Yeonnam-dong tonkatsu, ₩31,000 half-and-half lunch: Katsu Monster

Today I visited Katsu Monster Yeonnam, a well-known tonkatsu spot in Yeonnam-dong. I ordered loin katsu and cheese katsu, and it was way tastier than I expected — here's the full review!!

Where is Katsu Monster Yeonnam Main Branch, and what are its hours?

📍 Location 42-6 Dongyo-ro 38-gil, 1st floor, Unit 101, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea ⏰ Hours Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon, Tue 10:30 - 23:00, last order 22:30 Wed, Thu 10:30 - 21:00, last order 20:30 Takeout and delivery are available, and reservations or group visits are possible too ‼️

Checked the menu posted outside the shop first ~

Katsu Monster before the weekday lunch rush: can you eat alone here?

Yeonnam-dong is always packed, so I deliberately went before the lunch rush on a weekday. The place had a clean yet comfortable atmosphere, great for a relaxed meal. It had that casual Yeonnam-dong feel — good for going with a friend, or for a low-pressure date where you just want good food ✨

The vibe seemed fine for solo dining too, so it looked like a place you could easily drop into on a day you just want tonkatsu by yourself. While we were eating, quite a few people came in alone. It also seemed to be popular for delivery — delivery riders kept coming in and out.

What's on the menu at Katsu Monster Yeonnam

Katsu Monster had a wide variety of tonkatsu (pork cutlet) types. The main ones are loin katsu, fillet katsu, premium loin katsu, cheese katsu, assorted katsu, mix katsu and triple katsu, and besides tonkatsu there's also a good range of noodle dishes like memil (buckwheat noodles) and udon. If you feel like one tonkatsu alone isn't quite enough, it might be nice for two people to order a katsu plus a noodle dish to share.

The cold memil noodles look like they'd be amazing in summer. Slurping down a cool bowl of broth like that sounds so good...

Each type of tonkatsu — loin katsu, fillet katsu, and so on — comes with an explanation, so you can just order according to your taste.

Our order for two at Katsu Monster: ₩31,000 total

We ordered loin katsu and cheese katsu, for a total of ₩31,000. That felt like just the right price for a Yeonnam-dong lunch. Tonkatsu is also a dish almost nobody dislikes, so it seems like a good pick to bring coworkers or friends along too.

What the cheese katsu tastes like

First up, the cheese katsu I ordered. If you're a cheese lover, this dish will win you over just from the look of it. There's cheese packed in between the meat inside the tonkatsu. The savory cheese, crispy coating, and juicy meat all came together really well — total textbook crispy-outside, tender-inside. But I figured eating only cheese katsu might get heavy after a while, so my boyfriend and I split it in half and mixed the two.

Loin katsu at Katsu Monster and the best sauce pairings

Next, the loin katsu 🐷 The thick-cut tonkatsu looked delicious just from the visual. The outside was fried crispy, and the meat inside had a mix of lean and fatty parts, so the texture was great from the first bite. It had that satisfying chewy tonkatsu feel — light yet savory. If you want to really taste tonkatsu itself, the loin katsu is the reliable, well-rounded choice.

There's tonkatsu sauce, salt, wasabi, and various other condiments to pair however you like. I dipped mine in tonkatsu sauce with a huge amount of wasabi mixed in, and the wasabi cut through the richness of the fatty meat so well — so tasty. If you want to taste the meat's natural flavor, salt with just a bit of wasabi is nice too.

And there was salad dressing ready for the cabbage salad, so I drizzled it on and mixed it all up. The cabbage was super crunchy and fresh. With rice, meat, and cabbage all together, it felt like you were getting carbs, protein, and fat in one meal.

Loin katsu vs cheese katsu: which one was better?

The cheese katsu was seriously so good. If loin katsu is the light, clean-tasting option, cheese katsu is the one that hits you with strong savoriness and cheese flavor. Personally, I liked the cheese katsu better.

It also came with soup, and while other tonkatsu places usually give you a bland miso soup, this one had a richer, saltier flavor — more like a proper doenjang stew. I actually liked that better. It also had meat in it, which made it taste even better.

So happy I got to visit a great tonkatsu spot in Yeonnam-dong on my precious day off 🩷

If you're looking for a good tonkatsu restaurant in Yeonnam-dong, Katsu Monster Yeonnam is worth a stop. If you like thick, crispy tonkatsu, I'd recommend starting with the loin katsu, and if you love cheese, definitely try the cheese katsu too ‼️