Japanese dinner at Gardenfive: ₩37,000 abalone rice & katsu, Gomemui

Dinner while shopping at Gardenfive: Gomemui Hyundai Gardenfive

Gomemui Hyundai Gardenfive is a Japanese pot rice (kamameshi-style rice cooked in an individual pot) and tonkatsu restaurant inside Gardenfive, near Jangji Station. I stopped by for dinner in the middle of shopping, haha. Once you walk into Gardenfive there's so much to look around that time just disappears, and this day I wandered here and there and suddenly it was dinnertime, lol.

I wanted a hearty rice meal but I was also craving tonkatsu, and Gomemui is what I found while searching. It specializes in Japanese pot rice and tonkatsu.

Since Gomemui Hyundai Gardenfive is inside Gardenfive, it's easy to fit a meal into your shopping route, and on a bad-weather day you don't have to go outside at all, which is a sneaky plus, haha. The restaurant's name was also pretty unusual.

What does the name Gomemui mean?

According to the sign in the shop, "Gomemui" combines the Japanese "kome" (米), meaning rice, with "mui" (無二), meaning one and only. It also carries the meaning of the French word gourmet, so a lot of thought clearly went into the name, lol.

Gomemui menu and prices

The menu had quite a variety of pot rice: perilla oil mushroom pot rice, wild sea bream pot rice with seasonal greens, steak pot rice, abalone pot rice, salmon soboro (crumbled salmon) pot rice, eel pot rice and more.

The tonkatsu is split into rosukatsu (pork loin cutlet), hirekatsu (pork tenderloin cutlet) and whole mozzarella cheese katsu. There's also maze udon (udon with mixed toppings), mentaiko butter udon, cold soba and curry, so it looks easy to choose a menu even with a group, haha.

• Abalone pot rice ₩17,000
• Rosukatsu ₩14,000
• Mini rosukatsu ₩6,000
• Total ₩37,000

Gomemui's specialty: koji

What caught my eye on the menu was koji (a fermenting mold used in Korean and Japanese cooking).

Gomemui says it uses fermented sauces like koji salt, rice koji and soy sauce koji in its food. The katsu in particular is rosukatsu aged in salt koji, haha. That's a bit different from a typical tonkatsu place, so I was looking forward to it.

How is the abalone pot rice (₩17,000)?

Gomemui's abalone pot rice comes with plenty of chopped scallion and sesame, topped with a generous amount of sliced abalone. Abalone pot rice first! As soon as I lifted the lid, there was lots of chopped scallion and sesame, and quite a generous amount of abalone on top. The abalone wasn't just one whole piece plopped on; it was cut into bite-size pieces, so it was easy to mix with the rice, haha.

The abalone's signature chewy texture was still there, so a big spoonful was really satisfying to chew. The rice was moist and sticky, as pot rice should be. Rather than mixing wildly from the start, I found it better to mix the abalone and rice evenly first and then eat.

It also comes with seaweed, so wrapping rice and abalone in it is tasty too, lol. The mild flavor of the abalone mixed with the nutty sesame and scallion aroma, so overall it wasn't strong at all and was comfortable to eat.

How to eat abalone pot rice without getting tired of it

Eat it plain, then wrapped in seaweed, then with the seasoning that comes alongside, and finish with sungnyung (scorched rice tea), and you won't get bored. Adding a little of the seasoning here and there really lifts the savory depth, haha. What I personally liked about the abalone pot rice is that you don't have to eat it one way from start to finish. I ate the abalone and rice plain, then wrapped it in seaweed, then added a bit of seasoning, and it was less tiring than I expected. At the end you can turn the rice left in the pot into sungnyung, which was nice too.

One warm bite wipes the palate clean after the tonkatsu, lol. Honestly, you only feel like you've properly eaten pot rice once you've had that last spoonful.

How was the salt koji-aged rosukatsu (₩14,000)?

Gomemui's salt koji-aged rosukatsu was very thick, yet crispy outside and tender inside. You can tell from the photo, but the cut is seriously thick, haha. The coating was golden, and the loin inside stayed juicy. One bite and the outside was crunchy while the meat was more tender than I expected. I liked that despite the thickness it didn't feel tough at all.

The rosukatsu comes with cabbage salad, rice, soup, sauce, salt and pickles, so the set is quite filling. First I ate the katsu with nothing on it, then dipped it lightly in salt, and personally I liked the salt combination, haha.

The savory flavor of the meat came through more clearly. Then dipping it in the tonkatsu sauce turns it into a familiar, richer taste, lol. It's one cutlet, but alternating between salt and sauce meant I enjoyed it to the end. The cabbage came with a generous amount of nutty dressing.

A few bites of crispy katsu and then a bite of cabbage feels like a reset, so this combination is a must, haha.

When should you add the mini rosukatsu (₩6,000)?

The mini rosukatsu works when you want a little katsu alongside your pot rice. If a full katsu main feels like too much but pot rice alone feels a bit lacking, it looks like a good add-on.

What about ordering abalone pot rice and rosukatsu together?

Ordering the abalone pot rice and rosukatsu together at Gomemui turned out to be a pretty good combination.

One is mild, moist pot rice and the other is crispy, savory tonkatsu, so they're completely different, haha. Because of that, I didn't tire of alternating between them. If two people go, ordering one pot rice and one katsu to share seems like a good idea, lol.

Gomemui felt more memorable than just a place that sells tonkatsu and pot rice together, because it has its own concept of using koji.

Overall verdict on Gomemui Hyundai Gardenfive

The abalone pot rice in particular was filling, with generous abalone and a meal you can enjoy slowly from the rice to the sungnyung. The rosukatsu was fun too, with thick meat, a crispy coating, and the chance to alternate between salt and sauce, haha.

It's a place to remember when you're shopping at Gardenfive and want a proper meal. Another plus: a tonkatsu lover and a pot rice lover can go together and never fight over the menu, lol. Next time I'd like to try the steak pot rice or eel pot rice, which looked really good in the photos :) If you're looking for pot rice or tonkatsu at Gardenfive, Gomemui Hyundai Gardenfive is worth a stop, haha.