If you ask around for one grill house in Jeju City, this name keeps coming up.
The funny part is that people don’t rave about the pork. They rave about the anchovy stew that comes with it.
Solji Sikdang (솔지식당) sits in a quiet Nohyeong-dong alley on Wollang-ro, about a 7 to 10 minute drive from Jeju Airport, behind a faded red sign it has worn for years.
The short version
The pork is fine. The mel-jorim (멜조림) is what makes the place.
It’s an ordinary neighborhood grill using Jeju white pork, but that one pot of stew changes everything about the meal.
A lot of people show up thinking it’s a black-pork (heukdwaeji) spot. It isn’t. Solji uses white pork, and its whole identity is “pork you dip into anchovy stew” rather than the smoky heaviness that the famous black-pork houses lean on.
The basics
- Address: 88 Wollang-ro, Jeju-si (main branch)
- Hours: Mon-Fri 12:00-21:40, Sat-Sun 17:00-21:40
- Last order: 20:30
- No break time, open every day
- Parking: large free private lot behind the building
- Instagram: soljisikdang1
On weekdays it opens at noon, so lunch works. On weekends it doesn’t open until 5 p.m., so plan around that.
Being this close to the airport, it’s an easy first or last meal on a Jeju trip.
There are two Solji branches, a main one and a City Hall (Sicheong) branch. This is about the main Wollang-ro location.
📍 View Solji Sikdang (솔지식당) on Google Maps →
The real star is the anchovy stew
“Mel” means anchovy in the Jeju dialect, so mel-jorim is a braised anchovy stew.
In most Jeju grill houses the anchovy sauce arrives in a tiny dish. Here it comes bubbling in an earthenware pot, generous and hot.
Whole large anchovies from Chuja Island are simmered down until the stew is dark, salty, and deep. The sourcing is specific enough that a well-known grill house on the mainland reportedly brings in the very same Chuja anchovies to copy it.
If “fermented anchovy” makes you nervous, this version is far gentler. It’s cooked down so long that the fishy edge mostly disappears, leaving something closer to a savory soybean-y depth. People who normally skip anchovy sauce often eat this one happily.
There’s a way to do it. Grill the free tofu, drop it into the stew with a little garlic and green chili, then spoon the stew over rice. Some add bean sprouts. Honestly, the stew over plain rice alone could finish a bowl on its own.
One pot of mel-jorim comes free with any pork order. If you want more, it’s 8,000 won extra.
On the pork, gabri-sal is the one to get
The menu is short on purpose: gabri-sal (가브리살, a tender collar/secret cut), ogyeop-sal (오겹살, five-layer pork belly), and moksal (목살, pork neck), all served with the stew.
- Gabri-sal 200g: 21,000 won (only one extra portion allowed per table)
- Ogyeop-sal 200g: 19,000 won
- Moksal 200g: 19,000 won
- Sets 400g: 38,000-40,000 won
- Combo platters: 400g 38,000 / 600g 57,000 / 800g 76,000 won
- Extra mel-jorim 8,000 won, soft-tofu or kimchi stew 8,000 won each, rice extra
Gabri-sal is the favorite. It’s chewy in a good way and clings to the stew nicely. The catch is that the main branch limits it to one extra portion per table because it sells out fast, and before the evening it sometimes isn’t stocked yet. If gabri-sal is your goal, the City Hall branch allows unlimited refills, so that may suit you better.
The pork belly is more divisive. Some find it tender and great, others mention extra fat or a porky smell on an off day. Go in treating the pork as a vehicle for the stew, not as a premium cut, and you’ll likely be happier.
Order a bowl of rice and you also get seaweed soup. It’s plain but clean and lightly salty, and families with kids tend to appreciate it.
Atmosphere and service
Inside it feels like an old countryside diner, not a polished restaurant. About ten tables, but the room is roomy and turns over quickly.
Side dishes are simple: tofu, bean sprouts, seasoned radish, kimchi, dried radish, chili, garlic, and lettuce. The kimchi is on the sour, aged side, which some love and some don’t. Tofu refills are free.
Service reviews are genuinely mixed. Plenty of people call the staff quick and friendly; others have felt them curt. With a large staff, at least the ordering itself moves fast.
Parking, waiting, and the honest downsides
Parking is a real strength here. The free private lot behind the building is large, which matters a lot for anyone driving a rental.
Waiting depends on timing. Early weekday afternoons are calm and you can usually sit right away. After about 6 to 6:30 p.m. it fills up, and on weekends a few groups line up before the 5 p.m. opening. There’s no reservation app right now; you tell the staff your party size at the door, take a number, and wait to be called.
A few honest negatives:
One, ventilation is weak, so smoke builds up in the room while you grill.
Two, summer cooling is a common complaint. If you run hot, a midsummer evening here can be sweaty.
Three, some reviews flag cleanliness. The food can be good while the tidiness lags, so set expectations accordingly.
For visitors from abroad
A few practical notes. Almost every restaurant in Korea, including this one, takes credit cards, so an internationally accepted card should be fine. There is no tipping culture here, so you don’t need to tip; offering one may even confuse the staff. English isn’t really spoken, but ordering is simple, since the menu is short and you can point to what you want and hold up fingers for portions.
The food itself isn’t spicy, so heat won’t be an issue here, though the kimchi is quite sour. For getting around, Google Maps walking and transit directions are unreliable in Korea, so use Naver Map or KakaoMap instead. From the airport a taxi takes roughly 10 minutes; the KakaoT app makes hailing one easy. Cards work for the meal, but carrying a little cash never hurts on Jeju.
Bottom line
Solji isn’t really a “great pork” place. It’s a “great anchovy stew” place.
Expect remarkable beef-grade pork and you may shrug. Come for the ritual of dipping pork into that pot and finishing with stew over rice, and it clicks.
It isn’t cheap, but it isn’t tourist-trap pricing either, and the easy parking near the airport is the kind of thing that pulls people back.
If you’ve never liked fermented anchovy, this might be the place that changes your mind.