Gwanghwamun gyukatsu Set 3 for three, with omurice: Hurato Sikdang

Why gyukatsu for a Nagoya trip planning dinner?

Last week I met up with my college friends for the first time in a while.

Earlier this year, a partly overlapping group of college friends and I had planned to go to Nagoya, but after seeing news of a plane accident everyone got scared and the trip got shelved indefinitely. Then another college friend brought up going together sometime this year, so we ended up deciding on Nagoya fairly quickly.

So we met up partly to plan the trip, and since we were eating before heading to Japan, we decided to go to a gyukatsu (beef cutlet) place :)

Where is Hurato Sikdang Gyeongbokgung, and is there a wait?

It had been a while since my last visit to Hurato Sikdang Gyeongbokgung branch. It's in the basement of the Royal Arcade Building behind Sejong Center, set pretty deep inside. I used to come here fairly often, but as they opened more franchise locations I've been going to one near my house instead, so it's been a while since I visited the main branch :)

We visited around 6pm and luckily there was no wait. But this is a popular Gwanghwamun spot, so even an hour later there can be a line.

Set 2 or Set 3 for three people?

Ordering has switched to a tag system. Their omelette is also really good, so I decided we'd order omelette and gyukatsu. Now the question was how much to order.

On the wall I spotted a barbecue chicken rice bowl and hesitated for a moment, but since we'd come for gyukatsu and omurice, the chicken bowl would have to wait for next time.

There's Set 1, where you can choose gyukatsu or steak, and Set 2, which comes with gyukatsu and a rice bowl. Since there were three of us, we first thought about ordering Set 2 and just adding an extra gyukatsu with the omurice, but the staff told us that would only give us two servings of rice, so we ordered Set 3 instead. I used to just add extra gyukatsu without thinking, back when I'd sometimes double up on gyukatsu orders :)...

You can also order gyukatsu as a standalone dish. Both for the gyukatsu and the steak, ordering a double comes out a bit cheaper than ordering two singles. If you want more gyukatsu or steak while mixing things up, consider the double order :)

Individual braziers and solid fuel: how the grilling works

When you order gyukatsu or steak, they give you a little brazier like this. Solid fuel goes inside, and it gives off a slightly distinctive smell while it cooks.

This is the system — burning solid fuel to grill the meat.

Here's the salad that comes with the gyukatsu. Eating the cabbage with its yuzu ponzu flavor really gets your appetite going.

10–11 pieces of sirloin gyukatsu, grilled medium-rare

The gyukatsu comes out in roughly 10 to 11 pieces.

Gyukatsu is a dish where you place breaded raw meat onto the brazier one piece at a time to grill it yourself. If you put them all on at once you risk burning them or overcooking, so I'd recommend grilling just 2–3 pieces at a time.

Once the red color fades and it looks about done, dip it in salt or sauce and eat. The biggest difference between tonkatsu and gyukatsu is that here you're grilling raw meat yourself like this. It's honestly amazing that they can fry the breading while keeping the inside rare, isn't it?

The gyukatsu at this Gwanghwamun gyukatsu specialist Hurato Sikdang uses beef sirloin served medium-rare. Sirloin is delicious even just grilled on its own, but grilled as gyukatsu and dipped in salt, the flavor is a work of art!

Hurato Sikdang's omurice: the moment you cut it open

Along with the gyukatsu, we also ordered the omurice rice bowl. The best part of Hurato Sikdang's omurice is the moment you cut it open — the gorgeous runny egg spilling out is the kind of thing that makes you want to film it.

Dinner before a show at Sejong Center

Starting this week, the play Neopo is running at Sejong Center's small theater. It's a great production that a lot of people love. For anyone coming to see Neopo, I'd recommend this Gwanghwamun gyukatsu specialist, Hurato Sikdang, for dinner beforehand :) It's a place I've recommended before and never been disappointed by.