Gyukatsu grilled tableside and pork jowl rice bowl at Izawa Sangam

Today's a straight-up honest review of Izawa Sangam, a gyukatsu (breaded fried beef cutlet) specialist near Sangam.

True to its name, this is a place where you grill your own gyukatsu on a mini charcoal brazier, exactly to your taste~~

This time I tried the gyukatsu set along with dontoro-don, a pork jowl rice bowl, and both were seriously delicious hahaha

Izawa Sangam location and hours

🥩 Izawa Sangam

✔ 15 World Cup Buk-ro 50-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul, 1F & 2F 🚶 About 5 min walk from Digital Media City Station Exit 9 🚶 About 4 min walk from Sangam Elementary School It's near Sangam MBC, Channel A, and KBS, so it's pretty accessible!

✔ Mon–Fri 11:30 – 21:00 • Break time 15:00 – 17:30 • Last order 20:30 ✔ Saturday 12:00 – 20:00 • Last order 19:30 ✔ Closed Sundays

🚗 Parking There's no dedicated lot for the restaurant, so use the Sangam-dong public parking lot~

🚻 Restroom ✔️ Inside the restaurant

✔️ Reservations available ✔️ Groups welcome ✔️ Solo dining fine

Ongoing events

And there are several events running right now!

🎁 Receipt review event → Free soda or mini curry

🍺 Kirin draft beer 3+1 promotion

🥩 Extra meat coupon if you write a blog review and come back

If you're planning a visit, worth checking these events out too~~

The vibe: split across two floors

The place is a two-story restaurant with a first floor and second floor!

There's a big 'IZAWA' sign outside so it stands out and isn't hard to find~~ It's floor-to-ceiling glass so you can see inside even from outside, and it already looks clean and cozy before you even walk in

The first floor has bar seating and a table for two! ✔️ 6-seat bar in front of the kitchen

✔️ Plus a 4-seat bar table next to it

✔️ And a separate table for two

Looks great for eating solo, and also fine for two people dining together~~

Then you go up the stairs to the second floor, which is more spacious than the first! On the second floor there's ✔️ 4 tables for four ✔️ 2 tables for two and they say it can hold groups of up to 20!

There were actually a lot of people eating upstairs, and the vibe was quiet, conversational~

Good for dates or eating with friends, and it also looks great for group gatherings or a 청모 (young-adult meetup group)!

Izawa Sangam menu and prices

🥩 Set menus

• Set for 2: ₩44,000 · 2 gyukatsu sets + 1 medium cold soba + 1 soda
• Set for 3–4: ₩66,000 · 3 gyukatsu sets + 1 double cold soba + 2 sodas

🥩 Gyukatsu & Steak

• Gyukatsu set ₩17,000
• Extra gyukatsu meat ₩13,000
• Double set ₩30,000
• Steak set ₩17,000
• Extra steak meat ₩13,000

🍚 Rice bowls

• Steak-don ₩17,000
• Dontoro-don (pork jowl) ₩13,000
• Gyu-don (beef) ₩13,000

🍜 Noodles

• Mazesoba ₩13,000
• Cold soba (M) ₩9,500
• Double cold soba ₩14,000

🥚 Sides

• Extra mini curry ₩4,000
• Onsen egg ₩1,500
• Rice ₩1,000

There are set menus too, and beyond gyukatsu there's a good range — noodles, rice bowls, and more!

✔️ Gyukatsu set ✔️ Dontoro-don

After ordering, the food came out in about 5–10 minutes. Both dishes arrived as neat individual table settings!

Gyukatsu set grilled on a mini brazier

🥩 Gyukatsu set

The meat quality itself is really good!! Crispy fried on the outside, and juicy with tons of meat juices inside hahaha

Once the gyukatsu comes out, you put as much as you want on the mini brazier and grill it exactly to your taste 🔥 Putting the meat on the grill is total ASMR...

It tasted better not grilled too hard, just cooked to the right point~~ Totally crispy outside, juicy inside... the juices are insane ㅠㅠ

Whenever I mentioned the flame was getting weak or that I needed something, the staff checked right away, so it was easy to eat comfortably! Really kind.

Dontoro-don packed with pork jowl

🍚 Dontoro-don

The menu marked it as their best-seller so I ordered it! It's a pork jowl rice bowl, and the amount of pork jowl is really~~ a lot.

The pork jowl itself is nicely fatty and full of juice, so the texture is great too. Pork jowl is a fatty cut so it could easily get greasy, but there are chili peppers mixed in throughout that completely cut through the richness~~~

I went in only thinking about the gyukatsu, but the dontoro-don was totally delicious too!

The two of us each had one gyukatsu set and one dontoro-don, and the portions were plenty~~

If you eat a lot, ordering an extra mini curry side might be a good idea! And it's free if you write a Naver review hahaha

To sum up

• About 5 min walk from Digital Media City Station Exit 9
• Great for group gatherings or larger parties
• Can accommodate up to 20 people
• Food comes out about 5–10 minutes after ordering
• Gyukatsu is crispy outside, juicy inside, full of meat juices
• Dontoro-don is generously piled with pork jowl covering the rice
• Staff are super friendly
• Works for solo dining, dates, friend hangouts, 청모, and group meals alike
• Reservations available

If you're near Sangam DMC and looking for gyukatsu or a Japanese-style rice bowl, I'd recommend this place!

A juicy gyukatsu spot where you get the fun of grilling it yourself on a mini brazier