Dombedon: Black pork Korean BBQ restaurant in Jeju City

Jeju Island is known as South Korea’s Hawaii, boasting beaches, mountains and resorts while only being a 1.5 hour flight from Seoul. They are also known for a variety of different foods – black pig/pork being one of them!

Jeju actually has a breed of domestic pigs that have black skin and when I googled them they look really cute. Sadly, high on my foodie list for my trip to South Korea this year was to eat black pork Korean BBQ in Jeju-do 😬.

There is a whole street in Jeju City called Black Pork Street. This street is lined with tons of different pork and Korean BBQ restaurants. Situated right at the start of Black Pork Street is a popular restaurant called Dombedon.

While I was doing my research, I found the reviews for Dombedon to be quite conflicting. Half of the reviews say it is Michelin-recommended and amazing while the other half says it’s a tourist trap and not good at all.

We did end up eating at Dombedon because it was the only restaurant on the street that was actually busy (where was everybody? 😅) and we like to eat at places where there’s a lineup because we think it will be good. Here is our experience!

Recommended: Read more about my trip to Korea in my travel recap post – including my 3 day itinerary for Jeju Island.

---

The vibe

It is a big and spacious restaurant with a bit of an industrial style going on featuring cement floors and walls, wooden tables, and these black bucket chairs where you can store your belongings inside the stool part.

Tables were also spacious and comes with a huge circular grill in the middle. We were seated by the window and it was nice to see outside while we eat even – we could see people outside waiting to dine actually.

---

Food review

Here is everything we ordered at Dombedon. Prices are converted 1000:1 KRW to CAD and rounded to the nearest dollar for simplicity.

The menu at Dombedon is very limited and I saw many reviews actually complain about this because if you have a member of your party who doesn’t eat meat or if you just want a little bit, there are not a lot of options for that. Essentially everyone at your table must be ready to eat some meat.

The menu only has 3 things on it and they are basically the same thing but portioned for 1-2 people, 3 people, or 4 people. The rest are additional sides that you can add on.

We order the special basic set for 1-2 people for $56. It comes with:

• Black pork mix (360g)
• Boiled pork (90g)
• Steamed egg
• Soybean paste stew

Side dishes + salad

After we order, the server immediately brings a bunch of stuff to our table. The first thing they bring are some side dishes – kimchi, garlic, seaweed, pickled radish, and some sauces like ssamjang (Korean spicy dipping sauce).

They also bring a medium bowl of beansprout salad and a tray of lettuce for you to make wraps later.

Steamed egg + Soybean paste stew

Next comes 2 steaming bowls of soybean paste stew and steamed eggs. They are both on the smaller side but a good size to share between 2 people.

I didn’t find either of them amazing, but it is nice to have a standard soup and side dish that comes with the set.

Black pork mix

We followed the steps provided in English on what to eat first. Step 1 was to put the black pork onto the big grill/stone tablet (actually, our server did this for us). He placed the raw meat on the stone circle, as well as the kimchi, mushroom, seasoned bean sprouts and a small tin can of sauce.

The server was very fast and it was obvious he has done this a million times. I was excited to see him place the kimchi and bean sprouts on because then we would have a nice grilled kimchi to eat it with and it will soak up the meat juices that will drip down (the stone tablet is slightly slanted one side down for the oil to drip into the container).

Boiled pork

While it is cooking, we follow step 2, which is to eat a slice of the boiled pork they also provide. It is unknown to me whether this is black pork (I am assuming it is not because it does not say it is black pork), but I still like it because I am a big fan of bossam and this is kind of like it.

Black pig cooked

It is busy inside the restaurant, but our server does come back multiple times to check on our black pork and to cook it for us. He would flip it and also cut it up for us into bite-sized chunks (I love that they do that for you in Korea).

My first few bites of the black pork were delicious! It was juicy and cooked well and I loved eating it with the grilled kimchi in a lettuce wrap.

The main difference we discussed between this black pig and regular pork belly bbq is that we find the black pork tastes a bit “meatier” if that makes any sense. There were certain pieces that resembled more of a beefy flavour instead of pork.

Cold noodles ($5)

On the instructions, it says to add rice at the end and mix it up with all the fatty oil and sauce but we were too full to do this. Instead, we order a cold noodle to end our meal.

I personally think the rice would have been a better option if we were not so stuffed because the cold noodles tasted a little off. As Kelvin would say, “It wasn’t the best”. The portion was also kind of small compared to other places that serve cold noodles.

---

Final thoughts

Loewe’s rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

In total, our meal came to about $70 for 2 people. This to me is an amazing price because you can’t get Korean BBQ in Vancouver or the burbs for $35 pp. We also got a bottle of rice wine alcohol too!

Now I know there are a lot of reviews on Dombedon being overpriced and a tourist scam, but honestly at $70 for 2 people I think it was great.

I actually didn’t mind that the menu was so limited and I liked how easy it was for us to order for 2 people. The portion was exactly right and we were full and happy.

The black pork was delicious and I liked that it also came with the boiled pork as a little appetizer. The service was really good since they did come and cook the meat for us as well as cut up the meat. The meat wasn’t overcooked or anything like that.

So overall, I would recommend Dombedon to anyone who is in Jeju City/Black Pork Street – especially if you are not Korean/do not speak Korean. My only warning is that there are false articles/statements about Dombedon being Michelin recommended but they are not listed on any of their awards or recipient lists so this is false.

Sincerely, Loewe