Ulsan grill restaurant with a 500g Jirye black pork set: Daewol

My mom is a little more than picky about food, haha. Especially meat — the slightest smell and she's out, and if it's tough or dry she'll say so right away. So when she says "the meat here is good" at a barbecue place, I just believe it, lol.

This time I went with my mom and baby to Daewol Charcoal Barbecue, a barbecue spot in Dal-dong, Ulsan. Bottom line up front: the meat here is genuinely good.

We ordered the Jirye black pork combo 500g, and from the first bite the meat itself just tasted good. On top of that, the banchan (side dishes) — cold jokbal (pig's feet) to beondegi (silkworm pupae) soup, all of it came out, haha. It felt like every good old-school barbecue-joint side dish rolled into one meal. We finished with doenjang rice with rice wine broth and pillowy-soft steamed egg custard, and I felt like I'd properly found a good spot in Nam-gu, Ulsan.

Daewol Charcoal Barbecue: address, hours and parking at a glance

Daewol Charcoal Barbecue is at 6 Samsan-ro 122beon-gil, 1st floor, Nam-gu, Ulsan. Hours are 10:00–22:00, last order 21:30, closed Sundays. Free parking is available and there's a baby chair too.

• 📍 Address: 6 Samsan-ro 122beon-gil, 1st floor, Nam-gu, Ulsan
• ⏰ Hours: 10:00–22:00 / last order 21:30 / closed Sundays
• 🚗 Free parking available
• 👶 Baby chair available

Here's what I ordered.

• Jirye black pork combo 500g — ₩55,000
• Doenjang rice with rice wine broth — ₩8,000
• Steamed egg custard — ₩5,000 (takes about 20 minutes)
• Bowl of rice — ₩1,000
• 👉 Total: ₩69,000

We went as three: mom, me, and the baby.

Inside Daewol Charcoal Barbecue: a 1980s retro grill house

Daewol Charcoal Barbecue looks completely different from the clean, modern barbecue places that are trendy these days. Once you open the door, you think, "oh, this place really commits to the concept," haha.

The whole place is done up in a 1980s retro style that recalls old neighborhood barbecue joints. Instead of feeling like a few forced retro props were thrown in, the space actually matched the whole grilled-meat vibe pretty well. Going with my mom, this atmosphere honestly made it more fun, haha.

Visiting Daewol Charcoal Barbecue with a baby: baby chairs and parking

Daewol Charcoal Barbecue has a baby chair ready, so eating with the little one was fine. That day it was me, my mom, and the baby, the three of us.

When you're eating out with a baby, the first things you check are usually parking and a baby chair, not the food, haha. Both were handled here, which made it easy to visit as a family.

🚗 For parking, use the lot right next to the GS25 beside Daewol Charcoal Barbecue. Navigate to 'Dal-dong 655'!

The banchan spread at Daewol Charcoal Barbecue is an all-star lineup

The next thing I want to talk about after the meat is the banchan. Let me list them out.

• Cold jokbal-style meat side dish
• Kelp wraps
• Bean sprout soup
• Cellophane noodle salad
• Pickled garlic and garlic scapes
• Spicy radish salad
• Myeong-i namul (pickled mountain leek)
• Chili paste
• Garlic
• Chili peppers
• Lettuce wraps
• Bang-a leaves (Korean mint leaves)
• Beondegi soup
• Green onion salad

Haha, a full roll call of classic barbecue-joint banchan. These days meat prices keep rising while some places only give you two or three side dishes. Here, just seeing the table set up made me happy.

What is that cold jokbal side dish?

This one was genuinely delicious, haha. There was a cold, jokbal-like meat side dish, and I kept picking at it even before the main meat arrived.

While eating, you can refresh your palate mid-meal with pickles or radish salad, wrap the meat in kelp, or top it with green onion salad… there are so many combinations you can try with a single piece of meat. I also liked that they gave lettuce wraps along with bang-a leaves (Korean mint leaves). If you like that distinctive bang-a aroma, try it with the meat once.

Jirye black pork combo 500g for 55,000 won

And finally, the main event. We ordered the Jirye black pork combo 500g for ₩55,000.

"Jirye" here refers to Jirye-myeon in Gimcheon, Gyeongsangbuk-do — they said they bring in meat from Gimcheon twice a week and don't use frozen meat! No wonder it tasted so good, haha.

What the first bite of Jirye black pork tastes like

The first grilled piece I ate had a really good meaty aroma. What made it good wasn't just "it's tender" — the outside got nicely nutty from touching the charcoal, and when you bit in, the inside stayed juicy, with the savory flavor getting stronger the more you chewed.

Especially the parts where the lean meat and fat were attached together — the lean part didn't end up dry on its own; the richness from the fat blended in, so it tasted great even without a wrap.

The chewy texture that makes black pork different

I prefer meat that has a bit of springiness and chew rather than pork that's overly soft and falling apart, and Daewol Charcoal Barbecue nailed exactly that. One bite starts bouncy and chewy, and the savory flavor builds the more you chew.

Add the charcoal aroma on top, and it's delicious even with just a light dip in salt. This matters, haha — it's not meat you need sauce or side dishes to make work; it tastes good on its own, one piece at a time.

Even my mother said the meat at Daewol was good

And it wasn't just me saying it tasted good. My mom took one bite and said, "the meat here is good." Haha.

The meat here is good.

This might sound like nothing, but coming from my mom, that's high praise. She has a pretty picky palate and says right away when something's not good, but here she was eating happily while calling the meat delicious. So I kept eating too, going "right? the meat itself is just good here?" haha.

Wrap the pork in bang-a (Korean mint) leaves, not just myeongi namul

That perilla-leaf-looking thing is actually bang-a leaves, haha. With so many types of banchan, you could eat the meat in so many different ways — first plain, then with salt, then with green onion salad, myeong-i namul, pickles…

I'd also recommend the bang-a leaves. The aroma is strong so opinions may differ, but paired with fatty pork, that distinctive bang-a scent really comes through and completely changes the mood in your mouth. So instead of sticking to one combination the whole time, I didn't get tired of it even by the end.

Personally, my top pick is just salt-dipped meat with a kelp wrap, lol.

Order the steamed egg custard ahead: 5,000 won, 20 minutes

There's a menu item that stuck with me as much as the meat: the steamed egg custard, ₩5,000. This… is stupidly good, haha, seriously pillowy soft.

From the moment your spoon goes in, you get that proper fluffy, soft texture, and one bite is warm and moist — great to eat alongside the meat in between bites. Especially with a baby along, having a soft side dish like this was nice.

Just note it takes about 20 minutes, so order it together with your meat if you plan to have it. If you order it once you're almost done with the meat, you'll be waiting on the egg custard, haha. Whenever I go back, I'm ordering this without fail.

Finishing with doenjang rice with rice wine broth, 8,000 won

After eating meat, you've got to finish with doenjang (fermented soybean paste). We also ordered the doenjang rice with rice wine broth for ₩8,000.

After the meat, that warm, savory doenjang broth arrives and you think, ah, this is how you wrap it up, haha. Scooping up the rice and ingredients together felt like it filled in whatever appetite the meat left behind. We added a bowl of rice too, and with the meat → egg custard → doenjang rice combo, we walked out genuinely full.

Would I go back to Daewol Charcoal Barbecue in Dal-dong, Ulsan?

This was my first visit, and overall I was pretty pleased. Most of all, the meat itself was delicious — that's the biggest thing. Nice interior and lots of side dishes are great, but a barbecue place ultimately needs to nail the meat, and this place had that basic thing down.

• A banchan spread ranging from cold jokbal to beondegi soup
• A 1980s-style retro atmosphere
• Baby chair available
• Free parking
• Pillowy-soft steamed egg custard
• Doenjang rice that was a great way to finish

Put all that together, and I'd fairly actively recommend this to anyone looking for a good restaurant in Dal-dong, Ulsan. Especially if you're looking for somewhere to take your parents for barbecue, this one's worth remembering.

Getting someone as picky as my mom to say "the meat here is good" isn't easy, haha. I think I'll be thinking of this place again next time I'm in Ulsan.