Two gyukatsu set meals and a mini curry at Izawa, Cheonan Sinbu-dong

I'm a Cheonan local, and this is a place I've been going to with friends since high school — a Cheonan Sinbu-dong favorite known for gyukatsu (breaded beef cutlet), 'Izawa Cheonan Sinbu-dong Branch.' I dropped by again after a while and, spoiler alert: it was still just as good.

Where is Izawa Cheonan Sinbu-dong Branch, and what are its hours?

Izawa Cheonan Sinbu-dong Branch is located at 18-1 Meokgeori 10-gil, Dongnam-gu, Cheonan-si, Chungcheongnam-do. Hours are Tuesday–Sunday 11:30–21:00, with a break time from 14:40–16:30 and last order at 19:50.

What's on the menu at Izawa Sinbu-dong?

They had gyukatsu, steak rice bowl, gyukatsu curry, pork belly rice bowl, and beef rice bowl, plus a regular and double portion option for the gyukatsu set. If you want to eat a lot of meat, you can order the extra meat option for gyukatsu. Honestly, the basic set alone was plenty filling!

Beyond gyukatsu, there were plenty of other options too — whole mozzarella cheese cutlet set, loin cutlet set, special loin cutlet set, mazesoba, banzi ramen, cold soba, and more. Apparently the pork cutlet dishes are about to be discontinued!

There were also combo sets, which looked great for sharing multiple dishes with the person you're with.

Inside Izawa: atmosphere and the weekend lunch wait

The inside of Izawa Cheonan Sinbu-dong Branch has a strong Japanese vibe and felt spacious and comfortable. There was a bit of a wait when I visited for weekend lunch. If you take part in the Naver receipt review event, you get a free mini curry, so definitely give that a try haha.

What comes with two 17,000 won gyukatsu set meals?

We ordered two of the ₩17,000 gyukatsu sets, the regular version. It comes with the gyukatsu, cabbage salad, rice, kimchi, and soup. It came out clean and neatly arranged, so it seemed like a fine place for a date too.

The meat looked so good. Time to dig in!

According to the restaurant, this dish uses Izawa's own high-quality beef, an aging method built on skill and care, and their special sauce and seasoning.

You cook the meat yourself on the tabletop grill. There was plenty of rice too, and the soup was tasty. There was furikake sprinkled on top, which made the rice completely irresistible.

How hot did the tabletop grill stay?

Throughout the whole meal, the grill heat at Izawa stayed at just the right, strong level, so the meat cooked well. They put the meat on first haha. At other gyukatsu places, the grill heat is often too weak — the meat cooks fine at first, but as time goes on the heat drops and the meat doesn't cook properly, which is annoying. That wasn't the case at Izawa.

The meat cooked quickly too. They flip it front and back to cook it evenly haha. It looked and smelled so good I couldn't wait to eat.

The two special sauces and the cabbage salad

Dipping the meat in the special sauces they gave us made it even better. The meat itself was tender and the batter was crispy — a great combo. One sauce tasted like it had wasabi in it, and the other seemed to be soy-based.

Eating just meat can get greasy, but there was plenty of cabbage salad, so alternating a bite of salad in between kept things clean and refreshing. The salad was fresh and tasty too.

Can't let the meat run out, right, haha — so we greedily loaded the whole grill without leaving a single gap lol. Flip flip, cooking it up. The meat cooked really well, and I was so, so satisfied.

So juicy and tender that we finished it all in no time.

The free mini curry from the receipt review event

The curry we got from the review event was also super tasty. It was great mixed with rice, dipped with the gyukatsu, and I ended up finishing a whole bowl of rice with it too. Even after coming back after a long time, it was still a delicious spot full of memories.

If you're looking for a Cheonan Sinbu-dong restaurant or a gyukatsu spot, I recommend 'Izawa Cheonan Sinbu-dong Branch.' Definitely go check it out!