[Big John’s Place Review] Izawa Gyukatsu

So we were walking around looking for something to eat at 5pm on a cold autumn night and near our guesthouse, we stumbled upon this restaurant – Izawa Gyukatsu. For your information, Gyukatsu is a Japanese dish that is wildly popular in Japan and it is here in Gangnam. John and his fancy starry pants going into Izawa Gyukatsu.

Coming from Big John’s Place, this is what you’ll see.

The ambiance in the small restaurant was quite cozy. All the decoration in there were for functional reasons and there were some signed papers presumably by some famous people.

We were the second pair of customers.

It was quite empty when we came in. But as we sat longer, the restaurant was full and people were waiting to be seated by the time we left.

Photos of the actual food. Like I told you, functional decoration.

The menu only had 3 different dishes equipped with some visual aids so that you would know what you’d be getting yourself into.

Gyukatsu – the most popular dish here. Deep fried beef – crispy outside, rare and soft inside – to be dipped in their two types of sauce – special sauce and mustard sauce, side of coleslaw, a dollop of wasabi and some pickled garlic. Comes with a bowl of rice and another bowl of miso soup.

Price: KRW12,000 for 160g of beef and KRW20,000 for 250g of beef.

Steak Rice – the second most popular dish here. Raw beef covering seasoned rice served with coleslaw, pickles and miso soup.

Price: KRW10,000.

Pork Rice – rice covered with pork cooked with special sauce topped spicy onions and garlic flakes. Served with miso soup and coleslaw.

Price: KRW9,000.

And on the last page of the menu, there are sets for you to choose if you come with your friends/family or if you wana eat A LOT of food.

Set 1: One Gyukatsu, one Steak Rice and a soft drink for KRW23,000;

Set 2: Two Gyukatsus and a soft drink for KRW25,000;

Set 3: Two Steak Rice and a soft drink for KRW21,000;

Set 4: One Gyukatsu, one Steak Rice, one Pork Rice and a soft drink for KRW31,000;

Soft drinks:  KRW3,000 per can;

Draft beer: KRW4,000 for 500cc (a little bit more than a pint)

And then they prepare this cute little burner to grill your raw beef. You can choose to cook it or eat it raw as how the beef is served. But we decided to cook all the beef we had.

So as you can see, we ordered Set 1.

Just like the pictures, we got what we ordered.

Crispy perfection on the outside, rare goodness on the inside. Eating it like that, it felt like I was chewing on a piece of fried papaya. The beef was fresh and tender and soft. Yummy!

Grilling our raw beef!

The gyukatsu beef tastes better when you dip it in their special sauce or the mustard sauce. I personally prefer the special sauce. Eating it with rice was a perfect combination of a hearty meal of flavourful meat and nourishing rice.

Put the beef on the seasoned rice and you’ll have a blast of flavours coating the insides of your mouth – delicious!

All and all, we thought the meal we had at Izawa Gyukatsu was worth the money we spent. The beef was prepared to perfection and the rice was soft and fluffy. The miso soup, however, was too bland for my taste and it didn’t have much miso flavour to it. I personally hoped that there would be more vegetable as I like to eat lots of greens but the amount was fine. We were happy and satisfied at the end of our meal and we’d recommend this restaurant to our guests who come to visit Gangnam.

Big John’s Rating:-

Taste of food: 4/5

Restaurant Ambiance: 3/5

Service: 3.5/5

Affordability: 3.5/5