Black pork raw ribs 400g after swimming: Neopttakjip Samsong Branch

After a fun last summer swim of the season with teacher Jiyoung and teacher Hyewon last weekend, we headed over to Neopttakjip Samsong Branch for dinner! Coming out of the water we were SO hungry!! And what do you eat after swimming? Sizzling grilled meat, of course?! Today I'm introducing the tastiest samgyeopsal (pork belly) spot I've had in Ilsan — Neopttakjip Samsong Branch!

Location and parking at Neopttakjip Samsong Branch

• 📍 Neopttakjip Samsong Branch
• 🗺️ Address: 63 Dongsong-ro, Deogyang-gu, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, 1st floor, South Korea
• 🕕 Hours: 12:00–23:00
• 🚘 Parking: Available

It's just a short walk from Exit 3 of Samsong Station, so it felt totally doable even without a car. We came with two cars around 6pm on a weekend, and parking was more spacious than expected, though the restaurant itself was pretty packed inside. Whoa, is this a Samsong Station hotspot? we thought as we walked in!

Retro old-school vibe, with private rooms too

The overall vibe was a nostalgic, retro old-school restaurant feel. Because of that, there seemed to be plenty of people stopping by for a casual drink with meat near Samsong Station, along with young couples, friend groups, families, and even elderly guests — the age range of customers was really diverse!

There was also a private room toward the back of the restaurant! It seemed great for company dinners or group gatherings. While we waited at our table, we looked around and found the meaning behind the name Neopttakjip pretty interesting — it comes from the idea of 'spreading the meat out generously,' along with the meaning of being generous and hospitable.

What Neopttakjip really emphasizes is the raw meat itself. They've stuck with good-quality raw meat for 14 years, and to keep quality consistent, they even studied livestock and logistics themselves to build their own distribution system. In particular, they select and inspect the pork directly before aging it, so I was really looking forward to how good the meat would taste~

Side dishes and self-serve bar

The side dishes were set up right away, and this curry pasta salad was really unique and delicious!

Any side dishes running low could be topped up from the self-serve bar! But honestly, no matter how many side dishes or how nice the vibe is, a barbecue place only earns a return visit if the meat itself is good. Fingers crossed — would this become a place we'd come back to?

What the three of us ordered

The menu was also retro-styled and easy to read at a glance, which made things so much easier! With all the different cuts of meat and clean descriptions, we wanted to try everything. After a lot of deliberating, we ended up ordering Sancheong black pork raw ribs 400g with a grilled vegetable set, plus perilla oil noodles. There were three of us, and at first we thought, 'this should be enough, right?' Spoiler: the meat was so good we ended up ordering more haha.

Sancheong black pork raw ribs grilled on a cast-iron pan

🔥 And finally, the meat arrives! Neopttakjip uses a special cast-iron grill pan. First, the staff placed the meat, rice cakes, and sausage right on it, and once the pan heated up and the meat hit the surface, the sizzling sound alone was incredible.

They sprinkled coarse salt over the meat after grilling it once, and the smell coming off the meat was seriously... we'd just come from swimming and were already starving, and this smell made it impossible to hold back haha.

Today's grill master: Song Diyoung. Such a skilled griller. I tried a well-cooked piece, and the meat's natural flavor was really good right off the bat. The outside was golden brown and slightly crispy, while the inside was moist and chewy, with the juices still intact!

Best of all, there was no trace of the usual pork off-smell. Personally, if meat has even a hint of that smell I can't eat much of it, but that day there was none of that, so I just kept reaching for more.

Dip order: sesame oil, then ground perilla seeds, then salt

The staff also told us to try dipping the meat in sesame oil, then ground perilla seeds, then salt, in that order, so we jumped right in. Honestly, I'm usually a person who dislikes ground perilla seeds... but oh, the perilla seeds and sesame oil went really well with the meat!

Adding a bit of pickled chili peppers on top... it's a combo you just keep eating haha. And you could grab lettuce wraps or extra side dishes from the self-serve bar whenever something ran low.

Grilled vegetable set and Haenam mustard aged kimchi

Eating only meat can get a bit greasy, but the grilled vegetable set that came alongside it paired really well. Mushrooms, onions, and sweet potato could all be grilled golden brown right alongside the meat on the pan. The vegetables, lightly cooked in the fat, tasted especially good together with the meat. A piece of meat topped with grilled onion, wrapped up in a lettuce leaf... that's a combo that just calls for a drink haha.

Oh! And Neopttakjip's aged kimchi is apparently Haenam mustard aged kimchi from South Jeolla Province. Really well-aged kimchi, quickly seared in the meat fat, gave the meal a whole other layer of deep, rich flavor to enjoy alongside the pork!

Spicy and nutty perilla oil noodles

And the dish I personally really liked that day was the perilla oil noodles. The perilla oil aroma was nutty and rich, and the noodles themselves were light but flavorful, making them great to eat in between bites of meat. Unlike regular perilla oil noodles, this one had a spicy special mixed sauce in it! I worried that pairing perilla oil noodles with fatty pork might feel too heavy, but this Samsong restaurant... Neopttakjip's sense really shines here...bb

Especially wrapping a piece of meat together with the perilla oil noodles into one bite! Just looking at it makes you swallow hard.

We ended up adding an order of kkodeulsal

At first, we planned to finish up with just the Sancheong black pork raw ribs, but between the three of us, the meat was so much better than expected that we ended up ordering an extra plate of kkodeulsal at the end haha.

Isn't the most honest review of any barbecue place really just whether or not you ordered more?

Even though we were already pretty full, we cleaned up the kkodeulsal too before leaving. We visited starving right after swimming, but even accounting for that, the meat was good enough that we kept reaching for more, and ended up adding kkodeulsal on top — I think that's probably the most honest review we can give from that day.

What we liked

• ✔️ Close and easy access from Samsong Station
• ✔️ Being able to try various pork cuts in one place
• ✔️ The meat's natural flavor and tender texture
• ✔️ A variety of side pairings that go well with the meat
• ✔️ Spicy and nutty perilla oil noodles
• ✔️ Convenient self-serve bar

Who we'd recommend this to

• Anyone visiting Starfield Goyang or the Samsong area looking for a place to eat nearby
• Anyone looking for a barbecue restaurant near Samsong Station
• Fans of Samsong-style pork belly or specialty pork cuts
• Anyone looking for a restaurant with a good atmosphere for meat and drinks

Playing all day with good people and then unwinding the day's fatigue with delicious meat felt amazing 🤍 I want to try other cuts next time, so I'm definitely planning to revisit Neopttakjip Samsong Branch!