Mapo restaurant where you grill smoked sirloin gyukatsu: Gyudo

While looking for a good restaurant in Mapo, I visited Premium Gyukatsu Gyudo Mapo Gongdeok Main Branch. It is right at the entrance to the connected shopping area between Mapo Station exits 1 and 2, so it was easy to find.

A neat, warm restaurant atmosphere

I liked the atmosphere as soon as I walked in. It felt neat yet warm overall, and you could see the care put into every table and little decorative detail.

The menu was not just a list of dishes either. It had been put together thoughtfully to suit the restaurant's atmosphere, so it was fun to look through before the food arrived.

Looking around, you could tell they had paid attention not only to the food but also to the things guests use. There were individual drawers, cutlery pouches and toppings, plus a separate place to store coats, so I did not have to hang mine over my chair while eating. I also saw quite a few international diners during the meal. I wondered if it is a place lots of overseas visitors come to, haha.

Ordering the smoked sirloin gyukatsu set

We ordered the gyukatsu set: two smoked gyukatsu (sirloin) set meals, each served with gamtae myeongran (pollock roe wrapped in seaweed) and a drink.

While waiting, I considered which broth to pour over the nurungji (scorched rice) from the pot rice, and went with the safe choice of roasted Solomon's seal tea. There was rice beside the broths too, so you could have more if you needed it! I thought I would get another serving, but I was too full in the end, haha.

A beautifully arranged gyukatsu spread

All the food arrived at once, and the whole spread was presented so neatly.

The gyukatsu, pot rice, gamtae myeongran, and side dishes were all laid out cleanly, making it lovely to look at too.

Smoked gyukatsu grilled to your liking

The gyukatsu is not served fully cooked from the start. You grill it yourself on the tabletop brazier, putting on only as much as you want and cooking it to your preferred doneness. I really liked that approach.

Rather than grilling everything at once, I cooked just a few pieces to eat right away, which meant they stayed warm.

The gyukatsu melted in my mouth…! I was busy putting another piece on the brazier so there would not be a break in eating, haha.

It reminded me of the gyukatsu I had on a trip to Kyoto. That gyukatsu had been memorable because it was delicious too, and eating at Gyudo brought that moment right back. Maybe because this was smoked gyukatsu, it felt different from ordinary gyukatsu, and I enjoyed it so much!!

I kept reaching for the gyukatsu after grilling it over the brazier and having it with wasabi or sauce. It was fun to grill and eat each piece immediately, and I also liked being able to control the doneness myself throughout the meal.

Another thing I appreciated was that they did not just leave you to manage the brazier: they changed the grill plate partway through. It can get messy as you keep grilling meat, but replacing it with a fresh plate meant I could grill neatly until the very end. That was something I appreciated even more from actually dining there.

Pairing it with pot rice, broth, and gamtae myeongran

Pot rice came with the meal too, and it was not simply a bowl of rice. Three kinds of broth were available; you choose the one you want and bring it back in a kettle.

I could add broth to the pot rice while eating the gyukatsu, or have the meat and rice together, so there were several ways to enjoy one meal. The gamtae myeongran also came with it, and eating it with the rice made for another combination.

Alternating wasabi and sauce with the gyukatsu, then having gamtae myeongran and pot rice in between, made the meal far more filling than I expected.

Gyudo is a premium gyukatsu specialist operated as a directly managed store, and it says its smoked gyukatsu is made through wood smoking in an offset smoker. The restaurant also notes that it uses custom-made bangjja yugi (Korean brassware) and Sindongjin rice, showing care for both the food and tableware.

The food was truly delicious, grilling it myself over the brazier was fun, and with the grill plate changed halfway through, there was nothing uncomfortable about the meal. I came here while looking for a good restaurant in Mapo and left having eaten so well. It was especially delicious enough to remind me of the gyukatsu from my Kyoto trip, so I would like to come back whenever I am craving gyukatsu.