Suwon gyukatsu restaurant: Attijone not Raonzone, Gyuen-dang

Where is Gyuen-dang in Avenue France, and where do you park?

Gyuen-dang Avenue France Gwanggyo Branch is a gyukatsu spot at 85 Centraltown-ro, Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, Gyeonggi, South Korea, B1 CB19, 20, inside the Attijone section of Avenue France in Gwanggyo. Hours are 11:30-22:00 with a break time of 15:00-17:00, though there's no break time on weekends.

• Store location: 1st floor level of Attijone at Avenue France Gwanggyo (across from e-Pyunhansesang, in front of the bus stop)
• Don't head toward the Lotte Mart side ❌ (you'll need to walk around)
• Parking support: up to 4 hours
• Parking location: Avenue France basement level 2, section D24

It'd been a while since we all went to hang out at Avenue France Gwanggyo and stopped by for lunch. Since it had really been ages, I went up without thinking and ended up on the Lotte Mart side (Raonzone), not the central plaza side, so I had to loop all the way around.

If you park right in section D in the underground parking lot (the parking lot even has signs pointing to Attijone), you come out right at Attijone — so if you're driving, it's easiest to park in section D and visit from there!

Anyway, that's how I ended up visiting — also after a long while (it's been half a year since I went to Japan!) craving gyukatsu, I visited Gyuen-dang's Gwanggyo Avenue France branch.

Here it is — note that once you exit the building, it's not the 1st floor but basement level 1! Gyuen-dang is a great spot to come to when you're craving Japanese food near Gwanggyo Jungang Station from the main street.

Menu prices, the CatchTable wait and what the room feels like

I really like that Gyuen-dang's menu is simple with not much to choose from. There's CatchTable waiting and a small waiting area inside. At lunchtime, even Gyuen-dang's other branches have waits.

Gyuen-dang greets you with wood-toned, Japanese-style interior visible through the window.

There were bar-style seats for solo dining as well as comfortable sofa-style and chair seating, arranged so groups could eat together too.

The mini grill set at every seat

So nice to see this mini grill again after so long! Gyuen-dang's philosophy is that even the same meat tastes different depending on distance from the fire, and texture changes with just a few seconds' difference — their menu was born from research into this. After countless rounds of grilling, frying, and re-cooking meat, they concluded meat cooked over fire and charcoal tastes best :)

• How to eat the omurice
• How to eat the gyukatsu

Instructions on how to eat were provided too, so I gave them a light read while waiting.

What we ordered: sirloin gyukatsu 19,000 won and hamburg omurice 17,000 won

Order Sirloin gyukatsu ₩19,000 Hamburg omurice ₩17,000

Not long after, the gyukatsu arrived! Since the essence of gyukatsu is beef cutlet, the key is cooking it crisp on the outside while keeping the beef's character intact with a soft, medium-rare inside — and Gyuen-dang's gyukatsu nails the basics, arriving as a clean, well-composed set. Plus, there's the perfectly matched teriyaki sauce and wasabi—

How to coat the gyukatsu in butter and grill it yourself

Once they light up the grill for you

• Try grilling one or two pieces plain first (if it's your first visit)
• Melt the butter they give you and grill lightly (within 10-30 seconds)

Since I like grilling with butter (I'm a butter lover), I lightly coated everything with butter and just grilled it all. It's fine to grill piece by piece as you eat, but since it's hot, I prefer pre-grilling a reasonable amount ahead of time.

Grilled to the texture you want and eaten with wasabi, it's crispy-outside-tender-inside heaven! Gyukatsu's signature texture — crisp outside but soft as jelly inside, melting in your mouth — is great. Made with sirloin, it really pairs perfectly with wasabi that brings out the beef's natural flavor.

Is the hamburg omurice worth 17,000 won?

Another one of Gyuen-dang's signature dishes, hamburg omurice, is a Japanese-style omurice with hamburg steak under fluffy egg, and rice underneath that. When you cut the soft egg in half, it spreads open nicely to the sides — great visually, and the flavor pairs wonderfully with the soft egg. Pour on plenty of sauce over the egg and eat it together for a great harmony of hamburg steak, rice, and egg.

Gyuen-dang is a Japanese restaurant at Avenue France near Gwanggyo Jungang Station where you can enjoy the deep, original flavor of gyukatsu, cooked warmly and just right on your own personal grill.