Gyeongju Western restaurant for marinated beef salad: Midam Kitchen

There are so many restaurants on Hwangnidang-gil in Gyeongju that it's hard to decide where to go. Once you actually look into it, a lot of places feel like they're only there for the tourist crowd, and finding somewhere that makes you think "I want to come back here again" is trickier than you'd expect. Midam Kitchen, which I visited this time, was a restaurant I left satisfied with after a long while. It sells old-school Korean-style pork cutlet (경양식 돈까스), which I personally love, so that made me like it even more!

Where is Midam Kitchen, and what are its hours?

• Midam Kitchen
• 📍33 Cheomseong-ro 49beon-gil, Gyeongju-si, South Korea
• ⏰ Hours 10:30-21:00, last order 20:30
• Closed every Wednesday
• Group visits welcome
• Group table for up to 6, reservation available
• High chairs available

The exterior is decorated like a garden, which fits right in with the distinct Hwangnidang-gil atmosphere. The building itself is pretty, and with the floor-to-ceiling windows, you can catch glimpses of the scenery outside even from inside, which made for a nice mood throughout the meal.

Midam Kitchen's seating: roomy tables and a table for six

A lot of Hwangnidang-gil restaurants are cute but cramped, with tables packed close together, so I appreciated that Midam Kitchen's interior seating felt more spacious than expected. It was a good atmosphere for couples and also fine for a family meal, and there's a group table that seats up to 6 people, so it looked great for larger visits too. Reservations are possible, so on weekends or during busy hours, it might be worth booking ahead.

Midam Kitchen's menu and the three dishes ordered

The menu was more varied than expected — salads, pizza, pasta, risotto, and pork cutlet were all on offer, so it would be a great spot for a group of people with different tastes to each order what they're craving.

We ordered beef salad (₩14,900), sirloin pork cutlet (₩14,900), and Toowoomba pasta (₩15,900). Considering how pricey Hwangnidang-gil has gotten these days, this felt pretty reasonable, and once we tried the food, there was zero sense of "cheap price, so-so quality" — actually the opposite, the quality was great and we left satisfied...!!

Beef salad, 14,900 won — topped with house-marinated grilled beef

First up, the beef salad! It's not a dish you see often at other salad places, so I was curious and ordered it — totally satisfied..!

When I ordered, I expected the usual kind of salad with just a bit of meat scattered on top, but it actually came with house-marinated grilled beef piled on. The meat itself was seasoned so well that I was genuinely surprised — did the owner used to run a Korean BBQ place or something? Honestly, this meat alone could've been eaten with a bowl of rice and I'd have finished the whole thing 🥹

Sirloin pork cutlet, 14,900 won — an old-school cutlet bigger than a palm

And the dish I was most looking forward to at Midam Kitchen — the sirloin pork cutlet! These days a lot of people go for crispy Japanese-style tonkatsu, but every so often I just crave that old-school Korean-style pork cutlet haha. So the moment I spotted sirloin pork cutlet on the menu, I ordered it right away...

The size was genuinely huge lol. From the moment it arrived I thought, can I actually finish this... and in the end the portion was so big I had to take the leftovers home. It's way bigger than a palm lol. Owner, I think you might need to rename this the "king-size cutlet"

Eating it with that classic old-school sauce made it even better, exactly the flavor I was hoping for haha. It's ₩14,900, and given the portion and quality at that price, I thought it was genuinely a great deal. A dish that really showed the owner's generosity.

Toowoomba pasta, 15,900 won — with two whole shrimp

Lastly, the Toowoomba pasta! Cream pasta can get heavy pretty easily, but Midam Kitchen's Toowoomba pasta had a spicy kick that kept it from feeling greasy, so I kept eating without getting tired of it.

You could tell they weren't skimping on ingredients here either. Instead of the usual few tiny frozen cocktail shrimp you get in most pastas, this came with two big, whole shrimp on top. Even the rich, creamy shrimp innards were delicious... eating it along with the plump shrimp made the texture even better and boosted the overall satisfaction of the Toowoomba pasta! Both the price and the taste were completely satisfying.

Why Midam Kitchen is worth a return trip to Hwangnidang-gil

All three dishes we ordered that day were delicious, which made for a satisfying meal at Midam Kitchen! More than anything, the food was great, but the owner was also kind, which made the whole meal feel even better. Hwangnidang-gil has so many pretty restaurants and cafés, but when you're sightseeing and want a proper meal, you end up caring about taste, portion, and price all at once. On that front, Midam Kitchen is going to stick in my memory as a place on Hwangnidang-gil worth revisiting.

If you love old-school Korean-style pork cutlet like I do, the sirloin pork cutlet is worth trying at least once, and if you're visiting with several people, I'd recommend ordering a mix of salads and pasta to share. This time the portions were so big we had to take some home, but next time I'm back on Hwangnidang-gil, I want to bring the rest of my family and try even more of the menu!

With its pretty exterior, the atmosphere from those floor-to-ceiling windows, and generously spaced interior seating good for couples, family meals, or small gatherings alike, Midam Kitchen was a solid Hwangnidang-gil restaurant in Gyeongju. I'd recommend it as a great Western-style restaurant on Hwangnidang-gil 💓