Mapo restaurant for solo yakiniku at counter seats: Gyudo

I’m back with another solo-dining diary today~~ I visited Premium Gyukatsu Gyudo Mapo Gongdeok Main Branch, a great Mapo Station spot where you can have yakiniku (Japanese grilled meat) at a counter seat with all the Japanese vibes.

The Gyudo I visited is apparently Korea’s only premium gyukatsu specialist. They say it operates only directly managed branches rather than franchises, to maintain exclusivity and offer the best quality 🫢 Just hearing that already had my expectations climbing and climbing.

Gyudo near Mapo Station: location and solo seats

Known for its premium gyukatsu, I came over to Mapo and stepped into Gyudo for a solo meal.

The moment I walked in, it was giving such Japanese vibes 😳 There were two-person tables, four-person tables, and counter seats, and I was shown to a counter seat for my solo meal haha. It was perfect for dining alone, and the atmosphere was so nice too 🥰

You order by scanning a QR code, and they also had a receipt-review event for shrimp tempura!!

Out of all these varied dishes, I originally came in planning to have gyukatsu~~ but I ordered the smoked yakiniku set 🐮🤍

Counter-seat personal drawer and cutlery pouch

Under the counter seat was a personal drawer 🫢🫢 Inside were a cutlery pouch and a tea bag of furikake topping 🫢 I’ve honestly never seen a place this tidy beforeee 😳

The cutlery pouch was a custom-made pouch, and when I opened it, there was a spoon and rice paddle inside like this ☺️ This kind of tidy restaurant is totally my thing,, ❤️

There was also a coat storage compartment beside me, so it seemed great for eating neatly and heading out ☺️🤤

A full smoked yakiniku set

And!! My smoked yakiniku set came out 🤤 They said it is prepared using a wood-smoking method with an offset smoker ☺️

This was the yakiniku I ordered, and the portion was super generous. Maybe because it’s premium, but the quality looked so good too 😳 There must be a reason it’s known as a great Mapo Station restaurant~~ (I even came around 5 p.m., and a queue kept forming behind me 🫢)

The server briefly explained how to eat it and lit the grill for me like this. It looked so delicious that I wanted to grill it and eat right away 👉👈

Oh!! And everyone, there were side dishes and sauces that came with it. I heard the sauces here, the seasoned shredded radish, and the myeongi (Korean wild garlic) wasabi beside the yakiniku are all 100% house-made 😳 (They were so good that I refilled the shredded radish twice 👉👈)

Adding tonkotsu broth to pot rice

Usually when you go to a gyukatsu restaurant, you get regular rice, but here it came as pot rice 🤤 It’s a dish combining Korean sungnyung (scorched-rice tea) and Japanese ochazuke, and you could bring different broths from the self-serve bar!!

• Roasted barley tea
• Tonkotsu broth
• Katsuobushi broth

I chose the tonkotsu broth!! The description said it tasted like dwaeji-gukbap (pork soup with rice), so as someone who loves gukbap, I went for the tonkotsu broth 👉👈

Another plus is that rice refills are available, so you can eat to your heart’s content 🤤

I scooped out some rice, added the tonkotsu broth, and then it was finally time to grill and enjoy the yakiniku~~ I was so hungry and wanted to grill it fast 👉👈

Each seat had its own grill, and I heard these were custom-made bangjja yugi (Korean brassware) grills too 😳 Anyway!! I grilled away,

and took my first bite like this. I’d say it was the best yakiniku I’ve had at a gyukatsu place 🥺🤤🤤 It was soooo delicious,,, 🐮🫶🏻

After one bite it was so good that I put three pieces on the grill at onceee. The atmosphere was perfect for solo dining near Mapo Station, and looking at the two-person tables beside me, it seemed popular for dates and blind dates too 🤭

I also tried it with the various house-made sauces, and my number-one pick was the wasabi 💚💚

And everyone, an onsen tamago (soft-cooked egg) comes with it too, so you can dip the yakiniku in it or mix it into the rice—enjoy it however you like 🐣🐣

When I was nearly done with the yakiniku, I took the furikake topping from my personal drawer and added it in advance like this~~~ Then I totally powered through more yakiniku 👉👈 Someone two seats away was having gyukatsu alone, and it looked so delicious that I made a mental note to order gyukatsu next time too 🤭

It looked like such a big portion, but before I knew it, I had eaten all the yakiniku 😳

Maybe because I added the tonkotsu broth, each spoonful had such a strong dwaeji-gukbap flavor that I scraped the bottom clean again 😳 Everyone, this is such a special treat, so I recommend leaving a little extra rice before pouring in the broth!!

And there was even a phone stand like this, making it perfect for watching videos while dining alone 🥰 Next time, I’m planning to try the gyukatsu~~