Seoul Station gyukatsu restaurant, wasabi and salt over sauce: Ichigyu

I was looking for somewhere to eat lunch or dinner near Seoul Station and found a gyukatsu (breaded beef cutlet) spot that's great solo or on a date, so I wanted to share it!

There are so many restaurants around Seoul Station that it's hard to decide what to eat, but this place let me enjoy classic crispy-outside-tender-inside gyukatsu and a clean, savory steak, both made with fresh sirloin and a special sauce full of care. Highly recommend!

Ichigyu Seoul Station Branch: location and opening hours

Ichigyu Seoul Station Branch is at 98 Huam-ro, B1 B116, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea. It's open Monday through Sunday from 11:00 to 21:30, with a break time from 15:00 to 17:00. Paid parking is available.

How Ichigyu started as a butcher shop

The restaurant sits underground, and with a name like Ichigyu and a menu like this, it immediately feels like a Japanese-style gyukatsu specialist. The backstory behind Ichigyu was fun too — a son who grew up helping his parents trim meat at their butcher shop wanted to bring the warm atmosphere of the butcher shop and the market into a restaurant, and that became Ichigyu.

It started from childhood memories of frying up leftover fresh meat at the butcher shop, and grew into a space where people could gather comfortably to eat meat and talk. Maybe that's why it doesn't feel like just a place that sells gyukatsu — it feels more like eating freshly trimmed meat straight from a butcher shop.

What is on the menu at Ichigyu Seoul Station Branch?

Ichigyu serves not just gyukatsu but also steak, omurice (omelette rice), steki-don (steak rice bowl), teppan chapsteak, Japanese-style curry, yakisoba Napolitan, and cold soba. There are set menus too, plus Japanese draft beer. Today I ordered the gyukatsu set and the steki set.

Ichigyu gyukatsu set (sirloin), 19,500 won

Ichigyu gyukatsu (sirloin) — ₩19,500. The signature menu item: nutty, savory sirloin coated in a thin, crispy breading. The set comes with salad, 3 sauces (including salt), rice, and soup.

The special sauce has a garlicky, tangy character, but for me the wasabi-and-salt combo was the tastiest!

How to grill gyukatsu with butter on a personal brazier

The best part of gyukatsu is that the outside comes pre-fried crispy while you grill the inside yourself, exactly to your liking! With butter set up on a personal brazier, I could cook each piece bit by bit to my own taste, adjusting the doneness however I wanted.

Personally I like my gyukatsu left a little moist inside rather than fully cooked through, so I grilled it piece by piece. I could really taste the nutty flavor unique to sirloin, along with the crispy texture of the breading against the tender meat inside.

Ichigyu steki set (sirloin), 19,500 won

Steki set (sirloin) — ₩19,500. A clean, unfried steak set that grills the sirloin as-is to preserve its natural meaty aroma and nuttiness. It uses the same sirloin as the gyukatsu but delivers a completely different experience, so if you're going with someone, I'd recommend ordering one of each to compare!

Since steki doesn't have breading like gyukatsu does, you get a more direct taste of the sirloin's clean flavor. It also comes with the same tangy special sauce with a hint of garlic, which brings out even more umami in the meat! I'd recommend dipping a sauce-coated piece of steak in rice with a little fresh wasabi on top.

Ichigyu gyukatsu set vs steki set: which should you order?

• Ichigyu gyukatsu — ₩19,500 / crispy breading with tender sirloin / recommended if you love that classic gyukatsu crispy-outside, tender-inside texture
• Steki set (sirloin) — ₩19,500 / a menu centered on the clean flavor of sirloin / no breading, so you taste the meat itself / great when you want a clean, straightforward meat experience

I'd come that day craving gyukatsu, so it tasted better to me! If there are two or more of you, I'd suggest ordering one of each so everyone can enjoy both :)