Seolleung Station group lunch for 9: gyukatsu at Gyuen Dang

A few of us from work went out to celebrate someone's engagement for lunch, phew.

I had a bunch of places on my radar, but ended up going with Gyuen Dang, since the one in Seongsu is famous and this branch had just opened.

But seriously, what is it with Seolleung? So many places just don't take lunch reservations. You can't exactly bring 9 people and wait in line, right? Restaurants, please start taking lunch reservations — it's not like we're a small group, how are we supposed to wait?

Anyway, Gyuen Dang takes reservations 🩵 and even said they'd set up a table so we could all sit together, so we went! Finally, new food in Seolleung 🤭

Oh, when I made the reservation I mentioned it was for an engagement celebration, but they said there's no special event for that, haha. A bit disappointing, but oh well.

Where Gyuen Dang Seolleung Branch is and how to book for a group

Gyuen Dang Seolleung Branch is on the 2nd floor, up a long flight of stairs — but it feels like a ground floor. I went right when it had just opened. The entrance is grand, so it's Gyuen Dang even seen upside down.

The place itself is small, so for a group you really need to call ahead to get seated together. Without a reservation, 6 people seems to be the max at one table. Definitely call ahead.

You can also register for waiting outside the restaurant.

This was our seat — they had the brazier already set up for us at the table.

The menu is pretty small, just the essentials, seems like!

Ordering tenderloin and sirloin gyukatsu for nine people

What we ordered at Gyuen Dang Seolleung Branch was tenderloin gyukatsu and sirloin gyukatsu. Everyone had been stressed all morning and held back the urge to order beer, haha. I wanted to try the omurice too, but somehow everyone ended up picking the main gyukatsu dishes!

I'm actually not usually a big fan of gyukatsu and don't eat it much, but I fell for it after having it for the first time in Fukuoka, so I was curious how this place would compare.

Oh, the food comes out SO fast, seriously!! Like, it's gyukatsu, how did it come out this quickly?! To the point where I was double-checking it was actually ours!!!! Great for not wasting our precious lunch hour.

The sirloin came out first! Plated neatly as a full set, very satisfying. And the salad and pickled radish that came with it were amazing!!! My coworkers all refilled the salad at least once. Eating the pickled radish right when things get greasy hits the spot.

This is the tenderloin I ordered!

Grilling gyukatsu with butter or without

Butter comes with the meal — but don't use it right away.

• First, grill the gyukatsu plain to taste the meat itself
• Then grill it in butter for extra richness

Personally I'm not that picky (I eat pretty much anything) so I couldn't really tell the difference between the sirloin and tenderloin, haha haha haha. Both were just soft and delicious! But I did prefer it grilled plain over cooked in butter — it felt cleaner and lighter, somehow more delicious that way.

Such cute people! They even gave me a wedding invitation.

How the two-people-per-brazier grilling works

Time to eat!! Tenderloin on the left, sirloin on the right! (One brazier shared between two people.) The difference between the two seemed to be... the length? Haha.

Grill it up nicely and eat it with salt or wasabi — so, so good! There wasn't as much oil splatter as I expected, so it was fine. But grilling with butter did splatter a bit more and left some black char stuck on. Still not bad at all. Best of all, sharing one brazier between two people made grilling easy. Don't go here without someone you're close with, haha.

It's also delicious piled on top of rice. The rice was nice and fluffy too, just right.

Dipping it in the sauce that came with the meal, then topping with wasabi, was also delicious. In Fukuoka I wasn't expecting much from gyukatsu and ended up loving it, and Gyuen Dang gave me a similar feeling! My coworkers who came along said it was so good too — hearing them say 'this is so good' while eating was such a relief.

What fell short, and the verdict on Gyuen Dang for a group lunch

What was a little disappointing about Gyuen Dang Seolleung Branch was that the solid fuel burns out fast, so you have to keep asking for replacements, which got a bit tedious. Other than that, very satisfying! Still, the staff kept circling around and topping things up, so it wasn't too inconvenient — they were pretty attentive about it.

I think I'd come back here again for another celebration lunch, or with coworkers I'm comfortable enough with, haha haha.