Diet lunch near Gyodae Station: seafood poke & egg sandwich, Salering

Why Salering Gyodae Direct Store: a diet lunch that actually tastes good

Salering Gyodae Direct Store is a place near Gyodae Station where you can eat out on a diet with poke and salad. It's summer and my clothes keep getting thinner, so I can't hide those sneaky extra pounds anymore. I've been busy lately, so I skipped workouts and didn't watch what I ate, and my weight crept up. I restarted my diet, but I wanted a break from the same diet meals at home and a tasty diet meal out, so I went to Salering Gyodae Direct Store, a Gyodae Station favorite.

• Salering Gyodae Direct Store: 15 Seocho-daero 56-gil, Seocho-gu, Seoul, 1st floor
• Mon–Fri 08:10 – 21:00
• Sat 11:10 – 19:00
• Closed Sundays

How far is Salering Gyodae Direct Store from Gyodae Station?

Salering Gyodae Direct Store is within a 5-minute walk of Gyodae Station, so it was easy to find. There are lots of offices around Gyodae, especially people working in law-related jobs, and this poke and salad spot is great for busy people who can't think about their diet and want a simple, tasty lunch.

Eating alone near Gyodae Station: Salering's window solo seats and roomy interior

The whole window side of Salering Gyodae Direct Store is set up with solo seats, so it suits eating alone near Gyodae Station. I assumed a salad and poke shop would be tiny, but the inside was way bigger than I expected. It's a perfect spot for solo diners on a busy lunch break.

People who are strict about their diet sometimes pack a lunch even on busy mornings, but home-packed lunches lack variety and get boring. For those who don't have time to pack a lunch, stopping by Salering for something simple keeps your stomach comfortable and full all day. I'd totally recommend it to anyone dieting for summer.

Salering Gyodae menu: poke, salads, cleanse juice and evening drinks

Salering sells a wide range: poke, salads, sandwiches, salad wraps and diet lunch boxes. There are 1-person and 2-person set menus too, which makes ordering convenient.

There's also detox tea and cleanse juice, so it felt less like just eating tasty food and more like eating something healthy and nutritious.

They sell coffee too, the office-worker essential. And they serve alcohol in the evening, so if you're worried about gaining weight, I thought you could order a salad at Salering and have a drink with it.

Extra toppings and a drink discount with any sandwich at Salering

For items like poke and sandwiches, you can add the toppings you want on top of the basic ones. Ordering a sandwich also gets you a discount on a drink, so it's a great-value, nutritious and tasty lunch at a discounted price, which I loved.

Salering's open kitchen makes the food feel trustworthy

The kitchen at Salering Gyodae Direct Store is open, so you can see right inside. It was kept so neat and clean that it practically shone, which made me trust the place even more.

What's in Salering's Seafood All-in-One Poke?

What I ordered at Salering Gyodae Direct Store was the Seafood All-in-One Poke, packed with all the seafood I love. There are many kinds of poke and you can pick your own combination by topping, so I agonized for a long time over what to order.

The Seafood All-in-One Poke starts with my favorite raw salmon, plus grilled shrimp and scallops, along with tomato, egg strips, cabbage and 15 kinds of vegetables and superfoods in total. It comes with brown rice as standard, and you can add toppings you like to customize your own poke.

What does Salering bibim sauce taste like?

Salering bibim sauce (bibimjang, a spicy mixing sauce) tastes like gochujang (red chili paste) with sesame oil. I stuck with the basic menu, and you can also choose the sauce for your poke. There are really lots of sauces and I agonized over which one, but I went with Salering sauce, the most basic one at Salering. It's basically bibimbap gochujang, so it's bound to taste good on anything.

If you can't decide among so many sauces, there's a sign next to the ordering counter recommending the best-matching sauce for each menu item, so you can check that when you order. For the Seafood All-in-One Bibim Poke I ordered, it says Myeongran Wasabi Mayo, Basil Garlic Mayo and Rose Onion sauce go well. If you're not sure, just order Salering's signature sauce, Salering bibim sauce, like I did haha.

I mixed the bibim sauce with the poke, and the ingredients were fresh and the sauce was delicious, so it was so good. I always just ate salad and never managed a properly nutritious meal, but with brown rice in it I felt full, and with vegetables and a variety of seafood it felt like a proper meal.

On a diet it's best to eat lunch properly and keep breakfast and dinner light, and Salering poke fits that approach perfectly. It's a healthy meal, so I thought it would be a great one for people living alone who find it hard to get proper nutrition.

How were Salering's Egg Bomb Sandwich and iced café latte?

The Egg Bomb Sandwich at Salering Gyodae Direct Store is a crispy-bread sandwich stuffed generously with egg mayo. It's my husband's favorite, so we ordered it together, and I wanted coffee with my sandwich, so I got an iced café latte. Ordering it with a sandwich got me the coffee at a discount, which was nice.

I heard the egg mayo has a whopping 25g of protein, so for dieters who need protein, it's tasty and protein-packed at once.

It's not just plain egg mayo; there's a special sauce too, so it's sweet with a slightly spicy kick. That was the highlight, so it wasn't greasy and tasted even better. With coffee alongside, it was a hearty meal that couldn't have been better.

Dieting meant always eating skimpy meals and holding back on everything I wanted, which was hard. I highly recommend Salering's poke, salads and sandwiches, which let you eat deliciously while still getting good nutrition and looking after your health.