Gangbuk tonkatsu spot with kimchi katsu nabe: Katsu Shokudou Suyu

While hunting for a good Suyu Station restaurant, I got a craving for Japanese-style tonkatsu, so I went to Katsu Shokudou Suyu. I visited around 7pm and there were already a lot of customers inside.

Seems like a lot of people near Suyu Station come here looking for tonkatsu or Japanese food in general :) At Katsu Shokudou, a well-known Suyu Station spot, I had kimchi katsu nabe and added a tenderloin katsu (1pc) on the side.

Being able to eat tonkatsu together with a spicy kimchi broth made it perfect for dinner. Here's my honestly-really-good review of Katsu Shokudou near Suyu Station, starting right now!!

Where Katsu Shokudou Suyu is and what the restaurant feels like

Katsu Shokudou Suyu is about a 5-minute walk from Suyu Station on Line 4. It's on the first floor of the Episode Suyu building, so it wasn't hard to find.

I visited around 7pm, and the first thing I noticed walking in was that there were more customers than I expected. Still, the place itself was clean and had seats good for solo dining, so it didn't feel awkward to come alone :)

Overall it had a warm, cozy wood-toned feel, and with 2-person and 4-person tables too, it looked like a fine spot to visit with friends or family. Maybe because it was dinnertime, there were quite a lot of people eating, and it felt like plenty of Suyu Station office workers and local residents come here too.

What's on the menu at Katsu Shokudou Suyu

Katsu Shokudou has a wide range of menu items, from sirloin katsu and tenderloin katsu to different kinds of katsu nabe (hot pot with fried cutlet).

I ordered the kimchi katsu nabe :) And since eating just the kimchi katsu nabe alone felt like it wasn't enough, I added a tenderloin katsu (1pc) as a side. If you love tonkatsu, you've gotta add something like this, haha.

How does the kimchi katsu nabe taste?

The kimchi katsu nabe arrived :) Wow, it looked seriously appetizing right from the start. Inside the bubbling pot were kimchi, egg, and a generous amount of tonkatsu.

Because of the kimchi, it had a spicier, more refreshing edge than your typical katsu nabe! I tried the broth first, and the tangy kimchi flavor came through with a light spiciness that kept me spooning up more.

Eating it together with rice was really the perfect combo. And the tonkatsu inside had soaked up just the right amount of broth to become soft and moist. Crispy tonkatsu is great, but soft tonkatsu soaked in broth like this has its own charm too, haha.

Eating it with kimchi, plus the rice and broth together, felt like exactly the right choice when you're craving a warm, soupy dinner :)

I made pretty thorough work of the sides too — broth soup, cabbage salad, pickled radish, and pickled peppers, haha.

Is the tenderloin katsu (1 pc) side worth adding?

I also tried the tenderloin katsu (1pc). Honestly, adding this was such a good call lol. The tenderloin katsu had a crispy outside and a soft, tender inside — the meat itself was so tender it was easy to eat without feeling heavy.

If the kimchi katsu nabe is all about eating with the broth, the tenderloin katsu let me properly taste the tonkatsu on its own. It was good dipped in sauce, and good eaten with rice too. Alternating between the kimchi katsu nabe and a bite of tenderloin katsu partway through changed up the texture and made everything taste even better :) Wrapping up this genuinely satisfying review here!!