Yangjae, Seoul katsu restaurant with perilla oil soba: Yangjae Katsu

Today I visited a newly opened tonkatsu spot near Yangjae Station. 🍴

The place I went to is called Yangjae Katsu. It's only been open for a short while, but people say it's already got a scary waiting line, so I went to check it out myself 👀

Since it's so new, I was like "how good can it be that there's already a line?" haha. But after eating there, I could totally see why people are coming. So how was Yangjae Katsu's tonkatsu? Let me give you an honest rundown.

Inside Yangjae Katsu: the space and the seats

Walking through the alley near Yangjae Station, a Japanese-style sign lit up with warm lighting catches your eye. The overall look is clean with soft lighting, so visiting in the evening felt really nice. ✨

Inside, the space had a warm, clean wood-tone atmosphere. Besides table seating, there are also single seats by the window that are great for solo dining, so eating tonkatsu alone here wouldn't feel awkward at all. 🍚

Each table had napkins, toothpicks, and water neatly set up. There was also a little sign explaining how to enjoy tonkatsu the best way, which seemed handy for first-time visitors. 👀 Even this small touch made me think, "okay, I'm about to enjoy this tonkatsu properly" haha.

The menu and what to order together

Yangjae Katsu has basic tonkatsu single dishes like loin katsu, premium loin katsu, fillet katsu, and cheese katsu, plus a variety of set menus pairing them with fried shrimp, udon, or buckwheat soba.

I liked that you could mix and match according to your taste, like fillet katsu + cheese katsu, loin katsu + fried shrimp, or fillet katsu + fried shrimp. 👀

• Cheese katsu + fried shrimp: 17,500 won
• Buckwheat soba: 9,000 won

How it tasted

What comes with your order

After ordering, the basic side dishes to go with the tonkatsu arrived first. Salad, diced radish kimchi (kkakdugi), pickles, rice, and clear soup, plus tonkatsu sauce and tartar sauce for the fried shrimp! Salt, wasabi, and lemon were also set out so you could dip according to your taste. 🍋

Cheese katsu with fried shrimp

I'd consider myself something of a tonkatsu snob haha. Some of you might know I've been to a fair number of famous tonkatsu places, like Tonshow in Busan and Heki in Mangwon. Coming from someone like that... you really need to try the cheese katsu here.

The cheese stretches this much... If you've had cheese katsu before, you know that once it cools even a little, the cheese often hardens and the flavor drops fast, right? But here, it was still delicious even after cooling down. The signature nuttiness and chewy texture of the cheese stayed intact the whole time, so I could enjoy it deliciously to the last bite. 🧀

The fried shrimp that came alongside was also satisfying. 🍤 The shrimp itself was plump, so it wasn't just a thick batter shell — you could really feel the texture of the shrimp. I recently had fried shrimp where I was thinking "where did the shrimp go...?" haha, but here the ratio of batter to shrimp was just right. Dipping the fried shrimp into the tartar sauce gives you a completely different flavor from the tonkatsu.

Perilla oil soba

Does anyone know Gogiri Makguksu (고기리막국수)? Know their perilla oil makguksu (buckwheat noodles)? I've been a genuine fan of Gogiri Makguksu since it first opened, haha, and coming from that person, this perilla soba here... it just tastes similar.

The nutty perilla oil aroma blends with the clean, plain flavor unique to buckwheat noodles, and since I love this style of noodle, I really enjoyed it. Eating tonkatsu alone can get a bit greasy, but taking a bite of the perilla soba in between totally resets your palate! If you like Gogiri Makguksu, please come here ㅠㅠ🥹

Looking for pork cutlets near Yangjae Station?

✔ Strongly recommended

A few days ago I also visited Katsu Gongbang's Yangjae branch, and I'm sorry to the owner there, but if you're wondering "where's good tonkatsu near Yangjae Station?", I'd personally go with Yangjae Katsu haha.

I don't recommend a place unconditionally just because it's sponsored!

I enjoyed this so much that I'd genuinely want to come back and pay for it myself, so I'm leaving this strong recommendation. 🐷💙 If you've been looking for good tonkatsu near Yangjae Station, I really hope you get to try it at least once! Another delicious find added to the list today haha.

Would I revisit: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐