Gangnam Station Korean BBQ with ₩9,900 minari pork soup lunch special: Kkondae Kim Bujang

A Korean BBQ restaurant close to Gangnam Station Exit 11

It's about 5 minutes from Exit 11 of Gangnam Station!

A spacious interior that's great for groups

The first thing I noticed walking in was how much bigger the place was than I expected! The tables are spaced out generously, so it's comfortable for several people to sit and eat together, and more than anything there's plenty of room for a big group to come in for a company dinner.

A lot of restaurants around Gangnam Station are cramped since so many office workers come through, but here you can sit fairly comfortably even when a bunch of you show up, which I loved!! I'd recommend it for a work dinner or a get-together!

Menu and prices

A generous, varied spread of banchan

The thing I liked most the moment I sat down was the generous spread of banchan (side dishes)! Since it's a BBQ place I figured we'd just get ssam (wrapping greens) and kimchi, but there were way more kinds than I expected!!

It wasn't just the usual side dishes you see at any BBQ place—there was eorigul-jeot (spicy salted oysters), myeongnan-jeot (salted pollock roe), dotorimuk (acorn jelly), squid salad, mushroom jeon (pan-fried fritters), old-school sausage and more, which was great haha. It was fun tasting them one by one, and they went really well with the meat too.

The eorigul-jeot and myeongnan-jeot especially had a salty, savory kick that paired really well with the plainly grilled meat. Highly recommend this combo👍👍 The dotorimuk was soft and mild, good for resetting your palate in between, and the squid salad's tangy-spicy seasoning cut through the richness when eaten with the meat. The mushroom jeon and old-school sausage were oddly nostalgic too, since it'd been ages haha. Honestly you could polish off a bowl of rice on the banchan alone!

The minari pork gukbap lunch special and the pork

I ordered the lunch special, the minari dwaeji gukbap (pork and rice soup with water dropwort). At ₩9,900 the price was reasonable too, so it was a really solid pick!

The minari pork gukbap I ordered that day came with a heap of minari piled on top of the broth, so it looked clean and fresh just at a glance! The broth was clean and warm, nice to sip alongside the grilled meat, and there was tender cooked pork inside too! There was seriously a lot of pork in there, so it made for a filling meal haha. The minari's aroma comes through subtly in the broth, giving it a different charm from your usual dwaeji gukbap🤍

They put the samgyeopsal (pork belly) and moksal (pork neck) on the grill and cooked it for us. Watching the meat sizzle away, I couldn't help thinking meat really does taste best when someone else grills it… haha🔥 The samgyeopsal turned golden as the nutty fat rendered out, and the moksal was cut nice and thick, so you could really taste the juices.

I ate it with myeongnan-jeot and a dab of wasabi on top, and with kimchi too🤤🤤 They grilled all the meat for us, so we could just enjoy eating haha.

Pork skin dipped in soybean powder and curry powder

Last, we ordered dwaeji kkeopdegi (pork skin) and grilled that on the plate too. Grilled until golden, the surface turned chewy and the nutty flavor really came out. After browning it on the grill I dipped it in the soybean powder and curry powder that came with it, and the nutty soybean powder on the chewy skin was such a good match!! Dipped in the curry powder, it picked up a subtle spiced flavor for a whole different taste. Pork skin especially changes texture depending on whether you grill it crispy or chewy, so it was fun cooking it to your own liking. I'm team chewy—which do you all prefer?😮😃

🤤🥹

From a weekday lunch to a work get-together

I visited at lunchtime and had a hearty meal of grilled meat plus the minari pork gukbap lunch special. It's a BBQ place, but you can enjoy gukbap here too, so it's a spot that works for everything from a lunch stop to a company dinner with coworkers.