Cheongdam Jokbal

Even though pig’s feet are not particularly popular throughout most of the United States, they’ve long been used in soul food dishes throughout the South, and can sometimes be found in Chinese and Korean restaurants: Locally, Tustin’s Sichuan Impression offers a plate of spicy pork trotters for $22, and Irvine’s Yoo’s Place offers a small plate of jokbal pork hocks with a side dish of noodles for $31. But in some cities – previously in LA County, now in Orange County as well – there are also restaurants that specialize in elevating Korean-style pig trotters to a much more elaborate level, selling two- or three-person portions for $50 to $70.

The odd part of Irvine’s Cheongdam Jokbal isn’t that it’s fixated almost entirely on pig trotters, or that almost all of the items on its very abbreviated menu start at $50. What’s unusual is that it’s charging these prices in a very small Zion Market food court setting without typical restaurant trappings such as table service, individual plates, or reusable silverware. Cheongdam Jokbal’s space consists of an open kitchen and a big counter. Whether dining in or taking out, customers are handed the same brown paper bag filled with multiple plastic containers to manage, plus a single napkin, set of chopsticks, and spoon per person. Nothing looks quite as nice as the restaurant’s official photos. There are no lunch specials. If you want something more affordable, go to the Korean fried chicken or street food places to the left or right instead.

This message is clear: you’re coming here for jokbal, and you’re going to pay for it. Choose from a chilled version with jellyfish ($53) or hot versions with garlic ($53), regular five-spice ($50/regular, $70/large), or spicy five-spice ($53). Herbal braised pork belly is another option – it’s $54. The final and least expensive option is “jumbo buckwheat noodles,” which combine a basic version of Korean bibim naengmyun with similarly basic salad ingredients and a hard-boiled egg for $25. That’s around 40% more than a typical bowl of naengmyun, albeit a portion for one with thinner noodles, beef, and sliced pears rather than a two-person shareable salad.

Lured in by a beautiful menu photograph, we ordered the spicy five-spice trotters, expecting a photogenic metal bowl filled with plenty of sliced pig feet and colorful chilis. What we got instead was a set of 10 disposable containers, three half-filled with dipping sauces, one with garlic cloves and jalapeno peppers, two with basic kimchi, two with rice, and one each with ssam-ready lettuce leaves and jokbal. To the restaurant’s credit, the jokbal portion was certainly enough for two people, and nowhere near as bony as one might expect given the cut of meat: While there was no shortage of fat and cartilage in the white plastic box, the meat to fat/cartilage/bone ratio was around 3:1.