Restaurant Review: Samgyup Chunha

     Samgyup Chunha is a type of discount grilled meat restaurant chain. There are a couple of different franchises that have similar styles ,but we went here because it was near our house and quite tasty. The restaurant's claim to fame is cheap (1,900 won) servings of thin sliced samgyeopsal (pork belly), but what you really want to order is the beef.
(한국어 버전)

     Beef in Korea is usually pretty expensive, mainly because most places serve the local "Hanwoo" beef. Hanwoo beef is definitely very tasty but a single serving of Galbisal (갈비살) at some places can cost up to 15,000 won, yikes. The galbisal at Samgyup Chunha is American and costs 5,500 won. Needless to say that I'm quite happy to eat American beef at that price. I should also note that there's an automatic 1,000 won "setting" charge which covers all the banchon (side dishes) that your table wants from the self serve station.

     Take the plate that they give you up to hold any lettuce you want for wrapping your meat up in. They have additional dishes at the station to hold whatever else your table may want. Don't forget the dressing for your dish of "salad" (cut up green onions and lettuce) and get the salt without oil for beef. Trust me, the sesame oil totally overpowers the beef, you just need a little salt to make it shine.

     Your table should look something like this when you finish. Check out the beef too. It's frozen and cut into perfect size, it's also very well marbled. All in all, pretty nice for the price. Oh and remember that the beef cooks extremely quickly so keep your grill set to low. It just takes about two minutes on one side and another minute on the other.

     These are my first gifs that I've ever made but I like how they came out. I was cooking on low the whole time the first pic is at the start before the grill had really warmed up, but the meat started cooking pretty quickly regardless. The last gif is after I got my mojo going and even put down some bean sprouts on the grill to place the beef that was done, so that it wouldn't overcook. Really, after you cook one side you only need to kiss the other side on the grill to finish. Once you've got your cooking mojo in place it's on the the mass consumption of soju.

     Wow, we had a good time, ate A LOT of beef and drank a moderate amount. Here's the final damage for a group of three.

     57,000 won. Just count the strokes next to the items. Every stroke means 1 order, so that's eight orders of beef that we had. If we were to have gone to a hanwoo beef place then then bill could easily have been close to 150,000. This place is a winner in my book.

Final Review: 4/5 Good meat at good prices.

Location: There are many Samqyup Chunha locations as well as several similar competitors across Daegu, but we went to the one in Yulha near the Emart Everyday. Here's a map.