If you are looking for one of the most famous BBQ restaurants in Seoul, Geumdwaeji Sikdang near Yaksu Station is probably already on your list.
This place is also famous for celebrity visits. Many K-pop idols and Korean actors have eaten here, including BTS (Jimin, J-Hope, Jungkook), G-Dragon, EXO, NCT, Aespa, BLACKPINK, SEVENTEEN, Kim Soo-hyun, Jung Hae-in, and Park Seo-joon and even Kanye West visited during his trip to Korea.
Because of these celebrity visits, Geumdwaeji Sikdang has become a must-visit Korean BBQ restaurant for K-pop fans traveling to Seoul.This Michelin-recognized restaurant is often called one of the top three Korean BBQ spots in Seoul, and it is well known for its long waiting time. I visited on a weekday and tried the walk-in waiting, so here is my detailed review and tips.
Geumdwaeji Sikdang is located about a 3–5 minute walk from Yaksu Station Exit 2. I had wanted to visit for years, and during my recent vacation, I finally decided to try the weekday waiting in person.
I arrived at the restaurant at 4:50 PM on a Tuesday. The restaurant wasn’t completely full yet, but there were already many people waiting outside.
When I registered, there were 27 teams ahead of me, and I received waiting number 104. My friend was supposed to finish work at 6 PM, and based on many reviews I had read, registering after work would probably mean entering around 9 PM, so I decided to wait earlier.
You don’t need to stand in line in front of the restaurant for hours. Instead, download the Catch Table app, register your name on the waiting list, and you can spend the waiting time at a cafe or exploring the area. When your number is pop up, just return to the restaurant.
We finally entered the restaurant at 7:20 PM, which means the total waiting time was about 2 hours and 30 minutes. Around 5 PM, the waiting line seemed to move faster than expected, but after 6 PM, the line slowed down significantly.
If you want to enter around dinner time, I recommend arriving around 4 PM to put your name on the waiting list first.
The restaurant has two floors, and I noticed there were actually many foreign visitors inside. The place is known for being visited by many Korean celebrities, which also made it popular among international fans.
The basic side dishes are served first. There is no self-service bar, but the staff regularly walks around and refills items like green onions. Most ingredients are locally sourced except for the salt from UK.
On the grill, they place pork fat to grease the pan and meljeot (anchovy sauce), which is commonly used as a dipping sauce for pork in Korea.
If you order the kimchi stew, it is served on a portable gas burner and is already cooked, so you can eat it right away.
The basic wrap vegetables include lettuce and perilla leaves, and you can also order basil wraps.
The basil leaves were surprisingly large, almost the size of lettuce, and the fresh basil aroma paired very well with the grilled pork.
We first ordered the bone-in pork belly, which must be ordered for at least two portions. It came with mushrooms wrapped in foil, garlic, and green onions.
The staff grills the meat for you, so you can just sit and enjoy the meal. After such a long wait, it was tempting to order everything on the menu, but realistically that is not possible.
Trying the grilled pork with basil wrap was one of the most interesting combinations even for someone like me who was born in Korea, and it worked really well.
The staff also gave us some spring cabbage as a service, which was also great with the meat. This spring, spring cabbage became quite a popular food trend in Korea.
The king oyster mushroom was grilled whole, and it was very juicy.
Next, we ordered pork neck and snowflake pork neck. The snowflake cut was thicker like a steak, while the regular pork neck was sliced thinner.
The snowflake pork neck was the best when eaten right after grilling because it was very juicy, while the thinner pork neck was still delicious even when cooked longer. Personally, the snowflake pork neck was my favorite menu of the day.
During this vacation, instead of traveling far, I decided to visit famous restaurants in Korea that are known for extremely long waiting times. Geumdwaeji Sikdang was definitely one of the challenging ones, but it was still worth trying at least once.
In the end, I felt like there is no such thing as an impossible restaurant — as long as you have enough time, budget, and energy, you can eventually get in.