Gangnam Japanese restaurant: steki double with wasabi at Ichigyu

I had an appointment near Gangnam Station a few days ago and got a craving for Japanese food while I was out there. There are so many good restaurants between Gangnam Station and Sinnonhyeon Station that picking a menu is always kind of a struggle haha. This time I was looking for somewhere that could give me a hearty meat meal without being too heavy, and that's how I ended up at Ichigyu Gangnam Sinnonhyeon Branch.

How to get to Ichigyu Gangnam Sinnonhyeon Branch, and where to park

Ichigyu Gangnam Sinnonhyeon Branch is on the 2nd floor of the Maeumaeo annex building, across from Gusamyuk, a 3-minute walk from Sinnonhyeon Station Exit 4. If you're driving, there's no dedicated parking lot at the restaurant, so you'll need to use a nearby paid parking lot.

There's a Catch Table waitlist machine at the entrance where you can register and wait. I went right at the Friday 11am opening, so I was seated immediately with no wait.

• Location: 19 Bongeunsa-ro 4-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, 2nd floor
• Hours: Daily 11:00 – 21:30
• Parking: No on-site parking, use nearby paid parking lots

What is the dining room at Ichigyu like?

Going up to the 2nd floor, the interior was bigger than I expected! It's overall a wood-toned space, with menu-board-style decorations written in Japanese on the walls, which really gave off that Gangnam Japanese restaurant vibe.

Ichigyu is a place where you grill your own gyukatsu (beef cutlet) or steki (steak) right at the table, so it was hard not to notice the small brazier sitting at every table.

Ichigyu menu and prices

Looking at the Ichigyu menu, the first things that catch your eye are of course the signature gyukatsu and steki sets! Both the gyukatsu and steki are made with beef sirloin, and beyond the basic size, you can also add more meat with a jumbo or double option. Rather than feeling like a single-item gyukatsu specialty shop, the menu had a decent range of Japanese dishes — steki set, hamburg omurice, teppan chapsteak, Japanese curry, yakisoba Napolitan, cold soba with fried shrimp, and more. For drinks there were sodas like cola and Sprite, plus ramune and Kirin draft beer, all good pairings for the food.

True to a solid Sinnonhyeon restaurant, there was a helpful guide on how to eat gyukatsu properly and a breakdown of the gyukatsu set compositions. What we ordered: steki set double (jumbo) ₩32,000 and hamburg omurice ₩17,000.

Steki set double (jumbo), 32,000 won: grilling beef in butter

Before the main dish, white rice comes out first in this cute little bowl, so you can scoop out just as much as you want to eat haha.

The main dish that came out first was the steki set double (jumbo). True to its jumbo size, the plate came piled generously with meat, along with rice, soup, salad, and sauce. As a solid Gangnam gyukatsu spot should, the meat's color was quite vivid, so it looked delicious the moment I saw it haha. And the real fun of the steki set was something else entirely!

You melt this butter on the small brazier at the table first, then grill the steki yourself.

The meat doesn't come fully cooked from the start — you put on just as much as you want and grill it yourself. The moment you put the steki on, it starts sizzling right away, which was surprisingly fun haha.

I tried not to overcook it, keeping it medium-rare by searing just the outside. Rather than putting all the meat on at once, grilling it little by little as I ate meant I could enjoy it warm each time, which was great haha.

I picked up a piece of meat, dipped it in the sauce, and also tried it with a little wasabi on top — personally, the wasabi combo brought out the flavor of the steki itself while leaving a cleaner finish! Since steki doesn't have a breaded coating like gyukatsu, it really felt like eating the meat itself, straight off the grill. Ordering the steki set double (jumbo) meant a generous amount of meat, plenty to eat alongside the rice too.

Hamburg omurice, 17,000 won

And the hamburg omurice we ordered alongside it. This one earned its Sinnonhyeon Japanese restaurant credentials on looks alone 👍 A round, fluffy-looking omelet sits on top of the rice, with a hamburg patty underneath. The egg was fairly thick, so at first I thought rice and egg were the main event, but looking underneath, there was a hefty hamburg patty in there too.

They also brought the sauce separately and poured it over the omurice for us like this. The brown sauce trickling down over the fluffy omelet made for a great photo moment haha.

With plenty of sauce poured over the egg and spilling to the sides, it went perfectly with the rice, and the portion was generous too — I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a lunch spot near Gangnam Station or Sinnonhyeon Station 〰️

Cutting into the egg a little, you can see fried rice and hamburg patty inside, and the patty was thicker than expected. Rather than just eating plain rice, getting egg, fried rice, and hamburg steak all together in one bite made for a really satisfying spoonful. If the steki was about grilling the meat itself, the hamburg omurice was about eating the egg, sauce, and fried rice all together — so ordering both meant the flavors didn't overlap at all, which was great!

Is Ichigyu Gangnam Sinnonhyeon worth it?

The steki set at Ichigyu Gangnam Sinnonhyeon Branch was fun to eat since you grill the meat yourself right at the table, and I liked being able to cook it to exactly the doneness I wanted. The hamburg omurice, with fried rice and a hamburg patty tucked under the fluffy egg, turned out to be heartier than expected. If you're looking for a good restaurant near Gangnam Station, a Japanese restaurant in Sinnonhyeon, or a solid spot for solo lunch in Sinnonhyeon, I'd recommend giving Ichigyu Gangnam Sinnonhyeon Branch a visit haha.