Post-shopping tonkatsu in Yeonnam-dong, loin and gyoza: Katsu Monster
In short
Katsu Monster Yeonnam Main Branch is a semi-basement tonkatsu restaurant on Donggyo-ro 38-gil in Yeonnam-dong, Mapo, Seoul. After browsing clothing shops, the writer arrived at 6pm and ordered loin katsu for ₩14,000, fillet katsu for ₩16,000 and fried gyoza dumplings for ₩5,000, eating them with salt first, then wasabi, then tonkatsu sauce. At Katsu Monster the thick, chewy loin katsu was the top pick for both friends, and the fillet katsu came in two generous rows.
Good to know
- Address
- Unit 101, 1F, 42-6 Donggyo-ro 38-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul
- Hours
- Daily 10:30–23:00; Wed–Thu 10:30–21:00
- Break time
- 15:30–16:30
- Last order
- 22:30
- Rosu katsu (pork loin)
- ₩14,000
- Hire katsu (pork fillet)
- ₩16,000
- Fried gyoza dumplings (6 pieces)
- ₩5,000
- Seating
- Two tables for 2, one table for 4, bar seats for solo diners
- Delivery
- Available on Baemin
- Price reference
- ₩14,000 ≈ $10.5 · ₩16,000 ≈ $12 · ₩5,000 ≈ $3.7 (2026-09-30)
as written by the visitor on Aug 7, 2026
Hi, it's Rumi 🌺 Am I imagining it, or have I been going to Hongdae a lot lately ..? 🥹
If any of you are dating in Hongdae, I recommend this route: browse clothes → Katsu Monster → Gomango dessert 💖 Anyway, after checking out some clothing shops, we came to a famous tonkatsu (breaded pork cutlet) place in Hongdae 🫶🏻
Location and hours of Katsu Monster Yeonnam Main Branch
Katsu Monster Yeonnam Main Branch is at 42-6 Donggyo-ro 38-gil, 1st Floor, Unit 101, Mapo-gu, Seoul. It's open daily 10:30–23:00, Wednesday and Thursday 10:30–21:00, with a break time of 15:30–16:30 and last order at 22:30. It's also on Baemin delivery 🙆🏻♀️
If you spot this alley, just walk straight down it!
Then you'll find the shop tucked in a semi-basement! The left side is the tonkatsu place ❤️ (the right side is a café). It's a bit of a walk from Yeonnam-dong so it can get hot, but we held out for the good food ,, ✨
Solo seats and 2-person tables inside Katsu Monster Yeonnam Main Branch
Here's what the inside of Katsu Monster Yeonnam Main Branch looks like! It was crowded around 6pm, but by the time we finished eating and left it had emptied out enough for me to take photos haha. It's also great for solo dining!!
Sit over there and you can totally watch YouTube while eating solo ✨
There are also 2-person seats for couples 🙆🏻♀️ There were two 2-person tables and one 4-person table!
They even put the tastiest way to eat it on the menu via QR code ,, 🥹
The sauces, water cups and small plates are all gathered together like this, and you spin it around like a Chinese lazy Susan haha.
There's also a water dispenser and tissues! I noticed they do a ton of delivery here. Feels like a delivery hotspot, so maybe that's why the dining room was a liiittle rough around the edges … but the kitchen seemed super clean 😊
Because it's a semi-open kitchen, so you can watch them cook, and they seemed to prepare everything really cleanly.
The order Katsu Monster recommends for eating
Scan the QR code and the Monster tells you the tastiest way to eat it lol. Here's the summary ✨
- First bite with just salt!
- Then with wasabi!
- Then with the sweet-and-tangy tonkatsu sauce provided!
As the Monster instructed, I'm getting the salt ready 🤭 The salt grains were super fine! It was genuinely so good that I used it several times haha.
The full spread: loin katsu ₩14,000 and fillet katsu ₩16,000
Loin katsu ₩14,000 / Fillet katsu ₩16,000 / Fried gyoza dumplings (6pc) ₩5,000
The full spread comes out really generously! Salad, kimchi, clear soup, rice, and an old-fashioned dessert all come as standard, and you have to scoop your own salt or sauce from the rotating tray earlier ㅎㅎ
Loin katsu (Ros-katsu) — thick and chewy texture
🩷Loin katsu🩷 Let's start with the incredibly thick, chewy loin katsu!
This thickness is honestly ridiculous .. usually loin katsu makes you think of a really soft cutlet, but this place was a bit different!
Can you see this thick, chunky size..? 😍
And it's really chewy?? This is the first time I've had loin with this kind of texture — maybe because it's so thick, there was a lot to actually chew! But it wasn't dry at all. You can see it's subtly juicy 🥹
It's tastiest with salt, but the tonkatsu sauce was great here too ...! The batter was nicely crispy 🩷 but not too crispy, so it's mouth-roof friendly — usually this kind of thing scrapes up my mouth pretty badly, but here it barely did haha 🫰🏻 A moderate crispiness seems to make it even tastier ♡(͒ ᴖ ·̫ ᴖ⸝⸝ )♪*¸♪ Both my friend and I picked the loin over the fillet as our top choice!
Fried gyoza dumplings, ₩5,000
💛Fried gyoza dumplings💛 I'm a total dumpling fiend ,, so I ordered one serving haha.
Super crispy with great dumpling flavor! They're on the small side so they're perfect for one bite!!
Fillet katsu (Hire-katsu) — served in two generous rows
🧡Fillet katsu🧡 Seriously, have you ever seen a tonkatsu place — especially for fillet — serve it as two full rows? I was genuinely touched .. ㅜㅜㅜ Some really stingy places just give you 4–5 pieces and call it done, but here they lined up two whole rows, which already won me over ..
The fillet katsu was softer than the loin! But it still had some chew to it? Seems to be a signature trait of this tonkatsu place haha.
Can you see the juiciness ,, ✨ Absolutely gorgeous. And the generous portion already gets a pass from me ,,
This one's tastier with tonkatsu sauce rather than salt! It also pairs great with wasabi 💚
They even put charred cabbage into the clear soup, and it's absolutely delicious 🧡
Loin or fillet — which one to order
So today I introduced another famous tonkatsu spot in Hongdae!! It's great for solo dining and also great for dates, so I totally recommend it to anyone who loves tonkatsu ❤️
- If you want a big portion → go with fillet (Hire-katsu)
- If you like a chewy, thick texture → go with loin (Ros-katsu)
And that's a wrap for today 🫶🏻🩷
Where it is
42-6 Donggyo-ro 38-gil, 1st Floor, Unit 101, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea서울특별시 마포구 동교로38길 42-6 1층 101호 카츠몬스터 연남본점
