Seoul Station gyukatsu restaurant that serves in 5 minutes: Ichigyu

My boyfriend and I went to see the Do Ho Suh exhibition, and when we tried to head home, well... it was the weekend, so of course train tickets weren't easy to get. Lucky enough to snag one an hour later, we decided to grab dinner at Ichigyu, a gyukatsu spot just a 3-minute walk from Seoul Station, before heading home!

Why we picked Ichigyu for a meal near Seoul Station

I searched for good restaurants near Seoul Station but couldn't really find any actually close by, so I checked Kakao Map instead and there it was — Ichigyu, right in front of Seoul Station! I'd already eaten at another Ichigyu branch during a Gangwon-do trip, so I trusted it completely.

Gyukatsu (fried beef cutlet) has a nice atmosphere and makes for an easy, satisfying meal, so it's perfect for a date — and since it happened to be right at Seoul Station, it felt like we were on a little Seoul Station blind-date outing. Highly recommend it as a Seoul Station date spot — the price, atmosphere, and location are all spot on!

How to find Ichigyu Seoul Station Branch, and the seating inside

It's located directly across from Seoul Station, in the basement 1 level of the LG Seoul Station Building. Don't doubt yourself when you enter the 1st floor lobby — just take the escalator down one level and you'll find the food court! We actually walked in, thought we had the wrong place, and almost turned back before asking the lobby staff haha. I've included a photo of the signage for reference~!

There are two types of seating, 2-person and 4-person tables, with 10+ tables total, so even if there's a wait it shouldn't take too long.

Ordering Set 3 at Ichigyu for 42,000 won

Their signature is the gyukatsu! I've had the steak-don at another Ichigyu branch before too and it was genuinely amazing — highly recommend. We wanted a rice bowl dish as well, so we ordered Set 3 for ₩42,000: gyukatsu + steak-don + two sodas!

Can you claim both Ichigyu receipt review gifts?

There was also a receipt review event going on — scan the QR code, leave a review, and get either fried shrimp or grilled rice cake & cheese! Personally I thought the grilled rice cake and cheese sounded unique so it'd be more fun to eat, but then again their fried shrimp is really substantial, so I was torn...

Oh but the fried shrimp event!!!!!! Can be combined!!!!!!! Yes, you can join both the fried shrimp event and the cheese event at the same time, so do both and eat everything haha. The fried shrimp really is that good. The photo is from a previous visit — old Ichigyu fried shrimp!

Watch the brazier candle: how fast the food comes out

Soon after ordering, staff place a solid fuel candle in the tabletop grill. If the flame goes out mid-meal, just ask staff and they'll swap in a new candle and relight it. Be careful — if the candle shifts off to one side, the flame can reach the wall and scorch it! Looks like a lot of guests have had that happen, since the wall was pretty charred... I didn't need to know that, haha.

The food came out fast, which I loved! It arrived about 5 minutes after ordering. Great option if you're at Seoul Station with some time before your train and want something quick.

What comes with Ichigyu's signature gyukatsu, plus the Isigny butter

Ichigyu's signature dish, gyukatsu! It always comes with the single piece arranged sideways rather than centered, which makes it look nicer and more appetizing in photos too, haha.

The set comes with pickled cabbage, chili sauce, salt, wasabi, a generous bowl of rice, tofu miso soup, cabbage salad, and sauce!

They also give you a piece of butter per dish to use on the grill — and it's Isigny butter, famous as a premium French butter,,! Whoa,,🤍 you can imagine how good gyukatsu grilled in that rich, nutty butter tastes~~!~!

Once the grill is nicely heated, spread the butter on it, place a piece of gyukatsu on top, and grill it to your preferred doneness. The heat is stronger than you'd expect, so be careful if kids are around and might touch it or play with it! Plus a tip: the grill plate gets messy as you eat, so just ask staff and they'll swap it for a clean one.

How long to grill the gyukatsu: about 7 seconds per side

It cooks faster than you'd think, so Ichigyu recommends about 7–8 seconds as the tastiest grilling time — 7 seconds specifically, for reference! Just flip it once on each side. You get that crispy-outside, juicy-inside texture, and it's a completely different texture and flavor from regular donkatsu! Plus the fun of grilling each piece to your own preferred doneness — we came for a simple meal and left totally satisfied haha.

Eating the steak-don with garlic flakes and wasabi

And then the other dish, the steak-don! Same as the gyukatsu, you grill it lightly on the tabletop grill, and the smoky char flavor gave it great depth when chewing, while the garlic flakes sprinkled on top made it even richer and cleaner-tasting. The cut of beef for both the gyukatsu and steak-don is sirloin! Being sirloin, it's tender and has great texture 🥩

It paired especially well with wasabi, and the sauce drizzled over the meat was really delicious — not like a typical A1 steak sauce, more like a Japanese hamburg steak sauce feel?

You can add the egg yolk and mix it all together, or break the yolk and dip the meat in it — we did it the classic way and mixed it right into the rice bowl.

One piece of garlic flakes plus a dab of wasabi on top is genuinely so good,,, remember the garlic-flake-wasabi combo.

Simple but delicious and photogenic, with genuine fun in eating it too — a perfect Seoul Station spot for a date or a blind date, with great value for the price! Come on over to Ichigyu~~!~! 🫶🏻