Gyukatsu grilled with wasabi at Izawa, a Yeouido Japanese restaurant

The day we'd planned a date at The Hyundai Seoul, we came to Yeouido for lunch at Izawa (이자와), a popular gyukatsu (Japanese beef cutlet) spot. My stomach isn't great, so I don't usually eat fried food, but this isn't fully deep-fried — it's just a thin coating on the outside that you sear yourself on the grill — so I figured I'd give it a shot.

Izawa Yeouido Direct Store Address: 42 Yeouinaru-ro, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, 2F (서울 영등포구 여의나루로 42 2층) Hours: Daily 11:00–21:00 Parking: 1 hour free on ground level (1F), underground paid

A weekend walk-in at a Yeouido gyukatsu restaurant

So here we are at Izawa, the Yeouido gyukatsu place. It's on the 2nd floor, but there's an elevator, so no worries! We walked in on a Saturday with no reservation.

Singer Lim Young-woong and mukbang YouTuber Heebab have both been to Izawa. Expectations: switched on.

The gyukatsu set and the rest of the menu

• Gyukatsu set (sirloin) ₩18,000
• Curry gyukatsu (sirloin) ₩20,000
• Steki (steak) set (sirloin) ₩18,000
• Gyukatsu double (sirloin) ₩33,000
• Steki-don (sirloin) ₩18,000
• Tontoro-don ₩13,500
• Gyudon · mazesoba · karai ramen · basil ramen ₩12,000 each
• Pan-momil M ₩9,500

Izawa is a chain, and it turns out Yeouido is the company-run branch. A directly operated Yeouido gyukatsu spot you can trust. The signature is the gyukatsu set, but there's also gyudon (beef rice bowl), mazesoba (brothless mixed noodles) and ramen, so if fried food is a lot for you like it is for me, keep that in mind! But my boyfriend has always loved gyukatsu and I wanted to try it too, so we both ordered the gyukatsu set.

The food's here. Why is there so much meat..? Hahaha, I'm giddy, hehe.

The gyukatsu comes with rice, miso soup, sauces, kkakdugi (cubed radish kimchi) and pickles, and it all went together really well 👍🏻👍🏻

Thin, crisp coating and tender sirloin

The coating was incredibly thin and crisp, and the meat looked insanely tender. The cut Izawa uses for its gyukatsu is sirloin! Just from the cross-section you can tell how soft it is.

See the grain on that cut..? Dreamy. Looks like it'd be delicious eaten just like this. Kind of tataki style? Haha. It really looks mouthwatering ^^

That glistening cross-section,,, getting the coating that thin must take real skill, right? Definitely because the coating is so thin there's less oil, which I think is why my stomach didn't act up. My stomach is genuinely bad (T_T), and if I eat something fried in bad oil it turns on me right away, but the day I ate this I felt fine all day long haha.

One grill per table, and how fast it cooks

The grill wasn't one per person but one per table, and that was plenty! The meat comes sliced thin (about 1.5 cm thick), so it cooks quickly; grilling 3 pieces at a time kept pace with how fast we were eating, so it was just right with no hassle at all!

Grilling the gyukatsu with wasabi on top

Of the sauces provided, one is soy-based and the other seems onion? based, and honestly they were just okay ^^ Tastes differ, of course, but for me what went best with the natural flavor of the meat was, in the end, wasabi~~

Seriously, eating it with wasabi on top is the best (personal taste). Oh man, seriously. I barely eat fried food so I've hardly ever had gyukatsu, but this was so good it felt like the first time I'd ever eaten it — nothing I'd had before even compares..!!!

What makes the gyukatsu at Izawa Yeouido Direct Store special

• First of all, the meat was just excellent. The beef has such a good meaty aroma on its own that the juiciness was insane and the tenderness was insane.
• The coating is so thin there's zero greasy heaviness — it leaves only the crisp texture!! The coating is maybe 1 mm thick. So it's crispy outside, tender ins... no, not even crispy, it's crackling-crisp, crackling T_T
• Truly the best gyukatsu.. so delicious.

My boyfriend likes his meat less cooked than I do, so his should have been ready faster, and yet I still ate faster than him hahahahahahahaha. That's how much my eyes glazed over and how much I enjoyed it... seriously... This date was a success just for having eaten something this good. A 100-point date ^^^^

My boyfriend had seen this somewhere, so he piled on a huge heap of wasabi and grilled the wasabi right along with the meat, and wow!!! This is a delicacy too, a real delicacy!! So damn good. When you grill the wasabi there's no sharp heat at all — a sweetness? A sweetness comes up, and it sends the umami through the roof. We only did this at the very end, so I only got to have it once, which was a shame;; If you're visiting Izawa, seriously, pile a heap of wasabi on your gyukatsu and grill it. Just make sure the wasabi cooks through!! Seriously.. highly recommended..

I don't normally take a photo after finishing, but this meal was so satisfying that I did, haha. Ahh~~~ it was seriously delicious. I'm on a diet so I didn't finish the rice (bare-minimum conscience), but the rest I scraped clean, it was that good. Who knew gyukatsu was this delicious!! It reminded me of that time I went to Japan and came down with 'Japan is on another level' syndrome... Izawa Yeouido Direct Store gyukatsu.. respect. Seriously, respect. I want to eat it again. Even writing this now my mouth is watering, that's how good this Yeouido gyukatsu was, sob. Highly recommended!!! Certified!!! I'll be going back for more~