Sweet potato cheese katsu set and clam pasta in Gwangju: Filling

Anyone looking for a genuinely delicious pork cutlet restaurant in Gwangju? 🐽 Today I'm introducing what I personally think is the ultimate Cheomdan restaurant — Filling Donkatsu Cheomdan Direct Store :-)

Filling Donkatsu Gwangju Cheomdan Direct Store: hours and location

Filling Donkatsu Gwangju Cheomdan Direct Store, a Western-style pork cutlet and pasta restaurant in Ssangam-dong, Gwangju

• Hours: Tue-Sun 11:00-20:30
• Closed every Monday
• Location: 43-10 Cheomdangwagi-ro 208beon-gil, Building A, 2nd floor, Unit 207, Buk-gu, Gwangju, South Korea

Where do I park?

🅿️ Parking: The Cheomdan Maruhill IBC Knowledge Industry Center parking lot offers 2 hours of supported parking (on weekends). 🚗 On weekdays, 1 hour of supported parking is available.

Weekend 1:30pm atmosphere and the wait

Inside the restaurant. I visited around 1:30pm on a weekend and — what a crowd! The place is fairly spacious, but the hall was packed full and there was even a wait. Pork cutlet is a menu you can enjoy without any pressure even solo, so it seems like a great spot for anyone looking for a solo dining place in Cheomdan, and it's also nice to visit with a friend or partner and share cutlets and pasta together haha

The menu at Filling Donkatsu and our order that day

Filling Donkatsu offers a variety of pork cutlet menus to choose from, so it's great for picking according to your taste! From basic cutlet options to cheese-loaded ones, if you love pork cutlet you'll probably spend a long time agonizing over the menu haha. On top of that there are pilaf dishes and pasta too, making it a solid Western-food spot in Cheomdan haha ha

[Our order that day] Solo sweet potato king cheese set (₩19,900) — includes zero-sugar cola / Spicy tomato clam pasta (₩19,500)

What's on the self bar?

Next up, the self bar at Filling Donkatsu Cheomdan — something you just can't skip ><haha. They had basic side dishes, plus broth soup, toast, and strawberry jam. On top of that, there was soft-serve ice cream perfect for dessert, and ice cups so you can make your own iced americano. How could you not love Filling Donkatsu after all this hahahaha

I grabbed toast and strawberry jam from the self bar too! Meanwhile the soup and salad that came out made a nice appetizer haha. Filling Donkatsu's basic soup is already quite thick and delicious, but they add cheese to it too... so the soup tastes even richer and nuttier

Why I paired the sweet potato king cheese set with pasta

That day I especially picked the sweet potato king cheese set, which sounded delicious just from its name — a sweet potato + cheese + pork cutlet combo, how could you resist that... 😂 And since ordering just the cutlet felt a bit lacking, I also ordered the spicy tomato clam pasta! Eating cutlet and pasta together can get a little heavy, but since it's a spicy tomato pasta, I figured it would actually pair well

Spicy tomato clam pasta (₩19,500) 🍝

This pasta has a tomato sauce base with clams mixed in, so you get that distinct seafood flavor! Most of all, it lives up to its name with a spicy kick, so it went really well alongside the cutlet haha. Since the cutlet is savory and comes with cheese, taking a bite of the spicy tomato pasta in between felt like it refreshed my palate. The tangy signature taste of the tomato sauce plus the spiciness, along with the fresh clams, made it feel a bit different from a typical tomato pasta. It's a really tasty pasta dish, worth ordering once

Solo sweet potato king cheese set, ₩19,900 🍠

This set menu from Filling Donkatsu was even better with the included zero-sugar cola! Just from the name, it was already packed with everything I love hahaha. Pork cutlet with a sweet potato and cheese combo... if you like sweet-yet-savory flavors, this will really suit your taste haha. The crispy texture of the cutlet, the soft, savory feel of the cheese, and the sweetness of the sweet potato all came together, and I loved getting to enjoy several flavors at once! Taking a bite, the crispy cutlet plus the sweetness of the sweet potato plus the cheese definitely gave it a different charm from a regular pork cutlet. This menu, too, was seriously, seriously delicious

Having soft-serve ice cream for dessert felt like it cleaned up my palate nicely ~~~

Why I recommend it as a Cheomdan lunch spot

If you're looking for a pork cutlet restaurant or a lunch place in Cheomdan, Gwangju, I highly recommend Filling Donkatsu Gwangju Cheomdan Direct Store! Even as a Gwangju local, this is a Cheomdan spot I want to keep coming back to haha