Chewy vs thin-sliced pork belly compared at Gangnam BBQ: Daepae Market

I recently went to Daepae Market Gangnam Nonhyeon Branch to eat thin-sliced pork belly and thin-sliced pork neck haha

Location and hours

It's a 3-minute walk from Nonhyeon Station Exit 3.

🕐 Hours: open 24 hours daily / 🙅‍♀️ Closed: Chuseok (Sept 25) / 🚘 No parking

Exterior and entrance

Just look for the sign that says 'Instant Daepae Market.'

Go in through the entrance on the left side of the building and you're right there. Let's go in.

What's it like inside?

I'd made a Naver reservation and got seated by the window.

The dining room was huge — it would be great for group gatherings.

There's a counter right by the entrance.

You order via tablet and pay at the counter after you finish eating.

There's also a tray on the grill for setting cooked meat aside.

They slice the meat fresh the moment an order comes in. There's a scale too, so the weight should be accurate, right??

Behind that is a fridge for storing the meat. Disposable aprons are provided too.

There's a big dining room in the back too — this was the front.

The self-serve bar

This is the self-serve bar. You can freely help yourself to various vegetables, side dishes, and sauces.

I really liked the assortment of lettuce wraps and the corn salad.

If you leave food uneaten there's a ₩5,000 environmental fee or 1 hour of dishwashing, so just take what you'll actually eat and go back for more.

Besides ssamjang (soybean paste dip) there are also pickled onion sauce, green onion sauce, a special sauce, and wasabi — grab those too.

Every table has sesame oil, pepper, and salt.

Open the drawer next to your table and you'll find wet wipes, utensils, and tissues — good to know.

Menu and prices

Here's the menu. The signature, most popular items are the [Premium Pork Duroc Chestnut-fed] thin-sliced pork belly and thin-sliced pork neck. They use the Spanish Duroc breed, one of the world's top 3 pork breeds and rated grade 1 for marbling — it's said to have evenly distributed intramuscular fat, giving it great juiciness and nuttiness when grilled. A very reasonable ₩4,900 per serving.

Ordering

I'd originally planned to get regular thin-sliced pork belly, but I got curious about the chewy pork neck, so I ordered that plus chewy pork belly. Apparently 'jjol' means chewy. It's only ₩1,000 more than the regular version!

After eating, I found the chewy pork neck tastier than the chewy pork belly, so I ordered one more chewy pork neck, and since I was curious about the regular thin-sliced pork neck too, I ordered that as well — personally, I'd recommend the chewy pork neck.

How the chewy pork neck and pork belly tasted

My first order: 2 servings of chewy pork belly and 1 serving of chewy pork neck.

I loaded up a tray from the self-serve bar.

Grilled the chewy pork neck first. When I ordered an extra serving, it came out the same — 4 pieces. 4 pieces for a whole serving felt a bit skimpy.

It cooked fast, probably because it's so thinly sliced. Grilled all sorts of vegetables too. Once everything was cooked, time to eat.

Here's the full spread. I grabbed a piece of the chewy pork neck, dipped it in ssamjang, and took a bite. So chewy and delicious.

Dipped it in pickled radish too, grilled some kimchi and ate it together, wrapped it in lettuce — highly recommend the chewy pork neck if you go.

Grilled the chewy pork belly too. Ordered a bowl of rice. It wasn't packed full, which was a bit disappointing.

This time I piled perilla leaf with pickled radish, grilled kimchi, and a ton of green onion salad. Wraps really are tastier the more you pack in.

Bite of the chewy pork belly. I grilled it a bit too crispy so it was tough and not very tasty ㅠ Honestly I couldn't really tell it was chewy. The chewy pork neck was way chewier.

Grilling enoki mushrooms and bracken fern made it even tastier. Wrapped the chewy pork belly with pickled onion and ssamjang. Ate it with rice, grilled kimchi and garlic, wrapped two layers of lettuce and perilla leaf together.. ate it with pickled radish too.. wrapped in grilled kimchi.. grilled some king oyster mushroom too.

The ₩2,000 per-person self-serve bar fee is mandatory.

What about the extra order of thin-sliced pork neck?

Kept grilling and eating on repeat until we finished the meat, then ordered more.

Thin-sliced pork neck on the left, chewy pork neck on the right. The thin-sliced pork neck is cut thinner so it looks like more, but personally it was a bit disappointing since it was so thin.

Just laying it on the grill like this and you can already see the pan through it, and trying to flip it tears it apart. But I guess that's a matter of preference too. There's a certain enjoyment to eating it thin like that. Kind of felt like eating bulgogi?

Grilled more kimchi and enoki mushrooms.

Cold noodles and the special sauce

The mul-naengmyeon (cold noodle soup) I ordered arrived. It got so grilled/dried out from sitting there ㅠㅠ They gave me mustard and vinegar but I didn't add any.

This was the noodle portion — not a small amount. Ate it alongside the meat. This is the classic meat-and-naengmyeon combo~ Tried the special sauce, which had a bit of a spicy kick.

Trying to pick up the thin-sliced pork neck with tongs just breaks it apart, ending up like this.

I scooped it up with rice using a spoon instead, and it was moist and tasty. If you enjoy the chew of meat, go for the chewy pork neck; if you like soft, thin meat, go for the thin-sliced pork neck.

Dipped it in the special sauce with pickled radish. Ate it with the noodles too, had the boiled egg from the naengmyeon, and just ate it plain too.

Kept eating until it was all gone. Finished everything. Ate well again today.

Final thoughts

Even in the late afternoon, customers kept coming in. If you're looking for an affordable, good-value pork belly and pork neck BBQ restaurant where you can enjoy a wide variety of lettuce wraps, vegetables, and side dishes, I'd recommend Daepae Market Nonhyeon Branch.

Customers kept streaming in the whole time, and since it's open 24 hours, it seems like a convenient option for early mornings, late nights, or that awkward break-time gap.