Suyeong barbecue restaurant with kimchi jjigae: Donbegi Gwang-an

Inside Donbegi Gwang-an Branch in Gwangalli

After taking in the night view from Hwangnyeongsan in Busan, I spotted a pork barbecue restaurant near our accommodation with a fabulous interior and was drawn right in, as if under a spell: Donbegi Gwang-an Branch (돈베기 광안점).

This place is known for its in-house aged pork, which they say is aged for 480 hours using advanced techniques. Different cuts of pork were aging beautifully in the aging room.

Donbegi Gwang-an Branch spans the first and second floors, with spacious seating and plenty of room between tables, so we could eat in a comfortable atmosphere.

Donbegi has house-wine set menus, so you can enjoy wine with your pork! We were hungry, though, so we went for a set focused on getting more meat rather than wine, haha.

The second floor has private rooms, so Donbegi Gwang-an Branch could be a good option for anyone looking for a pork barbecue restaurant for a date or family meal.

It was only a small window, but a window-side table was open, so we quickly grabbed it! Let’s begin our meal at Donbegi Gwang-an Branch.

Donbegi Gwang-an Branch menu and prices

• Couple Wine Set: 400g shoulder rack + 2 glasses of house wine, ₩47,000
• Couple Assorted Set: 400g shoulder rack + 200g ogeopsal (five-layer pork belly) or pork neck, ₩55,000
• Family Assorted Set: 400g shoulder rack + 200g ogeopsal + 200g pork neck, ₩74,000
• À la carte: French slice, shoulder rack, French rack, ogeopsal, pork neck, 4 mm pork neck, 4 mm pork belly, sirloin extra cut, salt-grilled pork skirt meat, marinated pork skirt meat, and honeycomb pork rind

I thought it was distinctive that they offer a wine set where you can enjoy house wine alongside the meal.

Couple Assorted Set and side dishes

Couple Assorted Set + myeongran rice + Korean pork kimchi jjigae (kimchi stew).

A lovely spread was laid out with all kinds of sauces and pickles, pa-jiraegi (seasoned scallion salad), kimchi, salted pollock roe, and the Couple Set meat~

The meat looked so good, and I loved the grill, so I immediately ordered a bottle of Jinro.

Let’s start with a drink~ Ahhh, soju in Gwangalli tastes especially sweet.

The Couple Assorted Set came with shoulder rack, ogeopsal, onion, mushrooms, shishito peppers, and a few pieces of sirloin extra cut. They provide a grilling service, so you can just sit back and eat the meat they grill for you. While waiting, I had another shot of soju with salted pollock roe, haha.

This is the sirloin extra cut they grilled first! It was an excellent bite with a lovely rich, nutty fat flavor~ They had definitely said they would grill all the meat, but they kept disappearing, so I started flipping this myself because it was about to burn. That’s when I started feeling a little uneasy.

Uneasiness aside, the white kimchi, sirloin extra cut, and salted pollock roe combination was bursting with savory flavor and made the soju glass empty very quickly.

And the mild, nutty myeongran rice.

Lately I haven’t often been satisfied with kimchi jjigae at barbecue restaurants, but this one was genuinely delicious~ If it had been even a little sweeter, it might not have worked, but the seasoning was perfectly balanced.

It was packed with meat and tofu, with a thick, satisfying texture that worked equally well as a drinking snack or something to eat with rice.

What left me disappointed with the grilling service

The problem began after the sirloin extra cut, while they were grilling the shoulder rack and ogeopsal… They said the meat is best cooked to 80%, then went elsewhere again… I kept flipping the meat myself… Then they came back, flipped the meat I had flipped, and burned it all…

When I asked whether the meat was burned, they just said “Sorry” in a voice so quiet I could barely hear it, then walked away… Huh??? I didn’t want to get angry, so I started cutting away the burned parts (that was just from cutting off one or two burned pieces… If I had cut it all away, wow), then thought, why am I doing this? I went to the counter, and they said they could not take the meat off the bill but would bring new meat.

I hadn’t done anything wrong, but without even coming over to apologize, they simply grilled more meat. The atmosphere became subtly awkward, and I completely lost my appetite, so we left most of it and went out.

This is my first time writing a post like this while running my blog… The first meat at Donbegi Gwang-an Branch was decent, the side dishes and kimchi jjigae were all delicious, and the atmosphere was really nice… But because the service and customer response were not good, this was a pork barbecue restaurant that left me disappointed in many ways.