Cheese katsu and mushroom cream pasta in Buk-gu, Gwangju: Filling

This is Filling Donkatsu Gwangju Cheomdan Direct Store, a katsu restaurant in Gwangju Cheomdan selected for the Daedon Yeojido (대돈여지도) list of top katsu restaurants.

I heard there was a Daedon Yeojido-selected katsu place in Gwangju Cheomdan, so I went to check it out~! Daedon Yeojido picks 100 of the best katsu restaurants nationwide! Since I love katsu places, I couldn't pass up a Gwangju katsu spot. ^^ Totally, totally satisfied! The cheese katsu that stayed melty until the meal was over was truly the best!!

Location and hours at Filling Donkatsu Gwangju Cheomdan Direct Store

43-10 Cheomdangwagi-ro 208beon-gil, Building A, 2F, Room 207, Buk-gu, Gwangju, South Korea

• Tue–Sun 11:00 - 20:30
• Break time 15:00 - 17:00
• Last order 14:30, 20:00
• Closed every Monday
• Group seating, kids welcome, dogs welcome, parking available

Filling Donkatsu Gwangju Cheomdan Direct Store is located on the 2nd floor of the IBC Knowledge Industry Center. Head up through the Building A entrance next to Hanchon Seolleongtang on the 1st floor and you'll find it right away. Building parking is available too, so parking is easy!

Interior and self bar

The Daedon Yeojido nationwide katsu restaurant selection sign greets you right as you walk in^^ I've been to a lot of katsu places, but this was my first time at a Daedon Yeojido-selected spot, so my expectations were sky-high~ (and the result: totally satisfied!)

The restaurant was clean and comfortable, with a separate hall and rooms so it felt spacious — though it filled up with customers quickly.

Since lots of families come here for gatherings, there's naturally a baby chair, and a separate coat rack too. Dogs are welcome — if you call ahead, they'll seat you in a dog-friendly room!

Something you won't see at other places — a big fridge for aging the meat before it's made into katsu!

At the self bar you can help yourself to as much fresh salad, soup, toast, jangguk (clear soy soup), pickles, kimchi, dried radish strips and more as you like.

There's also soft-serve ice cream and a coffee machine you can use yourself. There are even to-go ice cups ready for the coffee. ^^

What we ordered

• Mushroom cream pasta ₩19,800
• 200-hour aged giant cheese katsu ₩18,500
• Grapefruit ade

Filling Donkatsu developed its own menu. Handmade onion katsu, wrap katsu, low-temperature tenderloin katsu, pasta, chuck flap steak bibimbap, sweet potato katsu, cheese katsu — so many unique dishes the whole family can enjoy.

After ordering at the kiosk, salad and soup came out first, and the salad was so fresh!

The salad had that crisp, still-alive freshness that made the vegetables taste sweet, haha

The soup was smooth too — no greasiness, just a deep, mellow flavor. Nice that there was hot soup at the self bar for refills, haha

Grapefruit ade, haha. The cup with the store's character on it was so cute^^ The taste was that same tangy-sweet grapefruit ade we all know!!

They give you pickles and kimchi, but there are other side dishes at the self bar, so grab whatever else you need!

How was the 200-hour aged giant cheese katsu?

The 200-hour aged whole-cheese katsu and mushroom cream pasta arrived~!! Overwhelming just from the look of it.

It was so thick and chunky, it looked amazing! From every angle, thick, thick, haha. Since the cheese is packed tightly into 200-hour aged, thick-cut meat, that's probably how it gets this thick!

Whoa~ what am I supposed to do with this. I was shocked by the cheese bomb pouring out as I cut into it, haha. This wasn't a thin layer of cheese inside the meat — it was properly, densely packed with generous, premium cheese!

The cheese itself was nutty and rich, and it stayed stretchy without hardening until the meal was over — I could tell they were using genuinely good cheese~!!

Thick, crispy, savory, tender, delicious — all of it, haha. Amazing with the salad too.

Mushroom cream pasta: rich flavor soaked into rigatoni

The mushroom cream pasta — this is another dish I completely fell for~!! The rich cream sauce aroma hit me the moment it arrived, and it was already delicious just from the smell, but tasting it, the flavor went even deeper than the smell suggested — thumbs up!

The rigatoni, packed with button mushrooms and sliced cheese in a rich cream sauce, let you taste the cream sauce more intensely than regular pasta noodles would.

The cream sauce was so rich, yet somehow full of savory flavor with zero greasiness — I'd spear a rigatoni with my fork, scoop up plenty of sauce with it, and take a bite, haha. It was seriously so good, tears.

Dessert, wrap-up, and a tip on wait times

For dessert after the meal I chose the soft-serve ice cream, and it was nice that it's set up for takeout too~!! If there's no wait, you could have ice cream and a coffee as well. But watching every table fill up in no time with a line forming, I was glad I'd gotten there early, and wrapped up my meal. ^^

Even after the meal, we kept saying how good Filling Donkatsu really was ^^ With standout dishes that nail both looks and taste, I highly recommend Filling Donkatsu Gwangju Cheomdan Direct Store, a katsu restaurant in Gwangju Cheomdan~!!