저팔계콧구멍 — Restaurant in Gangneung-si

Google maps (not that good in Korea, but better than nothing for non-Korean-reading, iphone-toting users) has this on the wrong street. It should be 1 street down towards the bottom of the map. I know this because the street view shows a clothing store. I am posting photos of the real storefront.

It is a very friendly pork-belly BBQ place. There may be other things on the menu, but basically you, the English speaking newbie, are led to a table, the stool tops lift up to show compartments for your coat/purse/whatever, and he asks you how many servings of pork belly. We were 3 women and 1 serving each was great! Big men might want more. They bring out the pieces for you, and sear them. They then take them away, cut them up, and put them back on the grill, in portions (gives you time to wrap). Then they grill garlic cloves, spiced bean sprouts, and kimchi. There's also other condiments. You are supposed to take a marinated ?sesame leaf, put some seasoned ? Chives on, then 1 piece of pork belly, then 1 grilled garlic clove dipped in red sauce, then grilled bean sprout, then kimchi if you want, and finally, the cold half-round white radish-like vegetable. Then you wrap it up and eat in 1-2 bites. The garlic was not at all spicy, and was amazingly mild, even when only partially grilled. Once fully grilled, it was sweet, like baked garlic cloves!

This was an incredible experience and when we got there, only 1 other person was there. When we left, the place was packed and more people were coming in. The never rushed us, and smiled at us the entire time. He even took a picture of us and showed us another picture of one of the Olympians in Curling. Definitely GO if you get a chance. It's in a great part of town, with many shops (local and foreign), lots of people walking, and if you have a good taxi driver, it shouldn't be more than 6-7000 won from Gangneung Olympic Ice Arena. Our guy called his stationmaster first, couldn't find it (all while driving around), and finally I showed him the phone number, he called it, and was then able to find it. Oh well. I would still say, GO - for a first-timer to Korea, this was completely authentic and not touristy at all. Oh, and did I mention it was only 9000 won per portion?!? That was on par with the pork katsu meal I had yesterday. Seriously, this is not...

According to a blog one of the best Korean style bbq joints in Gangneung. It’s easy to understand why. Not all that easy to find (Google Maps is maybe a bit off) but totally worth the search. You will smell like a greasy chimney afterwards but the food is so good that who cares? Samgyeopasal, beer, soju, friends and delightful owners (afterwards they ran in circles around the block to get us a taxi), what else could...

Very nice pork belly and skin! Quick service. I updated the location on Google, so if it gets accepted, the location should be now fixed (it’s on the street one...