Yuseong Korean restaurant with fatty pork belly on a cast-iron lid

Hours: daily 09:00–10:20 / Closed: day before and day of Chuseok, day before and day of Lunar New Year

When even the side dishes are good, the meal gets a lot more fun

When you go out for meat, it's already satisfying if the main dish is tasty — but I think a meal gets a lot more enjoyable when even the side dishes served alongside it are good one by one.

This time I visited Jeonju House (전주하우스) in Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, and it turned out to be a place where not just the meat but the carefully prepared side dishes were satisfying too, so I wanted to introduce it.

The fun of grilling on a cast-iron lid — what was the atmosphere like?

What stood out especially was the way the meat is grilled on a cast-iron lid, which gave both a fun visual experience and a fun eating experience at the same time. It has a different charm from grilling on a regular grill plate, which made it more memorable.

Walking into Jeonju House, I felt a comfortable, homey atmosphere. I thought it would work well for a family meal out, and just as well for meeting friends over good meat with a drink.

The side dish spread that caught my eye before the meat did

As the food started coming out, the first thing that caught my eye was the variety of side dishes. Honestly, at a lot of pork belly restaurants, people focus so much on the meat that they don't expect much from the side dishes — but this place was different.

Trying them one by one, I genuinely kept saying how good they were. Rather than feeling like an afterthought to go with the meat, each dish felt like it had care put into it — a real neatness to it.

From dishes that whetted the appetite to ones that paired well with the meat, everything came together well, so my chopsticks were busy before the meat had even finished cooking. Personally, I feel like when the side dishes at a restaurant are good, my expectations for the whole meal go up naturally.

Fat draining right off the sloped cast-iron lid, light and clean

And then the meat I'd been most looking forward to that day went up onto the cast-iron lid. Just watching the meat sizzle away on the wide lid already looked delicious.

I think the biggest advantage of meat grilled on a cast-iron lid is that the fat naturally drains off. When you grill meat, more fat comes out than you'd expect, and because it runs off along the slope of the lid, I could enjoy it a bit more lightly.

The fatty part was the best

That said, the meat wasn't dry at all. If anything, with the right amount of fat drained off and the outside browned nicely, the texture came out even better.

The part I enjoyed most was the section with the fat still attached. I've always liked the savory fatty part of pork belly, and here the chewy texture that's unique to the fat was really good.

It wasn't greasy from too much fat — thanks, I think, to how well it was grilled, it stayed chewy and savory. The lean part was light and tender, and eating it together with the chewy fat made for a nice balance.

The nicely browned meat was delicious on its own, and eating it with the side dishes brought out a different flavor again. Rather than sticking to one combination, switching up the side dishes as I went meant I never got tired of it all the way to the end.

What impressed me most of all was how good each and every side dish was. I ate thinking the cooking skill here was really excellent.

Who would this suit?

There are plenty of places with good meat, but places where the whole spread that comes with it is satisfying are fewer than you'd think — at Jeonju House, I felt like the entire table was good.

It would suit people who love meat, of course, but also anyone who prefers a full table with properly prepared side dishes. If you're looking for a place for a family meal out or a good pork belly restaurant in Yuseong, Daejeon, give it a visit — you won't regret it.

From the visual of the meat sizzling away on the cast-iron lid, to how light it was to eat once the fat drained off, and above all the chewy, savory fatty part — personally, it was a satisfying meal.

With a good piece of meat and neat, tasty side dishes alongside it, I was reminded once again of why balance matters so much when eating out. If you're looking for a good restaurant in Yuseong, Daejeon, remember Jeonju House, where you can enjoy the special fun of grilling on a cast-iron lid and a hearty spread — go check it out.