Mapo gyukatsu with butter hot-stone grill, with a 7-year-old: Gyudo

Gyudo Mapo Gongdeok Main Branch is a great spot to bring kids too, with gyukatsu and yakiniku grilled gently at your own pace.

On a night we decided to have dinner between Mapo Station and Gongdeok Station, I was looking for a meat dish to eat with my kid and ended up at Gyudo Mapo Gongdeok Main Branch, where you can have both gyukatsu and yakiniku together.

The atmosphere at Gyudo Mapo Gongdeok Main Branch

The gyukatsu here isn't served fully fried and crisped like a typical tonkatsu — instead, you grill it a little at a time at the table to your own taste, which seemed like it would be fun to do with a kid. Walking in, the space was overall clean with soft, dim lighting.

Even though it's a place for grilling meat, the interior didn't feel stuffy or smoky, which made it fine for a family meal. The tables weren't packed too closely together, and there were also bar-style seats on one side — the mood was pretty calm overall.

Gyukatsu grilled in butter 🥩

We ordered gyukatsu and yakiniku, plus pollock roe gim (myeongnan gamtae) to try alongside. Once the gyukatsu arrives, you use the small brazier on the table to grill it as much as you like.

The staff told us to melt the butter first and then grill the meat, so we did just that. Melting a bit of butter on the heated stone and laying the gyukatsu on top, it started sizzling right away — the whole process itself was pretty fun.

The gyukatsu has a thin coating of batter, so grilling it a little more on the stone brought out a crisp outside with a moist inside. We grilled the adults' portion just enough, then grilled our kid's portion a bit longer on the stone before cutting it up. The meat itself wasn't chewy, so my kid ate it better than I expected.

Personally, I liked pairing the gyukatsu with a bit of fresh wasabi and salt. Even without dipping it in much sauce, the flavor of the meat came through clean, and with the butter aroma added, the savory taste was quite rich. It tasted much better to grill just as much as we planned to eat right away, rather than cooking a big batch at once.

Yakiniku that makes you crave a bowl of rice 🍚

If the gyukatsu at Gyudo Mapo Gongdeok Main Branch leans mild, the yakiniku had a bolder flavor. Placing the seasoned meat on the stone released a sweet, savory seasoning aroma, and the slightly caramelized surface as it cooked was delicious.

Putting the well-grilled yakiniku over rice reminded me again how well this kind of meat goes with rice. If gyukatsu alone is all about clean, savory flavor, adding the seasoned yakiniku in between changed the mood of the meal — I was glad we ordered both.

For my kid, I gave small pieces of well-grilled yakiniku with rice rather than the more heavily seasoned bits, and it went down well. For a family meal out, splitting between two meat dishes seemed more convenient than ordering just one.

The surprisingly memorable pollock roe gim 🌿

The dish that surprised me most that day was the pollock roe gim (myeongnan gamtae). At first I thought of it as just a side for the meat, but eating it together turned out to be a really nice combination.

I put grilled meat on the gim and topped it with a bit of pollock roe, and

the fragrant gim, the salty umami of the pollock roe, and the savory meat all came together at once, giving a completely different flavor from eating the meat alone. It especially worked well with the gyukatsu — the gim's fragrance lightened the mouthfeel of the gyukatsu, which is already rich from the batter and butter.

So I kept going back to this combination in between bites, ending up eating more of the pollock roe gim than I expected.

A dinner that worked well with a kid too

This time I visited with a 7-year-old, and since Gyudo Mapo Gongdeok Main Branch uses personal braziers, I was a little concerned at first. So instead of letting my kid grill directly at the brazier, an adult grilled the meat and cut it into bite-sized pieces.

Grilling and eating right away like this actually meant the meat stayed warm instead of cooling down, which was nice. With a kid around, you do need to be careful near the brazier, but for a family that's used to grilling meat well, it wasn't much of a hassle.

When the brazier flame got weak partway through the meal, the staff checked and replaced the fuel, so we didn't have to worry about it ourselves. Cabbage salad and jang-guk (soy-based soup) also came out, which were nice to have alongside the meat. I was also worried the usual smell of a meat restaurant would cling to our clothes, but it was much less noticeable than expected when we left.

Recommended order combination at Gyudo Mapo Gongdeok Main Branch

If you're looking for a clean, tidy meat restaurant near Mapo Station or Gongdeok Station to visit with kids, or want to try gyukatsu and yakiniku in one sitting, this place is worth a stop. If you're like us and want both gyukatsu and yakiniku, I'd recommend ordering both together and adding the pollock roe gim on the side.

With gyukatsu especially, the key is grilling just a little at a time on the stone rather than all at once.

If you're looking for somewhere to have a family meal in Mapo/Gongdeok and craving something a bit different in meat dishes, Gyudo Mapo Gongdeok Main Branch is worth keeping in mind. 🥩