Gwanak Japanese restaurant lunch: bukkake udon at Kosi

Kosi, close to Seoul National University Entrance Station

My boyfriend was getting his hair done near Seoul National University Entrance Station, so our date route naturally ended up in that area too!! That’s how we found this great lunch spot. It seemed like a good-value place for eating alone too, so I think it would be great for office workers near the station.

Kosi is open daily from 11:00 to 20:50, with a break from 15:00 to 17:00. Parking is not available.

Kosi is about a three-minute walk from Exit 5 of Seoul National University Entrance Station? It’s really close.

There was a menu board outside, which was nice for looking over the options and deciding while waiting~

Kosi is a Japanese restaurant specializing in udon and donkatsu (Japanese pork cutlet)! I had heard that its cold udon was especially good, so I went in excited. We visited at an in-between time on a weekday afternoon and got in without waiting.

While we were there, lots of customers who seemed to be nearby office workers came not only alone but with teammates too? It definitely had that beloved-lunch-spot vibe,,

Maybe that’s why there were so many different table setups! There were two- and four-person tables, plus two bar tables that looked perfect for solo diners.

We settled into a table for two!

You order on a tablet! You can pay right on the tablet too, which was convenient.

Ordering the half-and-half cutlet and bukkake udon

These are Kosi’s menu items! I was so busy paying that I couldn’t photograph the tablet, haha, so I brought these instead. We ordered the fresh loin half-and-half cutlet and Sanuki-style bukkake udon!

The half-and-half cutlet comes with loin cutlet and cheese donkatsu in equal portions, and you can add hot udon for ₩3,500! We wanted hot udon, cold udon, and pork cutlet all at once, so we added hot udon to the half-and-half cutlet and also ordered bukkake udon! For prices these days, it felt like a really good-value spot!

Not long after we ordered, all our food came out.

Half cheese donkatsu and half loin cutlet

First, my boyfriend’s half-and-half cutlet! It came with two pretty large pieces of cheese donkatsu and six pieces of loin cutlet!

It had just come out, so the cheese stretched forever!! It was nutty and so delicious, haha.

The loin cutlet was really tender too! Dipped in the sauce they served alongside it, everything worked so well together—the crispy coating and tender loin made for pork cutlet perfection!!

The hot udon was a small size, but still quite filling, so I recommend adding it for men with bigger appetites!!

Sanuki bukkake udon with broth poured in at the table

The bukkake udon I was most excited for! They make the noodles themselves in the Sanuki style, which made me look forward to it even more!

The basic side dishes and extra ingredients to add to the Sanuki udon were served separately.

There was also a small cabbage salad, and the cute little inari sushi (seasoned tofu-pocket sushi) was a bonus? Haha.

The cold broth came separately so I could pour it in myself, along with four pieces of karaage (Japanese fried chicken). Bukkake udon really has its own appeal when you pour in the broth, right? I poured it in properly~~

Once all the broth is in, it looks like this! The aroma of the broth was seriously rich.

In go all the extra ingredients too!!

I quickly removed the karaage because I was worried it would get soggy, haha. But it was even tastier when eaten together with the udon, haha.

As for the taste, I could definitely see why they take pride in their house-made noodles! Even though the noodles were thick, they were incredibly chewy!! Because they were thick and springy, they paired best with the cold broth and stayed chewy right to the end. The broth had a rich aroma from the start, and it was salty-sweet in a way that went beautifully with the chewy noodles.

The karaage was seasoned too, so it was pleasantly salty even on its own. Eaten with the udon, it added another texture and tasted even better!

A lunch that suits both solo meals and dates

Kosi, a Japanese restaurant specializing in udon and pork cutlet, is very close to Seoul National University Entrance Station, so it is easy to get to and feels suitable for any kind of meal—from dates to eating alone—without sacrificing value! I especially recommend the bukkake udon with house-made noodles for anyone who loves chewy noodles! Seeing so many nearby office workers there made it seem like a real lunch favorite, so I recommend it to workers and students too!!