Choose your spice level—five options to pick from!

Text & Photos byLittle Dot Paine

This restaurant, which specializes in spicy pork ribs (galbi jjim), is extremely popular among Korean netizens. Check their Naver blog—it’s updated almost daily with new food reviews (click here for Naver reviews). The place is that famous. Lately, I’ve been craving spicy galbi jjim, so I looked up several places, and this one popped up right away. However, I personally find the prices a bit high, so it’s more cost-effective to go with two people (though I think one person could finish the portion alone).

The place is super busy even during off-peak hours.

Here, you can choose from five levels of spiciness for your spicy ribs. I went with level two because level one wouldn’t be spicy—and what’s the point of spicy ribs if they’re not spicy?

The price is 14,000 KRW per serving (this is for beef ribs), and the “minimum order is for two people,” so the lowest you can start at is 28,000 KRW. If you can eat a lot, you can just order two servings for yourself.

If you don’t speak Korean, the “second dish from the top” on the menu is the mildly spicy one. The first one is “not spicy.” The spiciness increases as you go down, and the hottest one comes with four chili peppers.

This is a portion for two (beef ribs & galbi jjim) (I honestly didn’t think it was a lot).

But I really have to say—in Korea, “ribs” are considered pretty expensive, whether it’s beef or pork. Any kind of galbi is pricey.

But it does look really delicious.

By the way, those triplets-sized ribs in Samcheong-dong cost 39,000 KRW per serving—that price is just... over the top.

Underneath the ribs, there’s also some cabbage and really tasty Korean glass noodles.

The side dishes include cabbage to cook in the broth, and carrots meant to be eaten raw.

Even the mildest spice level I ordered was still a bit hot—the smell of spice hit me while it was cooking!!!

This spicy pork rib stew is really good—the meat is legit pork ribs, and I especially love the meat that’s still attached to the bone, with all the connective tissue—it’s super flavorful. But some parts of the meat are really dense, so people with weaker teeth might struggle a bit.

The chewy Korean glass noodles soak up all the spicy sauce and taste amazing too.

Because it’s a bit spicy, I kept eating carrots to cool my mouth down (I honestly didn’t know what else to eat, haha), but the carrots with the yogurt dip were surprisingly good.

Dipping them in doenjang (fermented soybean paste) is the most traditional way to eat them—and it’s good too.

When I was in Korea, I loved eating raw carrots—they taste different from the ones in Taiwan. Korean carrots (though it varies by restaurant) are crisp, sweet, and juicy, almost like the ones you see in commercials—you can snap them in half with your hands, and juice squirts out (haha).

Restaurant Name
Address: 서울특별시 마포구 와우산로 152 33
Naver Map
Phone: 02-540-1515
Business Hours: 11:00–24:00
Coordinates: 37.517955, 127.022054

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