Namyeong Station pork cutlet restaurant for solo dining: Onjeong

Does everyone love a good Korean-style pork cutlet (gyeongyang donkatsu)? I recently went out for cutlet near my place! It's the Hyochang Park favorite, Yongsan favorite, Yongsan Donkatsu Onjeong Gyeongyang Sikdang!

• Daily 11am-9pm, closed Mondays
• Hyochang Park Station Exit 5, Namyeong Station Exit 1
• 1F, Unit 107, Building B, Richensia, 341 Baekbeom-ro, Yongsan-gu, Seoul

How to find Yongsan Donkatsu Onjeong and where to park

Onjeong Gyeongyang Sikdang, famous for its Hyochang Park cutlet, is walkable from Hyochang Park Station Exit 5 and Namyeong Station Exit 1. It's on the 1st floor of Building B in the Richensia building. There's a Starbucks nearby and quite a few nice-vibe cafés too, so it's easy to get to. And even though it's Yongsan, you can get a whopping 2 hours of free parking in the building's underground lot!!

I love Japanese-style tonkatsu too, but sometimes this Korean-style cutlet is what I'm craving. Since it's near my place, I just strolled over on a weekday, right before break time haha.

• Free parking available (2 hours)
• Entrance, seating, and restroom wheelchair accessible

Inside Onjeong: solo dining at the window bar table

The interior is on the smaller side but clean and pleasant. Tables are mostly for 2-4 people, but there's a bar table by the window that's great for solo dining. When I visited, there were actually quite a few solo diners! You order right away via kiosk so food comes out fast, and turnover is good, making it a solid spot to visit even during lunch hour.

What's on the Onjeong menu?

Here's the Onjeong Gyeongyang Sikdang menu! There are 4 types of Korean-style cutlet: Onjeong cutlet, spicy cutlet, cheddar cheese cutlet, and curry cutlet. Buckwheat and udon noodle dishes can't be missed either. The set menus combining noodles + cutlet seem especially good value. I was so curious about the golden sauce on the cheddar cheese cutlet that I ordered it haha.

• Delivery and takeout available
• Review event currently running

Onjeong's self bar: banchan and unlimited rice refills

There's a self bar off to one side of the restaurant. It has diced radish kimchi (kkakdugi), pickled radish, and cabbage salad. And get this — unlimited rice refills!! Isn't that quite the deal in this high inflation era?

Finally, our order arrived!! I was almost getting dizzy from hunger, but the turnover was good so it came out fast haha. Onjeong Gyeongyang Sikdang apparently only uses Dodram Korean pork prepared that same day, and even makes its special sauce in-house! They said it's fried in a steam-injection fryer that produces fewer harmful substances due to less oxidation, which made me even more excited haha.

What comes with the set: cream soup, dinner rolls and strawberry jam

The set menu comes with cream soup, morning bread, and strawberry jam alongside the cutlet. Pretty solid composition, right?? I'd call myself a bit of a cutlet expert haha. The bread and jam duo needs to show up for it to really be a proper Korean-style set haha (props to the owner's sense of style). The default diced radish kimchi and pickled radish sides can be refilled at the self bar!

The cream soup had quite a lot of mushrooms and a subtle mushroom aroma spreading through it — a nutty, savory cream soup. I didn't expect much but the soup was actually delicious. The rule is you have to eat one bite of morning bread with jam and dip the other bite in the soup, that's just how it's done.

How does Onjeong's cheddar cheese pork cutlet taste?

The cheddar cheese cutlet I was most curious about. The sauce itself is basically a thick cheddar cheese sauce. As a cutlet expert, I get mad at places that skimp on sauce, you know? But here they really gave a generous amount haha. Even the smell has that pungent yet sweet cheddar aroma rising up.

It's a smooth cheese sauce with a rich cheddar aroma. Slightly sweet and salty, the sweet-salty balance is just right. The cutlet itself has a good thickness and the meat especially was tender. Probably because it's meat prepared that same day, there was no gamy smell at all and it was delicious. This one's a strong recommendation for cheese lovers!

How spicy is the spicy pork cutlet?

Here's the spicy cutlet! The menu doesn't list a spice level, so I worried it might be crazy spicy like some 'die-hard' cutlet places, but honestly, while a spicy aroma hits you right away, it's not that sharp capsaicin-style spiciness — it's a heat that fades quickly plus a moderate tingle, so I actually liked pairing it with the cheddar cheese cutlet.

Fish cake udon and buckwheat soba at Onjeong

The fish cake udon exceeded my expectations. Wow, is this an udon specialist too? The cutlet is great, but the noodle dish also surprised me. The udon noodles are genuinely chewy and springy. It's packed with fried tofu skin and fish cake, and the broth has a great umami depth — total winner haha.

Last up is the buckwheat soba! It has domestic green tangerine mixed in, giving it a refreshing, tangy charm. I always taste the broth first when I have noodle dishes, and this one was slightly sweet yet refreshing, right up my alley. The noodles were cooked just enough to have some chewy texture too, great mouthfeel.

If you're looking for a solo-dining cutlet spot in Yongsan, go get some pork cutlet at Yongsan Donkatsu Onjeong Gyeongyang Sikdang, Yongsan branch~