Gwacheon duck BBQ, 40-min weekend wait near Seoul Land: Deo Chadol

Today I'm talking about a Gwacheon favorite, Deo Chadol! I'd visited this place twice before, paying my own way, and the duck chadol (thinly sliced duck brisket) menu was so light and delicious the first time that I kept thinking about it.

• Location: 5 Dwitgol 2-ro, 1F, Gwacheon-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
• Hours: 11:00–21:30 (break 15:00–17:00, last order 20:30)
• Menu: duck chadol, duck jumulleok, and more

A weekend 7pm dinner, 40-minute wait at a real Gwacheon gem

I'd only ever visited Deo Chadol on weekday lunches before, and even then it was always busy. This time I came on a weekend at 7pm, and wow, there was a wait... 40 minutes before we got in. A wait like that has to mean it's the real deal, right?

Since this is a place you basically need a car to get to, the parking area out front is nice and spacious.

It was evening and the weather was cool, so the wait wasn't too bad~ While waiting, I noticed Deo Chadol was named a 2024 Gwacheon Excellent Restaurant. It's apparently been on TV a lot too — it was featured on KBS's Baedal Wassuda show as a restaurant recommended by actor Ryu Seung-ryong!

For the wait, you register your phone number at the kiosk and get a KakaoTalk notification!

Deo Chadol menu and prices

• Deo Chadol course (duck chadol + jumulleok + stew + fried rice)
• Duck chadol BBQ (180g) ₩19,000
• Duck jumulleok (200g) ₩18,000
• Duck chadol jjamppong (lunch) ₩12,000
• Restorative duck chadol soup (lunch) ₩13,000
• Duck jeyuk set (lunch) ₩15,000

Duck chadol BBQ and duck jumulleok are the main dishes at Deo Chadol, and I noticed a lot of people ordering the duck chadol jjamppong at lunchtime too! We wanted both the chadol and the jumulleok, so we ordered the 'Deo Chadol couple course.'

Deo Chadol couple course (₩55,000): duck chadol BBQ (200g) + raw duck jumulleok (300g) + doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew) + self-fried rice (for 1)

Duck chadol BBQ, paired with minari and the special sauce

As soon as we ordered the couple course, the duck chadol (200g) and minari (water dropwort) came out right away. They said it's made in-house — fresh duck is hand-trimmed, flash-frozen, and thinly sliced. Maybe that's why, but even though it's frozen, there's zero gamey smell, and I'd heard the taste was scary good... I couldn't wait to dig in haha.

Being chadol (brisket-style), the meat cooked quickly, which I loved 🥰 I was so hungry from the wait. I love minari and they gave us plenty of it too~ (Grill the minari on the lower part of the pan!)

You can dip it in the special sauce or salt, but that red special sauce went so well with the duck chadol BBQ! The color is super intense but the flavor isn't overpowering at all haha. It doesn't taste strongly of anything in particular, but it subtly complements the duck chadol.

I wrapped the grilled minari in duck chadol and dipped it in the special sauce. The duck was so savory and the minari so fragrant... genuinely delicious 👍 Personally I thought the chadol BBQ was even better than the jumulleok! (The table next to us kept ordering only the chadol BBQ haha.) But you have to try the jumulleok too — because the fried rice at the end is insanely good...

They also gave us doenjang jjigae, and I couldn't resist ordering a bowl of rice too haha (plain rice and fried rice are different things...)

Raw duck jumulleok sauce, ssammu, and the self-bar

By the time we'd finished the chadol, we asked for the jumulleok and it came right out. The duck jumulleok apparently uses a special sauce developed through long research and development. Maybe that's why it wasn't too spicy or heavy, blending smoothly with the duck meat. Seasoned meat like this can get tiresome if it's too intense, but Deo Chadol's jumulleok sauce was genuinely delicious.

I tried the jumulleok wrapped in ssammu (pickled radish wrap), and the sweet-salty combo was so good lol.

Ssammu isn't included as a default side dish, so you grab it from the self-bar. The self-bar is pretty well-stocked too, right? The salad was so good I refilled it lol.

Finishing with self-made fried rice

We polished off the jumulleok and then came the moment we'd been waiting for — the fried rice. Make sure to leave a bit of the jumulleok meat, vegetables, and sauce behind for it!

You make the fried rice yourself — just mix it all up on the grill and that's it, it's seriously delicious. I feel like I ate the jumulleok just to get to this. I felt like I was going to burst but I kept eating anyway, it has this magical pull 🥹 My partner told me, 'You really can eat!' lol.

A restorative meal that's also great for family gatherings

As you probably know, duck is a low-fat, high-protein food often eaten as a restorative dish. I know duck is good for you, but duck baeksuk (boiled whole duck) or roasted duck aren't really my thing, so I don't eat them much. But with duck this delicious, I feel like I could eat it all the time!

The interior is spacious and there are private rooms too! Most guests were families, probably because this is a menu that both older and younger people can enjoy. Gwacheon has plenty to see, like Seoul Land and the National Science Museum, so pairing a visit there with a meal at Deo Chadol makes for the perfect combo~ I'd recommend it as a family gathering restaurant in Gwacheon!

Duck doesn't make you gain weight, but eating this much rice might, haha.

Next to the register I spotted marble ice cream (₩4,000). Not the convenience store kind but the real, old-school kind — perfect timing, so I bought one right away haha.