Busan pork ribs with scallion kimchi: Choryang Hyeongje Galbi

Choryang Hyeongje Galbi, a place that grills the meat for you in Choryang's galbi alley

Choryang Hyeongje Galbi (초량형제갈비) is a pork rib restaurant at 15-4 Choryang-ro, Dong-gu, Busan, ground floor. There are so many pork rib places in Choryang, but this is the one I fell for and want to keep coming back to, thanks to the friendly service and the taste.

Address: 부산 동구 초량로 15-4 1층 No parking

Hours Closed every second Tuesday of the month Daily 11:00–22:50 Last order 21:50 Takeout available

Starting today, the 14th (Monday), they're also selling a lunch special, so it might be worth a lunchtime visit too!

I went in the evening, and when I walked in, almost every seat was already taken. Luckily one table was free, so we could sit right down without waiting.

What we ordered and the basic table setting

Order list Pork ribs ₩12,000

While we waited for our order, they brought out little rice cakes, one per person. We dug in as soon as they arrived haha.

An egg soup also came out as a complimentary side dish. At first my husband started setting out spoons and I thought, do we even need this right now? But it turned out we needed the spoon right away haha. We spooned up the warm egg soup while waiting for the meat.

While the meat was grilling, we tried the side dishes that came with the basic table setting one by one.

The pajeon (savory pancake) was nice to eat like an appetizer before the meat. Grabbing a piece while it was still warm quietly sharpened our appetite.

Scallion kimchi that's also sold separately

What caught my eye was the scallion kimchi — apparently they sell it separately too. I wondered how good it had to be for them to sell it on its own, and once I tasted it, I understood haha. The seasoning was well soaked in, and it seemed like it would pair perfectly with the meat. It's exactly the kind of side dish you want when you need something to cut through the richness of pork ribs.

Pork ribs grilled by the staff themselves

We started with three servings as our first order.

When the ribs came out, a staff member grilled them for us personally. Watching them pile the meat onto the grill made me hungry just looking at it haha. Honestly, when you grill your own meat at a barbecue place, you can get so caught up in conversation that things burn, or you end up constantly checking how done it is. But here, since the staff grilled it for us, we could just relax, chat, and eat — it was really nice.

They cut the ribs into big chunks. Especially around the bone, they kept checking and adjusting so it would cook evenly. Rather than flipping the meat once and calling it done, they kept an eye on the doneness throughout, which felt really meticulous. Thanks to that, the meat cooked evenly all over without any part burning or staying undercooked.

When looking for a good pork rib restaurant in Choryang, taste matters, but having staff grill it for you like this is quite a big plus too.

What does the sauce taste like

The soy-based seasoning wasn't the overly thick or salty style — it went down smoothly. You could taste the sweet flavor typical of seasoned pork ribs without it being overly salty, so I kept reaching for more.

A well-grilled piece of rib eaten together with the scallion kimchi was, as expected, a great combo. We also had the well-cooked mushrooms and sweet pumpkin on the grill, which were tasty too.

Seasoned ribs first, raw ribs added later

We did it a little unusually — we ate the seasoned ribs first, then ordered raw ribs as an add-on later. Most people eat raw ribs first and seasoned ribs after, but we just ate in whatever order we felt like haha. Who cares about the order — as long as it's delicious, that's what matters!

We tried the raw ribs grilled too, and they were delicious as expected. They had a cleaner, plainer flavor than the seasoned ribs, so eating them after the seasoned ones wasn't heavy at all. The staff grilled the raw ribs for us too, so again, we could just relax and eat.

Finishing with doenjang jjigae and seafood ramyeon

It felt like a waste to stop at just the meat, so we ordered doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew) and seafood ramyeon on top. We tried the doenjang jjigae first, and it had a bit more of a cheonggukjang (fermented soybean paste) feel than typical doenjang jjigae. The savory flavor was strong, making it great to eat with rice after the meat. There was even sea squirt in it! After clearing the grill, they set the stew right on the same spot to keep it simmering, so we could keep eating it piping hot until the very end.

The seafood ramyeon had a whole shrimp and squid in it. The broth had a subtle seafood flavor, and the noodles were cooked just right — delicious. The noodles reminded me of Anseong Tangmyeon, and after all that meat, a bite of ramyeon still went down easily haha.

Would I go back to Choryang Hyeongje Galbi?

There are so many pork rib restaurants in Choryang that it's hard to decide where to go, but after eating here, I understood why this place gets so many customers. The food tasted great, but what I especially appreciated was how friendly the staff were and how they grilled the meat for us themselves. With them handling the grilling and cutting, we could chat comfortably throughout the meal without worrying about the meat at all.

My favorite old rib place closed down a while back, which was such a shame, so I'm really glad to have found a new one I like this much. From now on, when I'm craving pork ribs in Choryang, I think I'll come back to Choryang Hyeongje Galbi. If you're looking for pork ribs in Choryang, don't overthink it — give this Choryang pork rib restaurant a try. Good food, friendly service, and a satisfying meal all around.