Friday-night CatchTable booking at a Jongno3-ga Korean BBQ: Cham

These days our couple's joy is finding delicious pork restaurants, so let me introduce a Jongno3-ga pork belly restaurant that gave us a whole new kind of joy: Cham Dwaejitgan Jongno Main Branch.

How long is the Friday night wait at Cham Dwaejitgan? Book on CatchTable

We visited on a Friday evening, and since this place is so popular there was a wait.

You just reserve on CatchTable and show up when the notification comes. We went after work, between 6-7pm, and waited about 20-30 minutes. You don't necessarily need to register on-site with CatchTable — you can book in advance from your phone, so if you're planning to visit, I recommend reserving ahead on your phone.

Why we skipped the outdoor grill terrace: Jirisan black pork and Boseong nokdon

The inside vibe was like this! True to a grilled-pork specialist, each table has a big grill plate set up.

The weather's been so nice lately that since we were in Jongno3-ga, we briefly considered going somewhere with an outdoor grill terrace (yajang) instead. So why did we give up an outdoor terrace — something you can only enjoy this time of year — to visit Jongno3-ga's Cham Dwaejitgan? We believe that no matter how nice the atmosphere is, a restaurant needs to have fundamentally good taste.

Especially at a pork restaurant, meat quality matters, and compared to the outdoor-terrace places, Cham Dwaejitgan's quality looked far better. It's a place that serves quality Jiri Mountain black pork and Boseong nokdon pork, so we trusted it and went.

When we showed our CatchTable reservation number, they kindly showed us to our seat, and the table setup was already nicely done. At places that are this busy, you often have to wait even for the basic setup, but since everything was pre-set, we could quickly order the meat and enjoy the side dishes while waiting. You order using the kiosk installed at each table.

Side dishes and the six sauces at Cham Dwaejitgan

True to a pork specialist, the basic setup comes with a wide variety of side dishes meant to enrich the flavor of the meat as much as possible. Along with lettuce wraps, scallion salad, and salad, one side of the grill plate has kimchi, water dropwort (minari), and bean sprouts laid out to be grilled. And it wasn't just one or two sauces — a full 6 kinds were provided, ready to satisfy all kinds of taste preferences.

Three servings for two: Jirisan black pork five-layer belly and pork neck

Here's what we ordered! Two servings of Jiri Mountain black pork belly and one serving of Jiri Mountain black pork neck. My husband is such a big eater that even though there are only two of us, we ordered three servings as a baseline. Along with the meat came thinly sliced potatoes, kkwari-gochu (shishito-type peppers), and king oyster mushrooms.

The color alone looked so good that our excitement built even before it was grilled. Oh, and one more thing — at Cham Dwaejitgan Jongno Main Branch, staff grill the meat for you from start to finish, so all you have to do is eat comfortably.

They even sliced up the kimchi nicely and grilled it for us 🤍

They grilled the meat so well too, cutting it into bite-sized pieces — I really appreciated that touch.

Eating only meat felt like it wasn't quite enough, so we also ordered the dessert doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew). At ₩6,000 it's great value, and besides doenjang jjigae, the dessert menu also had kimchi jjigae, naengmyeon, steamed egg, and fried rice. (As you'll see below, I ordered the naengmyeon for dessert.)

First bite with salt, and minari as the kick

Once it's nicely grilled, they move it to the part of the big grill plate with weaker heat, and from then on you just eat as you please. The first bite has to be with salt! Full of juice, savory, and just so delicious.

A look that clearly could not possibly taste bad.

We also thoroughly enjoyed the mushrooms and peppers grilled alongside.

And minari is the kicker!! Eating grilled minari together with the pork belly was so fragrant and savory, just incredibly delicious.

I meant to eat lightly, but the meat was so good I kept eating more. I was having an off day physically, but I feel like eating this meat actually helped me recover... 😅

The potato slices are meant to be grilled on the plate and wrapped up with the meat, and since they're grilled in pork fat, even the potato chips alone were savory and delicious, haha.

Finishing with Jirisan kudzu mul-naengmyeon, 7,000 won

And here's the dessert naengmyeon I ordered! The Jiri Mountain kudzu mul-naengmyeon (cold noodle soup) was ₩7,000, again great value, and the portion was bigger than expected. They gave it a proper icy slush on top, and after eating pork belly, that greasy feeling just melted away, haha. Whenever we're craving good grilled pork, I think we'll be coming back to Cham Dwaejitgan often!

Cham Dwaejitgan Jongno Main Branch: location and opening hours

• Location: 1st floor, CGV Piccadilly Theater, 1 Donhwamun-ro 5ga-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul
• How to get there: Jongno3-ga Station Exits 2 or 2-1, located outside the 1st floor of CGV Piccadilly Theater
• Hours: Daily 12:00 - 23:00