Hello readers! I remembered my friend once told me take Korea is not a loner friendly place, especially at KBBQ places. Her sister was alone when she stepped into a KBBQ shop and she had to order a 2 people portion before the owner allowed her to eat alone.
But recently, there is a hype about "hon-bap" (which actually comes from "honja" meaning alone and "bap" meaning meal, shortened to hon-bap) which I am eager to try because I rarely have a chance to eat alone in Singapore.
After my summer school has ended, most of my friends went back to Singapore (T_T yes you, Sheron) and I had a lot of alone time. Hence, I decided to try this solo BBQ at Bucheon called 독고진 돌판구이&철판볶음 Dokgojin Restaurant.
It is located at Line 7 Bucheon City Hall (부천시청역, reads Bu Cheon Shi Chang Yeok, the word 역 "Yeok" means station). Take Exit 1, then walk straight pass the Bucheon City Hall Building then cross 2 roads. Next, turn right and walk straight, cross 2 roads and then you should see something like a park at your northeast direction, turn left and walk 2 stores down. You will see the BBQ shop with orange signboard. . (In doubt, just refer to the map below)
Taken from NAVER maps.
The road I took is drawn in red here.
Below the photo of the left is the stretch of road opposite the City Hall and on the right is the City Hall.
This is how the shop looks like from the side.
If you don't know Korean, the above sign roughly translates to
<Opening hours>
Open - Afternoon 5pm
Close - 12 midnight
Closed every Monday
So do take note they are only open from 5pm to 12 midnight! I actually planned to have the BBQ for lunch because some of the reviews I read online said that they are opened from 12 to 3 and then 5 to midnight BUT IT'S NOT TRUE! I was alone and hungry when I reached there at 1pm, but luckily, there was a convenience store at Bucheon City Hall Station so I settled my lunch there.
I went back to the BBQ store around 5.30pm and it was almost empty. There was just one other man sitting inside. The restaurant was very quiet and all I could hear was the sizzling of the meat coming from the man's table. The tables were arranged in cubicle style, on the left for the solo diners and on the right are for 2 people.
This is the menu. The downside of this place is that there is no English menu or English Speaking Staff, but I think it didn't really matter because there is minimal human interaction. My Korean is pretty limited as I taught myself so here is my attempt at translating the menu:
One Man portion
Fresh samgyeopsal (pork belly) 150g - 11,000 won
Frozen samgyeopsal (pork belly)150g - 7,000 won
Fresh meat 150g - 11,000 won
Frozen meat 150g - 7,000 won
woo sam gyeop - 8,000 won (okay I'm sorry for this one cuz I really don't know)
Half Man portion
Fresh samgyeopsal (pork belly) 80g - 6,000 won
Frozen samgyeopsal (pork belly)80g - 4,000 won
Fresh meat 80g - 6,000 won
Frozen meat 80g - 4,000 won
woo sam gyeop - 4,500 won (okay I'm sorry for this one cuz I really don't know)
For the rest of the words I am not sure what they are, but I know there is octopus.
When I ordered, I pointed to the half man portion but the staff told me that I got to order the one man portion. It dawned on me that half man portion only applies as a top up if you want more meat.
I ordered the 11,000 won fresh samgyeopsal which is what some of the Korean bloggers suggested. Once the food arrived, the staff set an alarm on my table and told me that once the alarm rings, I can put the meat on the pan. I replied "huh okay", she probably thinks that I don't understand; Once the alarm rang, she came to check on me to ensure that I placed the meat on the pan. She was very polite!
There is also charging cables for mobile phones, by default it is a Samsung charger. There is also a sign that says for iPhone user, please approach staff for adapter. (Which I did!)
There is also a mini television which you can change the channel using the remote control. I didn't bother watching because I didn't understand 90% of the show.
Honestly, the meat and side dish (like any other KBBQ shop) tasted alright, so if you were to stay in Seoul, I probably wouldn't recommend you to take all that transport to come to Bucheon just to eat this. But if you want to try solo culture, I think this is a good place to spend some alone-time as part of a Bucheon Tour.
One last thing is that in Korea, restaurants provide FREE plain water and FREE tissue! (unlike Singapore)
