Pig Out Korean Grill House - San Juan La Union — Restaurant in San Fernando

I may have found the best seafood samgyup spot—and I’m heartbroken it’s far from Makati.

Finding grilled seafood in La Union is a challenge. Most places are either kilometers away or serve the usual Gen Z fried fare. So when I stumbled upon this Google Maps listing— it's not along the highway— but considering the options, I decided this was the best one.

Best decision ever.

First off, they let me order just the seafood—something most samgyup places won’t allow for cost control. I totally forgot that’s a thing, so their flexibility is so appreciated.

I wish I had taken better pictures, but it was 2PMish and I was too excited to eat. Priorities.

What I really loved: They kept the banchan just the way Korean ommas used to make them when they started popping up in Baguio back in 2009. Core memory unlocked. Great Korean restaurants are consistent with their banchans—and this place nailed it.

The lettuce and onion salad had a surprise twist—some Japanese sauce magic, maybe ponzu or a hint of teriyaki. I still can't quite figure it out, but I was pleasantly confused.

Seafood samgyup lineup:

Octopus – Looked great, grilled tough. I’m okay with it. Octopus are basically the dogs of the ocean, and I feel weird eating them anyway. Shrimp – Deveined. Yes, you read that right. How thoughtful! I didn’t even ask for a second round because... Garlic butter shrimp – small sizes but came out and blew my tastebuds. Divine! Salmon belly – Sliced too thin but perfect with soy, and yes, they had wasabi. Mini scallops – Drizzled with oyster sauce. Thoughtful, and adds to the umami. Squid fillet – Also drizzled with oyster sauce.

Even the serving dishes were adorable—and elevated the whole spread. Plus, real smokeless grills with side vacuums kept the air clear. They used charcoals and not butane, so that added more flavor. I still left smelling like bbq'd meat (because of the other tables), but the place didn't have the white haze.

Now for the “meh” moments: The sad little lollipop shrimps—batter was too sweet, like Korean corn dog sweet, and then they drizzled it with more sweet sauce. The radish had an earthy taste... I think they used too much turmeric to color it. They only accept cash or gcah-to-gcash payments A 100-peso surcharge for dining solo. Look, I get it. But do we really need to slap a single tax? Hahaha

Overall, Php 699+100 isn't bad considering all I've mentioned. Also, shoutout to the staff: attentive, polite, and efficient.

Will definitely drag the cousins...

Food: Even the marinated meat lack some taste, and they don't even serve condiments like the gochujang and samjang (even if these were requested with the meat). We had to request for the sauces again before they were served, same goes to the garlic and other side dishes. Side dishes were mid, nothing too special, and they weren't really exceptional. Kimbap deserves a 1/10. Tteokbokki tastes something you can get from the night market.

Service: Very slow! It took around 20 minutes to serve the meat and other side dishes, which is slow knowing that we had to cook the meat ourselves anyway... plus they accomodated us around 8:10-8:15, served the first set of meat around 8:45, and told us last order was at 9pm, which is ridiculous. They could have just rejected us from the start instead of hurrying us to eat for 15 minutes and decide which kinds of meat to order next 🤣 Waiter even said, "sorry, you're late" when we questioned the time for last order. It takes 10 minutes to even ask for an extra cup of rice.

Upon paying, they rejected 2 of our PWD IDs (which we just used elsewhere before going to Pig Out, btw) saying that the cards aren't registered in "DOH" — since when did the Department of Health handle the distribution of PWDs IDs? Waiter even said "marami po kasi nag-fafake," which is brutally rude and insensitive for us who are really PWDs.

And since when did restaurants charge an extra fee for paying through card or bank transfer? Yes, banks charge 3-4% for the use of the card terminal but do customers carry the burden of these charges? They let us pay an additional 3.5% for paying through card 🥲 They even claim they're non-vat 🤷‍♀️

Overall, would not recommend dining at this resto. There are a LOT of samgyup places which are BETTER in all aspects than Pig Out. If I can give 0 stars here, I would.

Please save your time and money and avoid eating from...

We came with high hopes and were disappointed big time. As pre-order we ask for some San Miguel, unfortunately we have been informed that “ not available” so are all other beer on the menu, we have been offered WARM beer in a can and a glass of ice. Big mistake in the restaurant business and lack of competence of the management and ownership. We decided to get a Chinese TsingTao, the best of the worst beer selection. We are on the Philippines and the owner serve beer in the can instead of one of the beer in world San Miguel Pale Pilsen in the bottle.🤬🤬🤬 But not only the beer is “ not available” also most of the soft-drinks are “ not available”. The only drink we could get was Blue Limonade, an artificial, over sweetened, horrible tasty non alcoholic drink. The same we heard when we order our dishes, the pickled ginger, A MUST HAVE in Korean food was “ not available”. So was the Korean BBQ sauce, instead we get served a bad copy of the American A1 BBQ sauce🤮. The meet selection sounds good, but we had our serious doubts that the “ Angus Beef Steak” is Angus Beef, more or less a local piece of meat. The marinated pork and chicken was absolutely tasteless, so was the Kimchi and all other salads we chose, the dressing was watery and without taste. Just because you play sentimental and very noisy Korean music doesn’t qualify to a Korean Restaurant. I feel very sorry for the very nice and attentive service crew, they have to cover for the non existing management and owner ship. I will grant generous 3🌟, because of the nice ambiance, good service crew and the try to create a Korean Restaurant. To run a restaurant you need passion, commitment and a culinary education, we couldn’t find anything of this...