Yeouido gyukatsu restaurant, late-lunch dontorodong pork bowl: Izawa

Izawa Yeouido Direct Store hours and parking

Izawa Yeouido Direct Store is open 11:00–21:00, with break time from 15:00 to 17:00. Parking is available too.

Today I visited Izawa (이자와), a gyukatsu (breaded beef cutlet) specialist near Yeouido Station. It sits right in front of Yeouido Station on Line 5. Office workers in Yeouido kept saying it's really good, so I decided to try it myself.

How to get to Izawa from Yeouido Station

Izawa Yeouido Direct Store really is right in front of Yeouido Station, so it was very easy to get to. Parking is available, so driving works too, and the restaurant is on the 2nd floor of the building.

I went up the stairs to the 2nd floor and the restaurant was right there.

Weekday lunch waits: go late

Weekday lunch at Izawa Yeouido Direct Store seemed to always have a wait, and there was a waiting list board where you write your name. To avoid the crowds, I went for a late lunch.

Izawa is said to be the best gyukatsu place in Yeouido, and it's apparently hugely popular with the area's office workers.

Izawa's atmosphere and solo bar seating

The whole place looked clean and tidy, with a strong Japanese restaurant feel.

I spotted bar seats for solo diners and sat there. The counter is right at the window, so you can look down over the whole Yeouido Station intersection, which I loved. The view was honestly on par with a fancy restaurant.

Why I ordered dontorodong instead of gyukatsu

This time at Izawa I ordered a dish called dontorodong (돈토로동, a pork rice bowl) instead of gyukatsu. The gyukatsu is really good too, but a friend of mine loves Izawa's dontorodong, so I followed their lead. This friend is a regular at Izawa and raved about it, so my expectations were high.

How was Izawa's dontorodong in taste and texture?

Izawa's dontorodong is a rice bowl piled high with finely chopped pork, and the springy, chewy texture left the biggest impression. It came out looking very appetizing, neatly arranged on a tray, and it looked delicious just sitting there.

Finely sliced pork was heaped over the rice, and the portion was big and looked tasty.

I mixed it with the sauce and dug in, and the flavor was great right away. The sauce was so good, and with its aroma the pork was wonderfully chewy. Unlike ordinary meat, this pork was springy and chewy at once, and the texture was honestly a work of art. It was a rice bowl unlike anything I'd had elsewhere, and I was really satisfied, since you get great texture on top of great taste.

The soup and salad served with dontorodong

I also tried the soup that came with the dontorodong, and it paired perfectly with the rice bowl. Taking a sip between bites left my mouth feeling really fresh.

The crunchy salad was very good too.

Is Izawa's dontorodong worth coming back for?

Taking a big bite of the well-mixed dontorodong made for a really satisfying meal. I've been to a lot of Japanese restaurants, but Izawa felt like the real deal, with the true flavor of Japanese food done properly.

In particular, it nails dontorodong, which you can't easily find anywhere in Korea, so I could taste it just as I would in Japan. I could see why Izawa is counted among the famous Japanese restaurants in Yeouido, an area known for its many great eateries. If you're looking in Yeouido for proper Japanese food, a tasty rice bowl or gyukatsu, Izawa is well worth a visit. Next time I'll go back and try the Izawa gyukatsu.