Gyukatsu 2-person set with drink near Yeouido Station: Izawa

Not raw-meaty, not heavy like fried food — Izawa Yeouido Direct Store

I went to Yeouido to pick up some rice cakes and stopped by Izawa Yeouido Direct Store while looking for a lunch spot nearby. The gyukatsu here is really the real deal, haha. Honestly, a lot of gyukatsu places either feel too much like raw meat — barely different from steki — or go the opposite way with a thick, deep-fried pork-cutlet-style coating. Izawa Yeouido Direct Store nails the classic version: crisp on the outside, with a slightly rare, tataki-like center. If you're looking for gyukatsu near Yeouido Station, this is the style you'll want.

Location and lunchtime waiting at Izawa Yeouido Direct Store

Izawa Yeouido Direct Store sits on the 2nd floor of Yeouido Jonghap Sangga, right in front of Exit 5 of Yeouido Station. Go up the stairs to the 2nd floor and head to the right — it's easy to find, right next to Bonjuk. Access is great given how close it is to the station, but since it's a lunch spot for a lot of office workers, there's usually a wait. So I'd really recommend going after 12:30, haha. You know how early lunch starts in Yeouido, right? Going early is basically pointless. Even just avoiding the peak a little makes for a much more relaxed meal.

Izawa is the brand that first introduced gyukatsu to Korea back in 2015, and as a gyukatsu specialist, they apparently put a lot of care into the beef and cooking method. The gyukatsu comes out crisp outside and moist inside, and you grill it yourself on a personal mini stove to your liking.

Besides gyukatsu, there are other Japanese dishes like steki (steak), ramen, and mazesoba, which gave me the impression this is a good spot for a clean meal near Yeouido Station.

Gyukatsu 2-person set for 36,500 won — what's included

We had the gyukatsu 2-person set. You could just order two regular gyukatsu sets (18,000 won each), but the 2-person set comes with one drink included for 36,500 won. Since that's basically a drink added for just 500 won, we went with this option, haha.

My husband isn't really a fan of fried food, so he usually orders steki whenever we go to a gyukatsu place, but steki was sold out that day so he had gyukatsu instead. I was a little worried, but it wasn't greasy at all — quite light — so he ended up finishing his whole portion. He even said he could've eaten more..! (He usually only eats 0.5–0.7 portions of pork cutlet or fried food.)

Crisp-outside, moist-inside texture and stove grilling

I especially loved the texture of the outer coating. It was crisp but not overly dry — there was still some moisture to it, so the bite felt really good. The inside came out slightly rare in the center, like tataki, so I grilled each piece a bit more on the personal stove according to my taste.

For me, it tasted better when I didn't grill it all the way through and left a bit of that moist center. I get why this is such a popular pick when people search for gyukatsu near Yeouido Station.

Special sauce and side dishes

The set came with cabbage salad, doenjang soup, and rice. The special sauce was great too. It wasn't thick and rich like a typical pork cutlet sauce, nor was it sweet-coated like teriyaki sauce — it was on the thinner side, so it didn't overpower the taste of the meat and just lightly coated the gyukatsu, which made it easy to eat together. It's hard to pin down exactly what flavor it was, but the more I dipped, the more I kept reaching for it, haha.

Overall it was a clean, satisfying meal. For a beef dish in Yeouido at this price, it's pretty good.

Space and atmosphere

The interior was fancier than I expected, haha. Yeouido Jonghap Sangga is a somewhat old building, but inside it's done up in soft brown and wood tones with slightly dim lighting, giving it more of a calm izakaya vibe than a plain lunch spot.

Since it's near Yeouido Station, there are a lot of office workers at lunch, but if you avoid that time, the atmosphere itself is clean enough for a date. It didn't feel like too much pressure for solo dining either, and it's not a loud, bustling kind of place, so if you're looking for a Yeouido restaurant that's a clean Japanese spot, this could be a good match.

Also, apparently this place is known as a regular spot for singer Lim Young-woong. There were even signed autographs on display, haha. I can't be the only one who finds that extra intriguing, right?

Final thoughts

Izawa Yeouido Direct Store was a satisfying spot to visit whenever I want gyukatsu in Yeouido. It's easy to get to near Exit 5 of Yeouido Station, and I liked that it wasn't too raw-meaty or too heavy like fried food.

It has that signature gyukatsu moistness while keeping the crispness of fried coating alive, so anyone looking for gyukatsu near Yeouido Station would probably like it. If you're after a clean Japanese meal near Yeouido Station, it's worth a visit.