Sangam-dong katsu lunch: salt, kosho and truffle sauce at Kitto

Lunch spot recommendation in Sangam-dong DDMC — K I T T O 🍴

Today I'm writing about the delicious katsu I had at Kitto, a Japanese-style katsu restaurant in Sangam-dong DDMC.

Kitto's opening hours and break time

• ⏰️ Hours: Weekdays 11:10 - 21:00, Sat 12:00 - 21:00
• 💤 Break time: 15:00 - 17:00
• 🛎 Last order: 14:00, 20:00
• 🗓 Closed: Every Sunday

How to walk to Kitto from Digital Media City Station

Kitto is near the Sangam-dong community center, in the Sangam-dong food alley across from DDMC, a 4-minute walk from Exit 9 of Digital Media City Station, on the 2nd floor above the Baengnyeonsonnim restaurant.

Inside Kitto: a café-like room in the Sangam-dong food alley

My first impression of Kitto wasn't of an ordinary restaurant but of the kind of aesthetic café you'd see on Instagram. The warm, cozy wood interior was pure feel-good café vibes. It was a rare aesthetic gem in the old-school Sangam-dong food alley.

Does Kitto work for solo diners?

Kitto's tables come in 2-seaters and 4-seaters, making it a good spot for a couple's date or a team lunch with friends or coworkers.

There's also a single counter seat by the picture window looking outside, so solo diners shouldn't feel any pressure about visiting.

Each table has water, a cup, and natural Maldon salt set out. There wasn't a speck of dust on the tables or cups — it was spotless.

Kitto menu and prices

The ordering system uses a QR code menu.

The main menu specializes in Japanese-style katsu — sirloin katsu, tenderloin katsu, mixed katsu, and more. Side dishes include curry, fried shrimp, and napolitan pasta, while drinks range from cola and cider to Asahi beer, lemon sawa, and matcha yuzu highball.

They give you a free soft drink if you write a Naver review, so it's worth trying.

• Sirloin katsu ₩15,000
• Tenderloin katsu ₩16,000
• Curry ₩4,000
• Fried shrimp ₩4,000

Low-temperature katsu: 15 minutes from order to table

Since it was our first visit, we ordered a good spread of main and side dishes. They say the katsu is cooked at low temperature and then served to preserve the meat's natural flavor and juices. Cooking is supposed to take 10-15 minutes after ordering, and we got everything in 15 minutes.

The moment the food arrived, I was surprised by how gorgeous the full katsu spread looked. The composition was really impressive .ᐟ

The katsu comes with tonkatsu sauce, gat kimchi (mustard leaf kimchi), wasabi, and kosho, plus natural Maldon salt on top — so you can enjoy the katsu in a lot of different ways.

The soup that came alongside was made with mushrooms, crown daisy, and clams — salty and refreshing, cutting right through the richness of the katsu.

Tenderloin katsu vs sirloin katsu at Kitto

The tenderloin katsu was so tender and juicy it really did melt in my mouth. No gamey smell, full of juice, with a clean, light flavor filling my mouth.

The sirloin katsu had a slightly firmer, chewier texture, with fat still attached that gave it a savory richness and a bigger burst of juicy flavor.

Three ways to eat Kitto's katsu: plain, salt, sauce

The menu had instructions on how to enjoy the katsu even more, so we followed along.

1️⃣ First bite, plain. We tried the katsu without any sauce or side dish, just as it is, and could fully taste its savory, clean flavor.

2️⃣ Second, dipped in salt. Dipping the katsu in the natural Maldon salt really brought its flavor to life.

3️⃣ With kosho, wasabi and tonkatsu sauce. It was my first time trying kosho at Kitto — apparently it's a sauce made from lemon and chili. Adding kosho and wasabi to the katsu brought a sharp kick that balanced out the richness of the meat. The tonkatsu sauce had a truffle oil aroma, and the combination of the katsu's flavor with the truffle oil doubled the richness.

Kitto's sides: fried shrimp and curry

The fried shrimp we ordered as a side had plump, tender shrimp meat coated in a crispy batter — biting into a full mouthful was pure ASMR.

The curry comes with a generous dusting of fried batter crumbs on top.

We mixed the curry with the rice that came in the katsu set. The curry had a fairly thick consistency but wasn't salty, so the rice went down easily. You can normally get ochazuke (rice in savory tea broth) too during the meal, but since we had curry we skipped it. The curry is delicious mixed with rice or dipped with the katsu — definitely order it as a side .ᐟ

House-made lemon sherbet to finish

After the meal, Kitto serves house-made sherbet. The refreshing lemon sherbet worked like a natural digestive.

A perfect finish .ᐟ

Even my old-school donkatsu husband liked Kitto

This was katsu better than what I had in Japan itself, at Sangam-dong DDMC's Kitto 🍴 My husband is a die-hard fan of old-school Western-style donkatsu and isn't usually into Japanese-style katsu, but he said Kitto's katsu was genuinely delicious and wanted to come back haha. I'd call that a real seal of approval for a true Sangam-dong local favorite. If you're looking for a proper katsu spot in Sangam-dong, go check out Kitto ᡣ𐭩