There’s one black pork place on Jeju’s east coast I end up at almost every trip.
It’s called Jejugil Heukdwaeji Chamsut-gui (제주길흑돼지참숯구이), sitting right on the coastal road near Seongsan Ilchulbong.
I’ve actually known this spot for more than ten years, so I was surprised when it suddenly started blowing up in searches.
Turns out it was because of a TV show.
Yes, this is the black pork place from Youth Over Flowers
On tvN’s Youth Over Flowers: Limited Edition (꽃보다청춘), there’s an episode where Jung Yu-mi, Park Seo-jun and Choi Woo-shik spend their last night in Jeju hunting for a black pork restaurant.
Park Seo-jun kept struggling to recall the name, and the place they were looking for is this one.
The restaurant was already quietly famous because BTS V (Kim Tae-hyung) and Park Seo-jun had eaten here before.
So the cast basically went looking for “that black pork place Tae-hyung went to.”
Here’s the funny part.
When you actually walk in, there isn’t a single celebrity autograph or photo on the wall.
Most places would put up a huge framed picture if someone famous dropped by.
I asked the owner about it once, and she said a famous person is still just a customer like anyone else.
For some reason that line stuck with me.
The basics
- Name: Jejugil Heukdwaeji Chamsut-gui (제주길흑돼지참숯구이)
- Address: 629 Hwanhaejangseong-ro, Seongsan-eup, Seogwipo-si, Jeju
- Phone: 064-782-8898
- Hours: opens around 3 p.m., closes around 10 p.m. (per Naver Map)
- Price: 10,900 KRW per 100g by cut / doenjang stew 4,000 KRW
- Parking: large private lot
- Payment: cards accepted
A quick note on the hours, because the map apps don’t agree.
Naver Map says it opens at 3 p.m., while Kakao Map says noon.
It feels like they used to open during the day and now lean toward an afternoon opening.
If you don’t want a wasted trip, I’d just call ahead.
If you’re navigating in Korea, use Naver Map or KakaoMap rather than Google Maps, which is often unreliable for directions here.
📍 View Jejugil Heukdwaeji (제주길흑돼지참숯구이) on Google Maps →
Getting there and parking
It’s about 10 minutes by car from Seongsan Ilchulbong, and close to Seopjikoji and Gwangchigi Beach too.
It slots nicely into any east-Jeju day, whether for lunch or dinner.
If you’re traveling without a car, the easiest way is a taxi.
You can call one through the Kakao T app, which works much better here than waving one down, and a short ride from the Seongsan area shouldn’t cost much.
Most restaurants and attractions in Korea take international cards without trouble, though it’s smart to keep a little cash for the odd machine that rejects a foreign card.
Now the parking, since I want to be specific.
This is a standalone building, so there’s a generous private lot out front and on the property.
On a Jeju road trip, not stressing about parking is a bigger deal than it sounds.
Even nervous drivers can pull in easily.
On busy weekend evenings the lot can fill up, and when that happens people park briefly along the safe stretch of the coastal road right next to it.
The road out front isn’t chaotic like downtown Seongsan, so that’s a relief.
Once you sit down, you can see Jeju’s east-coast sea through the window.
On a clear day that view alone lifts the mood.
I’ve heard people gather out front in the mornings to photograph the sunrise too.
It’s a butcher-style restaurant, so ordering works differently
This isn’t a place where you say “two servings of pork belly, please.”
It runs like a butcher shop (정육식당, jeongyuk-sikdang): you pick a cut, and they weigh it at the day’s price, slap a price tag on it, and bring it out.
Everything is sold by 100g, and one serving is usually around 200g.
First-timers might find this a bit odd.
I did too, the very first time.
But once you’re used to it, it’s actually great, because you order exactly the cut and the amount you want.
They’ll serve a single portion, so it’s fine even if you’re dining solo.
The cuts are ogyeopsal (오겹살, pork belly), moksal (목살, pork neck), galmaegisal (갈매기살, pork skirt meat), hangjeongsal (항정살, pork jowl) and gabrisal (가브리살, pork collar).
I always get ogyeopsal and moksal, then usually add galmaegisal.
Ordering itself is easy even without much Korean.
The staff don’t really speak English, but you can just point at the menu and hold up fingers for how much you want.
And just so you know, tipping isn’t a thing in Korea, so there’s no need to leave one. It can actually confuse people.
The charcoal and the meat
They bring glowing red charcoal to your table, and honestly the color of it is beautiful.
The heat is strong, so the meat cooks fast.
The owner always talks about the pork with real pride, because it’s raised on their own farm.
Her husband raises the black pigs himself, she told me.
With that kind of heat, the outside crisps up while the inside stays juicy.
The ogyeopsal has that chewy bit of skin, but the meat itself is surprisingly clean and not greasy.
If you come during a quiet hour, the owner or a staff member may grill it for you.
They’ll tell you to flip it often and even coach you on technique.
During busy times you’ll grill it yourself, so if you’d rather have it done for you, skip the peak hours.
Moksal is my favorite.
It’s a thick cut, and if you let the residual heat ease it through, the inside turns soft and floods with juice.
A lot of people say galmaegisal tastes oddly like beef flat iron.
I get what they mean.
It’s chewy and tender at once, and it disappears fast.
Meljeot and the side dishes — read this part
The banchan (side dishes) aren’t fancy.
You get meljeot (멜젓, fermented anchovy sauce), kimchi, seasoned scallions, pickled onion, lettuce and perilla leaves, and some pickled vegetables.
But it’s all made in-house, so each one is genuinely good.
If you run low, you refill from the self-serve corner.
The one tip I really want to pass on is the meljeot.
Set the little dish of meljeot on the grill to bubble, then drop in some garlic and green chili.
Dunk a well-grilled piece of black pork into it, and that savory, salty hit cuts right through the richness of the pork.
This is how Jeju black pork is meant to be eaten.
If you end up liking the meljeot, you can buy a tub of it at Jeju markets and use it for grilling at home.
Lay the meat on a lettuce leaf, add a clove of garlic dipped in meljeot, wrap it up — pure happiness.
The stews and noodles, more like a finish
Once you’ve had your fill of meat, you order a rice dish.
There’s kimchi stew and doenjang (soybean paste) stew, both made with house soybean paste and house kimchi, so they taste like home cooking.
At first you might think it tastes a little plain, but once it has simmered and cooled slightly, you’ll be scraping the bottom of the pot with your rice.
Some people swear by the young radish kimchi (yeolmu).
Personally I lean toward the kimchi stew.
The cold mul-naengmyeon (물냉면, chilled buckwheat noodles) isn’t a big portion, so think of it as dessert.
It comes with a homemade sauce, dried radish strips and roughly cut cucumber, sweet-spicy and refreshing.
Honestly, a few downsides too
I shouldn’t only list the good things, so here’s the straight talk.
First, it isn’t cheap.
At 10,900 KRW per 100g and 200g per serving, two people can hit 40,000–50,000 KRW on meat alone pretty quickly.
When I first started coming, it was around 9,000 KRW per 100g, and it has crept past 10,000 over the past few years.
I get that prices rise, but the portions aren’t huge, so some people do feel it’s pricey for what you get.
That said, the meat quality is good enough that I make peace with the cost.
Second, the service is hit or miss.
The owner and the serving staff can come across as blunt.
With a strong Jeju dialect and a curt manner, first-timers might read it as unfriendly.
But after a few visits you realize it’s just the gruff-but-warm style of a country elder.
She always slips me a little extra, and I leave happy every time.
Still, this is the kind of thing different people will feel differently about.
Third, when I went one summer the dining room felt warm.
It’s a big hall and the cooling seemed a touch weak.
I’m not sure how it is now, but worth keeping in mind in midsummer.
Final thoughts and would I go back
There are countless black pork places in Jeju, but on the east side I keep coming back to this one.
It’s not about fancy banchan or warm service — it wins on the meat alone.
That charcoal-kissed black pork, dipped in meljeot, eaten with a sea view, is hard to find anywhere else.
With the Youth Over Flowers attention, expect some waiting for a while.
Avoid the peak hours (lunch noon–1, dinner 6–7) by arriving right at opening, or aim for the in-between 3–4 p.m. slot.
If one of your group goes ahead to put your name down, you’ll save time.
At the front desk and counter, simple English usually gets you through.
The price and the service do split opinions, that’s true.
But I’ll be back on my next east-Jeju trip all the same.
I hope it stays right where it is for a long time.