Japanese restaurant in Seoul Square with Catch Table waitlist: Furato

I went to Furato Shokudo Seoul Square Direct Store, famous as a Seoul Station restaurant. I found it while accompanying someone to a fertility appointment at CHA Hospital nearby. It's in the same building as CHA Hospital, so it's very accessible, and the gyukatsu place was so well kept and clean overall that I'd recommend it.

Furato Shokudo Seoul Square Direct Store: hours and location

Furato Shokudo Seoul Square Direct Store is open daily 11:00–20:50, with a break time of 15:00–17:00 and last order at 14:30–20:20. The address is B1F-4, basement 1st floor, 416 Hangang-daero, Jung-gu, Seoul, 55m from Seoul Station Exit 9.

Here's a look inside Furato Shokudo, a Seoul Station Japanese restaurant. The interior was quite spacious with plenty of tables. There are lots of offices in the same building, plus CHA Hospital, so a huge number of customers pour in at lunchtime.

How the Catch Table waitlist works at Furato Shokudo in Seoul Square

The Seoul Square direct store of Furato Shokudo runs Catch Table, so it was easy to put my name on the waitlist. About 20 minutes before opening, when I went down to the basement 1st floor of Seoul Square, there weren't that many people yet, but by the time I finished my appointment at CHA Hospital and arrived at noon, waiting was pretty much mandatory.

With so many customers and a fairly late spot in the queue, I thought I'd be waiting a long time, but our turn came up right as we left the CHA Hospital appointment — perfect timing.

Since this is a gyukatsu place, oil tends to splatter a lot on the tables, but I was surprised there was zero greasy residue when we walked in. It's genuinely one of the cleanest, best-maintained gyukatsu restaurants around, so I'd recommend a visit.

Furato Shokudo Seoul Square menu and prices

• Gyukatsu ₩19,500
• Steki set menu ₩19,500
• Steki rice bowl ₩19,500
• Japanese-style omurice ₩14,500
• Yamagata minced curry ₩14,500
• Beef short rib rice bowl ₩14,500
• BBQ chicken rice bowl ₩14,500
• Furato cold soba ₩10,000

• Sanjokuk karaage ₩5,000
• Chicken karaage & fried shrimp ₩6,000

Ordering a set gets you a slightly better price, so we went with Set 1, which comes with 2 drinks included.

Ordering was done through a Tag-a-Hero tag attached to the table. Since we were in the basement though, my LG U+ signal barely worked. TT. Furato Shokudo was also running a review event where writing a receipt review gets you a mini karaage or a drink, so I took part.

What we ordered at Furato Shokudo, and how the Set 1 combo works

Since this wasn't my first visit to Furato Shokudo, I went ahead and ordered the steki set menu, which I hadn't tried before! Since we planned to split everything, it felt okay to take a bit of a gamble haha.

Furato Shokudo steki set menu: price and review

The steki set menu is ₩19,500. Unlike gyukatsu, it's beef prepared yakiniku-style, lightly seared on the outside so you get juicy, savory flavor inside, or so they say.

If gyukatsu is beef with a savory crunch from the breading, I'd say steki is the dish to go for if you want something cleaner and lighter!

Furato Shokudo gyukatsu: price and review

The gyukatsu set at Furato Shokudo is ₩19,500. Last time I added a mini curry, but this time I ordered just the gyukatsu alone so I could try the side dish karaage instead.

For the first bite, I grilled the gyukatsu and steki just as they came, plain. The tabletop grill has quite intense heat, so the beef cooked fast.

It was clean-tasting, delicious gyukatsu, but I figured adding butter while grilling would make it even crispier, so I added the Isigny salted butter.

Is Isigny salted butter a must with gyukatsu?

Grilling with a generous amount of butter on top made it wonderfully crispy. Both the plain and buttered versions of the gyukatsu had their own charm, but the steki was actually tastier without butter! At other gyukatsu places you often need the butter to make it taste good, but at Furato Shokudo the plain version is already delicious, so I'd say Isigny butter is optional, not essential.

The receipt-review karaage freebie at Furato Shokudo

And then, the review-event karaage service came out later! Since you have to write the review after paying, it only arrives afterward. It seemed like a good order if one dish alone doesn't fill you up. The table next to us had the fried shrimp, and honestly it looked even tastier. TT ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ The grass is always greener on the other table!

My memories from my first visit to Furato Shokudo were so good that the moment I spotted it in Seoul Square, I begged to go, and that's how this visit happened. Despite being incredibly busy, the manager(?) — or owner — and the staff at Furato Shokudo's Seoul Square location were so kind that the service alone was satisfying. If you're visiting Seoul Station, this is a restaurant I'd definitely recommend stopping by.