Busan Korean BBQ with salt-grilled pork belly: Donnamu Jip

As someone who absolutely goes wild for meat, I went out in the rain—getting rained on and all—to eat old-school-style Jirisan pork belly near Kyungsung University–Pukyong National University Station. This is Donnamu Jip, a meat restaurant with plenty of outdoor-stall vibes and just one pork-belly menu.

Donnamu Jip hours and location

Donnamu Jip is in Daeyeon-dong, Nam-gu, Busan. It is open from 17:00 to 23:00, with last orders at 22:30, and regularly closes every Sunday. Group visits, reservations, and easy payments are available, apparently.

Even before going inside, I could check the condition of the meat with my own eyes from outside, and some mysterious trust in the meat was already building up.

A menu that sells only pork belly

What makes Donnamu Jip incredible is that it is a meat restaurant with a single-item menu: pork belly, period. Beyond full and half platters of Jirisan pork belly, there are only gondre rice, rustic soybean-paste stew, rustic bibim noodles, and instant rice. I cannot even imagine how proud they must be of their pork belly.

The single pork-belly menu alone, plus the color of the meat at first glance, made me think, ah, this place is going to be good. They said they would give us bang-a wraps if requested, but we did not ask haha.

There is no separate parking lot, so you need to use a nearby paid parking lot.

Greenhouse-like outdoor-stall atmosphere

Donnamu Jip does not have many tables. There are about five round tables, and they said they join the neighboring tables when groups come in. It kind of feels like you have stepped into a greenhouse, right? That is what I mean by an outdoor-stall atmosphere~

Three guys came in beside us, and the staff added another table for them. It was nice to have lots of room on the table.

From a full platter of Jirisan pork belly to an extra order

A full platter of Jirisan pork belly is 360g for ₩37,000, and a half platter is 180g for ₩19,000. Rustic soybean-paste stew is ₩6,000, and instant rice is ₩1,500.

Since there were two of us, we first ordered a 360g full platter of Jirisan pork belly.

Oh, they serve a whole quarter of an onion just like that. With wrap vegetables, a whole head of kimchi, pa-jaeraegi (fresh scallion salad), garlic, peppers, soybean paste, salted seafood, and salt, it felt like I had come to Grandma’s house. You could tell the 360g of Jirisan pork belly would be delicious just from the color.

They also brought onion, scallions, and potatoes to grill with the meat, and they were a special treat. I liked even more that the basic side dishes were so plainly fresh. It felt like a genuinely healthy meal, like going to Grandma’s and grilling meat outside! Of course, my grandma lived in an apartment, so there was no outdoors. You know what I mean~

Put the meat on first, then block the grease-draining hole with kimchi. The fat seeps wonderfully into the kimchi, grilling it to absolute deliciousness. We piled everything on and waited for the meat to cook.

I snipped up the already-cut pork belly a little more. Just~ the perfect size to eat. I loved how fresh this pa-jaeraegi was. Usually it comes drenched in sauce, sweet-and-sour and marinated, but not here! It seemed to have a few clumps of red pepper flakes and some kind of sauce, and it was delicious. With the meat, is this heaven?

I think the soybean paste was homemade too. Seriously, this is a pork-belly place with the fundamentals down. It is exactly old-school-style pork belly, and it is so good that dipping it in salt is best! The kimchi soaked in fat was so delicious that I was busy inhaling it.

It was full of juices inside, so from the very first bite against your teeth it was chewy and sooo good… The ratio of fat to lean meat was perfect too, so there was no way it could feel greasy; the nutty flavor was absolutely insane. We wiped down the grill once, then kept up the challenge of grilling more meat. Wrap it with kimchi, pleaseㅠㅠㅠㅠ It is seriously delicious… out-of-this-world delicious.

The potatoes were good too… Ah, I am so sad about the limits of my vocabulary. If I had to pick something that was not good, maybe the somaek (soju-and-beer mix)…? Saying that while drinking it unbelievably happilyㅠ

One platter was not enough to fill the bellies of us little piggies, so we ordered another half platter, 180g.

They even gave us myeong-i namul (pickled wild garlic leaves) haha. Wow ㅠㅠㅠㅠ this is unreal. Of all the pork restaurants I have tried around Kyungsung University in Daeyeon-dong, this is the tastiest. Pork belly cannot really be bad, but it is not easy to find a place where it is this intensely delicious. This is that kind of place, an intensely delicious one;

Rice mixed into rustic soybean-paste stew

While we were eating happily, the owner also gave us Morning Is Backㅠ I was touched… I am the kind of person who gets touched by things like this. Doing my liver wrong, then eating something good again, haha.

When you come to a meat restaurant, you have to get started on the hangover cure right away, right? We ordered the rustic soybean-paste stew without bang-a, along with instant rice. I immediately put the rice into the stew and made sulbap (rice mixed into stew).

From the savory smell, it had that old country-house feeling in abundance, with lots of tofu, lots of onion, and lots of other things in it~ I chopped up a pepper and added that too haha. It was not aggressively seasoned, yet had a savory, deep umami flavor, so I ate it very happily!

They even took care of us with yogurt to finish ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!

Donnamu Jip is a single-menu pork-belly restaurant with outdoor-stall vibes where the meat was so delicious that I want to return immediately.