Sweet potato cheese katsu at a Pyeongdong donkatsu spot: Jinsim King

I visited Jinsim King Donkatsu, a spacious pork cutlet restaurant near Pyeongdong Station that gets packed at lunchtime. Every time I eat here it's huge and has none of that greasy smell — a genuinely good Korean-style Western (gyeongyangsik) donkatsu place!! They also have a donkatsu-jjolmyeon set, so I got to enjoy that combo 🧡

• 📍Location: 11-13 Pyeongdong-ro 800beon-gil, 1st floor, unit 102, Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju, South Korea
• ⏰Hours: 10:00–21:00
• 🚘Parking: wide parking space in front of the restaurant
• 🐥High chairs available

Jinsim King Donkatsu Pyeongdong Branch menu and prices

At Jinsim King Donkatsu Pyeongdong Branch, the basic donkatsu is ₩10,900, and most of the noodle dishes are under ₩10,000. There's a huge variety of cutlets — regular, spicy, cheese, sweet potato cheese, fish, curry — plus a donkatsu nabe (hot pot). The noodle and rice side is just as varied, with jjolmyeon (spicy chewy noodles), kalguksu, naengmyeon, mobil (buckwheat noodles), bibimbap and tteokbokki.

Even the basic donkatsu is huge, so at ₩10,900 it's insanely good value — no wonder it's so popular with office workers near Pyeongdong Station at lunch. I ordered the Jinsim Jjol Cheese Katsu and the sweet potato cheese donkatsu.

Is there parking at Jinsim King Donkatsu?

The exterior of Jinsim King Donkatsu Pyeongdong Branch is spacious, and the parking lot is huge.

Inside, it was crowded with office workers and families too. My friends who work in Pyeongdong told me they've all been here haha. If you're craving donkatsu near Pyeongdong Station, this is the place to go!

What the self-serve bar includes: soup, broth, side dishes, lettuce wraps

At Jinsim King Donkatsu Pyeongdong Branch's self-serve bar you can comfortably grab soup, broth, and side dishes yourself. There are also lettuce wraps, so you can wrap your donkatsu if you like. But is wrapping donkatsu in lettuce a Gwangju thing...? When I was in university in Seoul I never once wrapped donkatsu in lettuce, but it seems like most gyeongyangsik franchise restaurants in Gwangju have wraps.

It's a restaurant with robot serving, and even though it didn't seem like I waited long, the food came out super fast!!

The donkatsu came with cabbage salad in a mayonnaise-based dressing, rice, peppers, and corn kernels. The donkatsu sauce here isn't too sour and has a gentle sweetness, which I liked, and it's got button mushrooms in it too, adding a chewy texture. The sauce isn't overpowering, so it went well with the cutlet.

Gochidon: pork cutlet piled with sweet potato mousse

The gochidon was a crispy fried donkatsu piled generously with sweet potato mousse. Crispy cutlet plus soft sweet potato mousse — what a great combo.

The sweet potato mousse was soft and subtly sweet, pairing well with the donkatsu's clean, savory flavor, and with the added cheese there was a nice nutty richness too 🧀🍠

Jinsim Jjol Cheese Katsu: jjolmyeon plus cheese-waterfall donkatsu

The Jinsim Jjol Cheese Katsu comes with jjolmyeon and a gyeongyangsik-style cheese donkatsu on a single plate — the portion alone is huge, so big eaters should go straight for this menu!! Being able to enjoy tangy jjolmyeon and cheese donkatsu together on one plate is a revelation.

The crispy donkatsu is stuffed full of cheese inside, making it plump. There's so much cheese in the cutlet that it pours out like a waterfall — it looked delicious from the moment it arrived.

The combination of crispy donkatsu with rich, stretchy cheese, punctuated by tangy-spicy jjolmyeon to reset your palate — I'm in love 🧡

That question I had about wrapped donkatsu — the crunchy, refreshing taste of the lettuce wrap added to the crispy, savory donkatsu really cuts the richness. It's an amazing refresher 🥬

Portions too big to finish? Pack the king donkatsu yourself

The king donkatsu at Jinsim King Donkatsu Pyeongdong Branch is so large and the portion so generous that many people take leftovers home, so there's a self-packing station too. I saw a lot of families with kids packing up their leftovers as well.

With so many industrial complexes near Pyeongdong Station, this is a great spot for office workers' lunch, and the generous portions make for a filling meal. With everything from jjolmyeon and cheese donkatsu to lettuce-wrap donkatsu, there's plenty of variety to pick from depending on your taste — a true hanwoo pork donkatsu spot. If you're looking for donkatsu near Pyeongdong Station, I'd recommend this place for both the generous portions and the great taste 👍