Tonkatsu near Digital Media City Station: rainy window seat at Kitto

Why Kitto near Digital Media City Station on a rainy evening?

Kitto is a Japanese-style tonkatsu (pork cutlet) restaurant near Digital Media City Station in Sangam-dong. Japanese-style tonkatsu has thick meat, so the chew is different and the taste is different too. It was a rainy evening and I was craving something fried, so I went to Kitto (킷토), a Japanese restaurant near Digital Media City Station in Sangam-dong.

Kitto location and opening hours

Kitto is on floors 1 and 2 of 23 Maebongsan-ro 2-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul, close to Digital Media City Station (Line 6, Gyeongui-Jungang Line, AREX). It is open Monday to Friday 11:10–21:00 and Saturday 12:00–21:00, with a break from 15:00 to 17:00, and closed every Sunday.

Kitto's first-floor window seats and second-floor group tables

Kitto looks like it is on the second floor, but you only go up half a flight from the building entrance to reach a glass door, and one more floor up there is group seating that is good for gatherings.

The first floor has terrace-style window seats. It was a rainy evening and the mood was lovely, so I sat there. It felt like a giant picture frame, like being in a pretty café. Beautiful music was playing too, which lifted my mood.

Up the lit staircase from the first floor, the second floor has seats good for gatherings; usually it's used as a dining space where people sit in small groups. If you want to hold a gathering, ask about reservations~~

Kitto menu and QR code ordering

You order at Kitto with the QR code on the table. Menus are neatly placed on each table, and you just scan the QR code to order.

How should you eat Kitto's top sirloin katsu?

Kitto's is not plain sirloin katsu but "top" sirloin katsu. Fat, meat, sinew (?), and then more meat. It was visually intriguing, and I liked that you get to taste four different flavors.

First bite: plain, with nothing on it

It comes with Japanese-style mustard green kimchi, yuzu kosho (yuzu and chili paste), wasabi and sauce. Kitto recommends that your first bite be the pure katsu with nothing on it, to taste the meat as it is. If the pork and frying oil aren't good, you could never recommend tasting katsu without sauce~~ This is a method only confident restaurants suggest, so that first bite made me nervous.

There was no gamey smell at all, and some aroma flitted past that wasn't unpleasant. I couldn't tell exactly what it was, but I guessed they use some kind of spice (?) to make the meat cleaner-tasting. It seemed like a secret recipe, so I hesitated and didn't ask. Haha.

Second bite: smoked Maldon salt

Second is sprinkling on the smoked salt (훈연알돈소금). The salt smells of smoke and lifts the katsu's flavor even further; this was the way that suited my taste best.

Last bite: the sauce of your choice

Last, enjoy the various sauces as you like. The wasabi, yuzu kosho and katsu sauce were all tangy and distinctive, true to Japanese-style sauces, and went well with the katsu.

Kitto's tenderloin katsu: thick, round and tender

Kitto's tenderloin katsu was thicker and rounder than the ones I'd usually seen, like a ball, and I was a little startled by the blood-red color. Three child-fist-sized chunks of meat are fried and split in half, so the back of every piece is also coated in breading.

I sprinkled the smoked salt on the tenderloin katsu for my first bite too, and the meat was so tender, soft and almost melting as I chewed. Eaten after the top sirloin katsu, the softness was extreme and I completely fell for it. ❤️

The sauce was distinctive and good, and it was even better with the salt. I can't forget the flavor of Kitto's salt, so I'll probably go again soon. 😍

Adding a side of curry at Kitto

Kitto has a wide range of side dishes, and I added curry. It tasted of the owner's passion, researching it like a curry specialist. Spooning curry over fluffy rice and eating it with chopsticks, I thought,

Is this place a Japanese curry specialist?

The Japanese-style curry came through as umami in my mouth, so I ordered more rice and scraped up every last bit of curry, this time with a spoon. Haha.

Cabbage salad and clam soup

The cabbage salad's dressing had a gentle nuttiness of peanut that gave it a refined taste. The more I tried each item, the more I fell for it. Kitto, a Japanese restaurant near Digital Media City Station.

The clam soup (?) served with the katsu is warm and salty with a spicy kick at the end. It's full of clam taste and aroma, and as it finishes with a slight heat, the scent of crown daisy (garland chrysanthemum) joins in. It was really delicious.

Kitto's ice cream dessert

Kitto's dessert is vanilla ice cream drizzled with chocolate syrup. It comes in a cute little glass, but as I ate, the portion was by no means small.

Verdict: who is Kitto in Sangam-dong best for?

A katsu restaurant in Sangam-dong that feels like a nice café~ A place where you fall for the tasty katsu and the side curry, and get moved by every little side dish~ A place that serves fancy ice cream for dessert~

It's good for eating alone, good for family meals, perfect for dates, and on weekday lunchtimes people queue to eat there!! I strongly recommend Kitto, near Digital Media City Station, for lunch, dinner and dates.