Korean BBQ in Mapo: Saemaeul Sikdang Hongdae Seogyo & More - 26 Local Picks

Thin slices of pork in a fiery marinade cook in moments on the grill, and staff swap out scorched plates quickly. Yeolt…

Staff work the grills table by table, cooking thick samgyeopsal (pork belly) and moksal (pork neck) so diners never han…

Booking ahead gets a table already set with side dishes, while evening walk-ins face long waits. The charcoal-scented p…

Each order of yangnyeom dwaeji galbi (marinated pork ribs) mixes rib meat and pork neck on one plate, giving the grill…

Served only at lunch, heukheuk bulgogi mixes Jeju black-pork shoulder with skin-on pork belly and grills it over coal b…

Yangji-tang, beef brisket soup, arrives completely unseasoned, and salt and pepper on the table let each diner adjust i…

The meat comes to the table already partly grilled, so the tabletop grill only has to finish it. One set pairs 1++ grad…

Staff handle every round of grilling in this hanok-style room facing the Gyeongui Line Forest Park, leaving the table f…

Every table sits in its own private room behind a door, so conversations stay contained. The sotbap set at lunch brings…

Salchisal (chuck flap) and so-galbisal (boneless short rib) easily end up side by side on the grill, because each cut c…

Minari, a peppery water parsley, comes as a standard side here, and well-fermented kimchi goes on the grill beside the…

Jeju black pork arrives daily and is cut thick. Staff par-grill it, then finish grilling and slicing it at your table.…

In baekmisam, thick aged pork belly shares the grill with white aged kimchi and minari, Korean water dropwort. Swap the…

Ogyeopsal (skin-on pork belly) and jjoljjoli-sal come out already par-cooked in a kitchen oven, and staff stay with the…

Fermentation tenderizes the pork neck and gabri (shoulder cap) before they reach the grill, leaving the meat soft and m…

Opened in 1978 and now run by the founder's son, this grill holds a spot on the galmaegi-sal alley in Dohwa-dong, Mapo.…

Grilled meat and Pyongyang-style cold noodles share the table at this Mapo barbecue house on Samgae-ro. A round of pork…

A heap of minari, a peppery Korean water parsley, goes onto the grill with thick slabs of pork belly; out of season, ch…

Guests never grill their own ribs at this Gongdeok branch: songchu galbi, gamagol galbi and udae galbi, all marinated b…

Dinner happens on a boat moored on the Han River at Mapo, where each table grills its own meat over charcoal. The onboa…

One plate of al-deungsim holds pork loin, gabrisal (the fatty cap near the shoulder) and belly, which makes the differe…

Galmaegisal, pork skirt from the diaphragm, is aged in a minced-garlic marinade and grilled over charcoal. The dining r…

The name recalls the railway that once ran past this corner of Hongdae. The tracks are gone, but the grill house has se…

A renovation left the dining room and restrooms noticeably clean and bright. Waits are shorter than they once were, res…