No-wait tonkatsu lunch with a 19-month-old: Hets Jeonpo Branch, Busan

A no-wait tonkatsu favorite in Jeonpo-dong

A trip out to Jeonpo after a while. This was my first visit to Hets Jeonpo Branch, but it's already famous as a Busan Jeonpo-dong tonkatsu spot with long waits. Gotta eat tonkatsu regularly, haha!

Went with my husband and our youngest, kind of an only-daughter outing since our first is at kindergarten haha. Parked nearby and went straight in.

What time to go without waiting?

Hets sits right on the main road. I'd seen it before while passing by, and this time visiting on a weekday around 11:30am meant no wait at all. Right after noon, a wait line started forming. The place was bigger than I expected and had a baby chair, so we got to enjoy the meal with our 19-month-old.

You can register for waiting through the Catch Table app!

Café-like interior, bar seating only

It's a tonkatsu place but the interior feels almost like a café haha. Clean and stylish enough to recommend for dates too. Around the time we were eating, a Chinese family of maybe 8 came in and had a meal — this place is quite popular with foreign visitors too.

There are no table seats, only bar (dachi) seating. We were guided to the very back seat, which turned out to be perfect for eating with a kid haha.

Hets has its main branch near Suyeong — I've never been there, but they deliver to my place so we order from them often and it's always good, so I had high expectations for the Jeonpo branch too haha. Eating in the restaurant is even better. If you write a Naver review they give you boneless karaage or a soda, so make sure to do that haha.

Jeju black pork or YBD — which to choose

The menu board at Hets, a Busan Jeonpo-dong tonkatsu favorite. The katsu comes in Jeju black pork or YBD varieties. Jeju black pork has a rich, savory pork flavor with a chewy, firm texture that really emphasizes the deep pork taste, while YBD — a blend of Yorkshire, Berkshire, and Duroc pig breeds — has a mellower, more savory flavor with a moist texture, making it softer and juicier. Since that seemed better for eating with our kid, we ordered the YBD sang loin katsu and the soft hire katsu.

Up front: whole peppercorn, salad sauce, truffle oil, wasabi. Lots of options to dip your katsu in, so eat it however you like haha. My favorite combo is wasabi with tonkatsu sauce.

Feel free to write down a song you'd like to hear. Can you play Baby Shark — Sappun Sappun...? Lol my kid just won't sit still, ugh.

Well-ripened kkakdugi (diced radish kimchi) and sauce. They said they give spicy silbi kimchi if you ask haha.

Someone who just won't stay still, lol. She played around while waiting for the food until it got too much, so my husband took her outside for a bit haha.

YBD hire katsu, great for eating with kids

YBD hire katsu (tenderloin cutlet). Almost no fat, tender tenderloin cut, great for feeding kids haha. The miso soup was a bit on the spicy side.

Poured plenty of salad sauce over the cabbage too haha.

Juicy through and through: the sang loin katsu

This one is the sang loin katsu. I like loin katsu with a bit of that fat attached on top, chewy and a little rich — since the sang loin katsu is supposed to be even tastier, I ordered it haha.

With our kid outside, quickly snapped a photo for proof. So good, slurp slurp. Took a video too.

You've gotta dip the first bite of any meat in salt to taste it at its purest haha. The first bite and I was clapping like a seal, it was that good. Definitely way better than the delivery version. You can even see the juices bursting out in the photo.

No dryness at all, so tender and chewy with a rich, fatty flavor — totally my style. I actually prefer loin/sirloin katsu over hire katsu. Had some with tonkatsu sauce and some topped with wasabi haha.

The truffle oil really elevates the flavor too haha.

The meat curry is on the spicy side for kids

I saw a lot of people ordering the curry so we tried it too — it's packed with a ton of meat inside. Not something you can really feed a kid, a bit spicy haha. Next time I really need to try the Jeju black pork katsu too.

Snapped a shot of the packed dining room right before we left haha. Seems like a great solo dining spot too when it's not busy.

For dessert they gave us frozen fruit jelly haha. Our kid couldn't eat it, but they gave us her portion too, so we polished it all off ourselves. The perfect palate cleanser to finish. If you're looking for a Busan Jeonpo-dong tonkatsu spot, definitely check out Hets Jeonpo Branch haha.