Jongno Korean barbecue lunch sets at Eom Yongbaek Pork Grill

On a lovely weekday afternoon, I took a half-day off and met up with a friend. We were meeting in Gwanghwamun, and while looking for somewhere nearby to eat, we found Eom Yongbaek Pork Grill (엄용백돼지구이). It is a meat restaurant at dinner, and a great spot for bulgogi and squid at lunch.

Eom Yongbaek Pork Grill’s Gwanghwamun location and lunch special

The exterior of Eom Yongbaek Pork Grill was so neat and polished. It felt far too stylish to call simply a meat or Korean restaurant, haha. This two-story place had more of a café or Western pasta restaurant vibe.

Eom Yongbaek Pork Grill sits roughly midway between Jonggak and Anguk stations, just behind Gwanghwamun and Jogyesa Temple.

The lunch special can only be ordered on weekdays from 11:00 to 15:00. There may be a wait because of nearby office workers, but it is a fairly large two-story restaurant, so it did not look as though the wait would be terribly long.

The interior was every bit as tidy as the exterior. At a glance it looks like a café, but the exhaust hoods make it unmistakably a meat restaurant.

Group reservations are available at Eom Yongbaek Pork Grill, too. With a first and second floor, it looked good for company dinners as well. And, for the record, most ingredients are domestic, haha.

The tables on the first floor were nicely spaced, making for a comfortable meal! We visited after the weekday lunch rush. That is just how the timing worked out after I finished my morning shift, haha. I was starving, but also simply thrilled to be off work~~

Even though it was well past office workers’ weekday lunch hour, the second floor had more diners than I expected. My friend and I ate on the roomy first floor, haha.

Lunch set menu and our order

Menu

These are Eom Yongbaek Pork Grill’s special lunch-only dishes: charcoal bulgogi and squid charcoal bulgogi sets! Every person must choose one menu item (set meal).

Here is the dinner menu. Since the restaurant is called Pork Grill, of course there are meat dishes. The side dishes looked substantial, too: grilled truffle button mushrooms, blue crab ramen, seafood pot rice, and more.

• Charcoal bulgogi set ₩16,000
• Squid charcoal bulgogi set ₩16,000
• Soft drinks ₩2,000

A generous spread with pot rice and side dishes

The lunch special sets came with really excellent banchan (Korean side dishes): roasted seaweed, wrap vegetables, perilla leaves, peppers, garlic, yeolmu kimchi (young-radish kimchi), bean sprouts, ssamjang dipping paste, and soy sauce.

The rice also came freshly cooked in a pot. This was for two people, but there was quite a lot of rice. Pour in hot water at the end for perfect nurungji (scorched rice), right?

It even came with soybean paste soup as a basic side. The broth was exactly the kind of delicious doenjang-guk (soybean paste soup) I love.

We simply shared out the rice and soybean paste soup.

Gangdoenjang, a thick soybean paste stew, with pumpkin leaves was included, too. Eom Yongbaek Pork Grill really does the basic side dishes well. Just ordering the lunch special gave us so many sides that it made for a very filling meal.

Wrapping warm rice with the gangdoenjang and pumpkin leaves was as delicious as the main bulgogi and squid dishes!

Myeol-jorim, braised anchovies, also came as a basic side. It is usually a sauce for dipping black pork belly or five-layer pork, but here it arrives as a braised side dish. It was salty and savory, and great with rice!

Here is the generously laid-out set meal! It was so much food for two women, hahaha.

Try both the charcoal bulgogi and smoky squid

The charcoal bulgogi arrived cooked just right. For two adults, the portion and value for the price were genuinely excellent.

We cut it into easy bite-size pieces. The charcoal-grilled bulgogi had just the right smoky aroma; it was similar to the meat served with yukssam naengmyeon, but thicker and more satisfying to chew.

How delicious is charcoal bulgogi wrapped in lettuce? Even though it was a lunch special, it felt like a generous dinner, haha.

Since there are two dishes—bulgogi and squid—you really have to try one of each! The squid was large and plump, with plenty of vegetables.

The squid had an intensely smoky flavor. Not burnt—it was properly infused with that fire-grilled aroma, haha.

The spicy, smoky squid was a total rice thief. It was hard to choose a winner over the charcoal bulgogi. I simply recommend eating both, haha.

Top roasted seaweed with warm rice and dip it in soy sauce~ A delicious meal is entirely possible on the basic sides alone. The bulgogi, squid, and all the side dishes were just so good.

I wanted a cold beer with it, but we had planned to go to a café after lunch, so I passed~~ Instead, my friend and I clinked glasses of chilled Coke and Sprite, hehe.

A hearty lunch in Gwanghwamun

For a delicious, satisfying lunch near Gwanghwamun and Anguk Station, I recommend Eom Yongbaek Pork Grill.