Solo lunch gyukatsu with salad refills near Balsan Station: Ichigyu

🥩 I was craving gyukatsu (breaded beef cutlet) so badly that I went for a solo lunch at Ichigyu Balsan Station Branch, a gyukatsu spot known near Balsan Station!

Ichigyu Balsan Station Branch: location, hours and parking

[Ichigyu Balsan Station Branch] 📍 Location: 2F, 211-ho, 269-15 Gonghang-daero, Gangseo-gu, Seoul, South Korea 📍 Hours: Daily 11:30–21:30 Break time 15:00–17:00 Last order 14:30 / 21:00 📍 Parking: Available in the building

🅿️ I parked in the basement of the Hillstate Eco Magok building and walked over — it's really close on foot from Balsan Station Exit 1 🌿

A sirloin gyukatsu specialist that works for solo diners and dates

🚪 Ichigyu Balsan Branch is on the 2nd floor of the building and mainly serves Japanese-style gyukatsu along with a range of other Japanese dishes!

🥩 The gyukatsu is made with sirloin and you grill it yourself to your liking, which makes it a hearty meal whether you're on a date, out with friends, or eating solo 👍🏻

Inside Ichigyu: a personal grill at every table

🧸 It has that warm, clean feel typical of Japanese restaurants! The soft lighting adds a cozy, relaxed atmosphere ✨

🥢 Every table has its own personal grill, so you can adjust the doneness to your taste and eat it warm 🥹💕

Menu, drinks and how you're meant to eat it

📋 Looking at the menu, there were so many options, including good-value set menus ღ

🖼️ I checked out the wall and saw a nice range of drinks too — highballs, beer, even Suntory whisky — perfect for grilling delicious meat with a drink 🍻 (aah, just imagining it is amazing haha)

✔️ There's a helpful guide on how to eat it, so check that out too ✔️

Gyukatsu double (jumbo), 32,000 won — twice the beef

♥️ What I ordered was the gyukatsu double (jumbo) (₩32,000)!! It had twice the meat of the regular portion. Look at that crispy-outside, juicy-inside marbling... 🥹 It's the kind of visual where your chopsticks go in before you even take a photo 〰️✨

How to grill the beef rare with Isigny butter

🍚 First you carefully scoop out however much rice you want! Then you rub butter onto the hot plate heated with premium French Isigny butter haha. The gyukatsu comes out medium-rare, so you just grill it further to your own taste 〰️

🥩 I love it rare, so I pulled mine off in under 10 seconds hahahahaha (they say 7-8 seconds is the tastiest..🖤) There are three sauces — wasabi, chili sauce, and salt — so you can enjoy different flavors! I dipped it in Ichigyu's special sauce first, and since I'm a wasabi person, I piled it on generously ღ

How did it taste? Crisp outside, tender inside, no gamey smell

No gamey smell at all — the outside was fried nice and crispy while the inside stayed moist and tender, melting the moment it hit my mouth. Aah, it was seriously delicious hahahahaha 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Grilling it little by little on the tabletop grill let me cook it exactly to my taste, which I really liked 🤎

Come try the melt-in-your-mouth gyukatsu at Ichigyu Balsan Station Branch — great for solo dining or a date 🌼