Yeouido Jonghap Sangga gyukatsu restaurant: comparing sets at Izawa

Izawa Yeouido Direct Store Location 2F (Units 203, 204), 42 Yeouinaru-ro, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul 5-minute walk from Yeouido Station Exit 5 Hours Daily 11:00-21:00 Parking 1st-floor ground parking (free for 1 hour) *Underground parking (paid) Reservations Catch Table

The Yeouido gyukatsu restaurant office workers rush to at lunch

Today's Yeouido restaurant recommendation comes straight from a Yeouido office worker haha. This is a place I go to for lunch with my coworkers all the time — Izawa Yeouido Direct Store, a real gyukatsu (breaded pork/beef cutlet) favorite in Yeouido!

Since I'm such a regular here, this time I brought my boyfriend along after work haha. You know that slightly nervous feeling when you bring someone to your go-to spot…? Would it win over his taste buds too? Dun dun dun.

Izawa on the 2nd floor of Yeouido Jonghap Sangga: how long is the lunch wait?

Izawa Yeouido Direct Store is on the 2nd floor of Yeouido Jonghap Sangga (여의도종합상가), nicknamed "Yeojong," right in front of Yeouido Station Exit 5! Being so close to the station makes it great for a quick lunch run, but that also means it gets packed at lunchtime ㅠㅠ Once it passes 11:30, the wait tends to stretch out, so whenever I'm going with coworkers, we all sprint over the second lunch break starts haha.

Izawa seats you only once your whole group has arrived

Important note! You can't have one person go ahead and save a table — the whole group has to be present before you're seated ㅠㅠ When I visited, there was no separate Catch Table or Naver reservation system yet; you just wrote your name on the store's waiting list and waited. If you're visiting for lunch, keep this in mind and make sure your whole group is together before heading in!

Seating at Izawa: 2–4 person tables, bar table for solo diners

Once you're inside, most of the seating is set up for groups of 2 to 4.

There's a kiosk installed at every table, which makes it hard to push multiple tables together! So this is more of a Yeouido restaurant for a light lunch or dinner with 2–4 people than for a big group dinner.

There's also a separate bar table on one side, which looked great for eating gyukatsu solo. Certified as a solid Yeouido spot for solo dining too!

Ordering at Izawa: gyukatsu set, steki set and extra curry sauce

We ordered the gyukatsu set + steki set + curry sauce!

When you order gyukatsu, they set up an individual grill for you before the food even arrives! It works by putting solid fuel inside to heat the plate, then you cook the meat yourself in small pieces.

Gyukatsu vs steki at Izawa: what is the difference?

Here's one reason I love Izawa! Both the gyukatsu set and steki set use sirloin (chaekkeutsal). The moment it comes out, you can see the pretty marbling on the cut surface, and it already looks delicious… ♥ The two look similar, but once you taste them, there's quite a difference.

Gyukatsu comes coated in breading and fried, so the outside is crispy while the inside stays soft! With each bite you get the crunchy coating and the juicy sirloin together, which makes for a genuinely fun texture.

Steki, on the other hand, comes with no breading — just the surface of the meat lightly seared. Without the coating, you get to enjoy the meat's own tender texture and flavor a bit more directly!

So if you like a crispy texture, go for gyukatsu; if you want to enjoy the meat itself in a softer way, go for steki!! If you're curious about both like me, the best move is going with two people and ordering one of each 🪽

When it first arrives, only the outside is seared and the inside is barely cooked, so you place each piece on your personal grill and cook it to your preferred doneness yourself 🔥

Two dipping sauces, plus a dedicated sauce for the steki

Basically, two sauces come out together — a soy-based sauce and a nutty sauce!! Grilling one piece at a time and dipping into each sauce alternately lets you enjoy the same gyukatsu in slightly different ways! The steki set comes with an extra dedicated steki sauce on top of that. With the gyukatsu and steki already having different textures, and different sauces to pair with each, comparing the two menu items was a lot of fun haha.

Worth adding: Izawa's mildly spicy curry sauce

One more thing I want to recommend: the curry sauce! I added it because eating just gyukatsu felt a little plain, and it turned out to have a bit more spice than I expected — completely my type.

Dip the meat in curry once, then mix curry into the rice for another round… it's a combo that can wipe out a whole bowl of rice haha. It especially pairs well with the crispy breading on the gyukatsu, so I think I'll be adding it again next time too!!

A regular's verdict on dinner at Izawa Yeouido

This is genuinely a place I go for lunch with my coworkers all the time, and this time I finally brought my boyfriend along to Izawa Yeouido Direct Store! Between the fun of grilling the meat yourself over the little burner and being able to choose between gyukatsu and steki depending on your mood, I don't think I'll ever get tired of coming back. If you want a proper meal of crispy gyukatsu with rice in Yeouido, I recommend Izawa — my go-to gyukatsu spot in the neighborhood ♥