmyeon (spicy cold noodles) + pork bulgogi, and a kimchi mari guksu (noodles in cold kimchi broth) + pork bulgogi set.

When you don't have time to sit and pick through every single menu item during a hectic lunch hour, I'd recommend just ordering one of these special sets!

Inside Dugeundugeun Sutbulgalbi: group seating and the self-serve bar

Here's what the inside of Dugeundugeun Sutbulgalbi looks like. As you can see, the hall is huge. There was just as much space behind me where I was standing to take the photo, so it's a welcoming spot for groups of ten to twenty or more.

There's a self-serve bar so you can refill any side dishes you finish, and oh, the AC was blasting too haha.

The drinks fridge! As you can see, they carry a pretty wide range — Cass, Terra, Chamisul, Jinro, Saero, and more.

• Taste in alcohol can be pretty personal,
• so it's nice that they've stocked such a generous range
• to make sure this guest and that guest can both enjoy their meal happily. Good move.

What we ordered: Dugeundugeun seasoned pork galbi, 3 servings

The menu.

Ordering was done via tablet at the table! We ordered three servings of the 'Dugeundugeun seasoned pork galbi,' one kimchi mari guksu, one mul naengmyeon, and a bowl of rice.

Free banchan and a complimentary sundubu jjigae

First out: small plates, pork galbi dipping sauce, and jaeraegi (a type of pickled radish salad)! There were plenty of side dishes too — pickled onion, kimchi, cucumber kimchi, wild garlic leaves, gungchae namul (a leafy stem vegetable) and more. I took a bite of the not-so-common gungchae namul first — crisp texture, really good.

Whoa, and a fried egg plus — wait, this sundubu jjigae (soft tofu stew) too, all free??

• My husband, who needed something to cure his hangover, really loved it
• Personally, wow — this sundubu jjigae was honestly better than ones I've had at places specializing just in sundubu jjigae
• Even before the main course was fully grilled
• I kept reaching for this stew haha

How does the charcoal-grilled seasoned pork galbi taste?

Nice thickness, great visuals.

Taking the heat

Cooking into a pretty golden-brown color — the signature dish of Dugeundugeun Sutbulgalbi!

The glossy shine on it is no joke. I ate the finished pork galbi a few different ways — plain, dipped in the garlic soy sauce they served alongside, and later paired with the naengmyeon and kimchi mari guksu I'd ordered.

I also ate it like this, with fragrant perilla-leaf salad, or wrapped the salad-and-meat combo in pickled radish wrap sheets haha.

However you eat it, it's sweet and delicious.

• Taking meat that was almost fully grilled
• and dipping it once more in the garlic soy sauce they gave us, then grilling it a bit further, was another appealing way to eat it haha

The naengmyeon and kimchi mari guksu. I can't say every dish showed some flashy display of care or customer affection, but it really felt like it was there, plain as day, in each one.

While munching my way through all this generous food, I found myself, as always, wanting to know the full menu lineup and its specific details, so I picked up the table order tablet again.

Even the seasoned pork galbi is all domestic Korean pork

Wait, what?? Owner, you could really put up a huge sign about this both inside and outside the restaurant...! There aren't actually that many pork galbi places that use domestic Korean pork (handon). (Anyone like me who's sensitive to meat origin probably already checks this before visiting, so they'd know even better.)

Dugeundugeun Sutbulgalbi uses domestic pork for the pork belly, pork neck, and chadolbagi, of course, but also for the pork galbi itself — the dish you'd assume, hidden under all that seasoning, surely wasn't domestic pork. It was, entirely!!

• The generosity you could already feel from the hearty, almost main-dish-level basic side dishes,
• and then the principle of using domestic meat, quietly upheld without even advertising it —
• I was genuinely moved. Completely apart from the fact that this was a sponsored visit.
• Honestly it was close to shock, the way it moved me.

Generous right up to the moment we left

Even after we paid, the warm-hearted owner kept giving us more. We even got a yogurt for after the meal and left in a great mood.

I kept thinking the whole time I was eating: this place is probably already doing well, but it has to keep doing even better. It just has to. I want to carry this same attitude into how I treat my own work... and everything else, really.

• In the space of just one meal, I felt like I'd been hit with something and walked away having learned a few things.