Haeundae katsu and soba restaurant near Jwadong Market: Yuyu Katsu

I strutted up to her with hip-hop swagger and asked, "Do you like tonkatsu?" and that's how we went to slice tonkatsu together — the story of how I met my husband.

Today we came for my husband's soul food, tonkatsu. He's the kind of man who could eat only jeyuk kimchi jjigae and tonkatsu for a whole year 🤤

Yuyu Katsu Busan Haeundae Branch: opening hours and where to park

Yuyu Katsu Busan Haeundae Branch is a tonkatsu and soba place on the 2nd floor of a building near Jwadong Traditional Market. Hours are 11:00-21:00, break time is 15:30-16:30, and last order is 20:00.

For parking, use the 3-story public parking lot at Jwadong Traditional Market! The outdoor 1st-floor lot that looks like a parking area is not — it's private property, so no parking there.

Park where the circle is marked, then follow the arrows on the right photo and you'll reach Yuyu Katsu on the 2nd floor.

Inside Yuyu Katsu and the wooden baby chair

Inside, Yuyu Katsu is spacious and very clean. It's an open kitchen so you can see everything being cooked — it was fascinating and raised my trust in the place.

There are quite a few people dining solo too, and I appreciated the thoughtful touch of mini fans set up so no one gets too hot 👍🏻

They have a wooden baby chair here! And it's height-adjustable.

Ordering the 2-person katsu-soba set

We ordered the 2-person katsu-soba set you can enjoy in the restaurant — hirekatsu and rosukatsu with two plates of zaru soba 🤤 I really love soba dipped in tsuyu.

Now my husband is the one who scouts out what to photograph at restaurants. Every table has sesame seeds, tonkatsu sauce, and yuzu dressing! Honestly, I'm a sauce pig, so having it all laid out already without having to ask for refills is amazing.

This is legit good — honestly, I'd buy it if they sold it separately. It's refreshing but addictive. Not too spicy either, and I think it'd go great with beef too (now that I know the ingredients, someone tell me the ratio please).

The starter soup with truffle oil

They gave us truffle oil to drizzle over the pre-meal soup to taste.

It felt like the soup's flavor really came alive, so I was already excited before the tonkatsu even arrived~ We spooned some over the soup and saved a little to eat with the tonkatsu 👌🏻

Hirekatsu and rosukatsu, cross-aged for 240 hours

They said the tonkatsu is made from top-quality pork cross-aged for 240 hours. Doesn't the pale pink color just look delicious?

My friend who came with us said if you join the review event you get 1 drink + 2 pieces of menchi katsu, so make sure to join ☺️ The menchi katsu has cheese in it so it'll be even tastier.

They generously drizzled the salad dressing too — ready to eat.

They ground sesame seeds into the prepared tonkatsu sauce. There's a nice variety to eat with — danmuji (pickled radish), pickles, pickled chili, and mustard leaf pickles 👍🏻 The mustard leaf pickles were so good? And that lemon kosho I showed earlier is really the kicker ☺️ Eating it together cut through the richness of the tonkatsu completely — I kept reaching for more.

The tonkatsu's breading was incredibly crispy — felt like it was fried with breadcrumbs. I was surprised how good the fried coating itself was.

Grinding a bit of sesame into the tonkatsu sauce to dip is delicious too.

It's even tastier piled high with lemon kosho.

Topping the lemon kosho with mustard leaf pickles is the finishing touch. Seriously crispy, savory, and the juiciness is no joke.

We also kept snacking on the salad that came with it to cleanse the palate in between bites.

Zaru soba dipped in tsuyu

How good can buckwheat soba with tsuyu be, you ask~~ The noodles are chewy fresh buckwheat noodles, and the tsuyu is simmered from 13 ingredients including bonito flakes, cheongju (rice wine), and dashida, then aged at low temperature — the flavor is on another level. The umami was incredible, I kept eating more and more 🤤 I'd honestly come back just for this alone in the summer.

It really was a delicious meal. We saw plenty of moms and dads there too, so if you're near Jwadong Traditional Market or visiting Haeundae, I recommend stopping by. Today too, my husband, the baby, and I ate well.