Icheon beef short rib dinner with hwangmi pot rice: Neul Gogi Jip

A restaurant in Icheon with really good beef galbi

Where to eat beef short ribs in Icheon: Neul Gogi Jip Icheon Main Branch

I was craving properly good beef galbi again after a while, so while looking up Icheon restaurants I found Neul Gogi Jip Icheon Main Branch, haha! It's known for putting together a careful table based on over 30 years of meat know-how, and I'd read a lot of reviews saying not just the meat but even the side dishes were delicious, so I was pretty excited before I even got there, haha!

Where is Neul Gogi Jip and is there parking?

Here's the location and business hours of Icheon restaurant Neul Gogi Jip Icheon Main Branch!! What I liked most was the parking!! There's a wide parking space right in front of the restaurant, so it was easy to come by car, haha. In Icheon you often end up driving around, so easy parking took a lot of the hassle out of going to dinner, haha!

Inside Neul Gogi Jip: private room and self-serve vegetable corner

Here's what the inside of Icheon restaurant Neul Gogi Jip Icheon Main Branch looks like!! It was bigger and cleaner than I expected, and I was surprised the place was almost fully booked even on a weekday evening..!!! There are table seats as well as a private room, so it'd be perfect for a family meal, or for anyone looking for a spot in Icheon for a work dinner or a group gathering, haha!

There's also fresh vegetables at the self-serve corner that you can just help yourself to, haha!

Neul Gogi Jip menu and what we ordered

The menu at Icheon restaurant Neul Gogi Jip Icheon Main Branch was more varied than I expected, too. They use domestic fresh meat and mill their own hwangmi (yellow rice) fresh every day for the pot rice, which got me even more excited, haha! After some deliberation we ordered the yeast-marinated beef galbi, beef tendon doenjang jjigae, and hwangmi pot rice, haha!

What side dishes come with the meal?

Not long after ordering, the table filled up with banchan first, and I'd assumed at a meat place the side dishes would just be an afterthought, but each one was delicious enough that I kept reaching for more!! Japchae (glass noodle stir-fry), lotus root, fried tofu, braised eggplant, even soy crab — a generous spread that kept us busy while we waited for the mains, haha.

Nuruk yeast-marinated beef short ribs, grilled over charcoal

While we were still working through the banchan, the star of the show arrived — yeast-marinated beef galbi! The color alone got me excited, haha!

It's grilled over charcoal, and at the start the staff grilled it for us directly, so we could start the meal without any hassle, haha!

Waiting hungrily for it to cook...! Grilling meat well is honestly harder than it looks, but since the staff grilled it to the right timing, all we had to do was wait and eat, which was great, haha! And because it's marinated meat that burns easily, having them grill it meant we got to eat it at exactly the right moment, haha!

The meat browned beautifully with a faint charcoal aroma seeping in!!! I'd had a skimpy lunch so I was starving, and it cooked so quickly, which was such a relief!:)

Maybe because it's naturally aged with yeast salt, the meat itself had quite deep flavor, and with the sweet-salty marinade on top it really suited my taste! Well-grilled meat is delicious on its own, but wrapping it in lettuce with vegetables made it even better, haha! My boyfriend enjoyed it a lot too, which made me happy, haha.

Beef tendon doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew)

Just as we were finishing off the meat, the beef tendon doenjang jjigae arrived and it was also the best!! It was loaded with tendon and meat, a totally different feel from a doenjang jjigae that's mostly just broth. It also had plenty of tofu, which I love, so it was even better, haha.

Hwangmi pot rice and nurungji (scorched rice) to finish

And personally, the dish I was most satisfied with was the hwangmi pot rice, haha! Icheon means rice, right?! Made with freshly milled rice, the rice itself was delicious, and eating it with the meat, we barely needed any other side dishes!! Haha!

At the end, they poured water into the pot to make scorched rice, and that finished the meal perfectly!! From the meat to the banchan, the doenjang jjigae, and the pot rice, it really felt like a full, proper meal at Icheon restaurant Neul Gogi Jip Icheon Main Branch!!! If you're looking for a hearty meal during a trip to Icheon, it'd make a great stop on your Icheon travel course, haha! If you're having one of those days where you suddenly crave good beef galbi like I was, give it a visit :)