Haengun DonkkaseuOld-School Pork Cutlet, and the Kimchi Fried Rice Set Is the Deal

I ordered the kimchi fried rice set — a pork cutlet with kimchi fried rice on the side.

This is old-school, not Japanese-style

The trend now is a thick cutlet fried and sliced across the grain, Japanese-style. This place does **the classic old Korean diner cutlet (gyeongyangsik)**.

• meat pounded thin and fried crisp
• a brown sauce ladled over the top (demi-glace family)
• a fried egg, shredded cabbage, macaroni salad, pickled radish

It was better than I expected. The sauce isn't cloyingly sweet and the crust hadn't gone soggy. It isn't just nostalgia food — it's genuinely good.

What it looks like

On a white plate, a breaded meat cutlet and a thin patty overlap under a generous brown sauce, with a fried egg that looks soft-yolked sitting in the middle. Another sauced fry lies at the top, with macaroni salad and shredded-cabbage salad on the left and a round mound of rice at the lower right. A divided dish of yellow pickled radish and kimchi is visible at the top.

Menu words

• Old-style (gyeongyangsik) donkkaseu is the Korean pork cutlet, pounded thin and fried, topped with a thick brown sauce and eaten with rice or salad
• Kimchi bokkeumbap is rice stir-fried with kimchi

The kimchi fried rice set is the deal — but brace for the volume

You can order the cutlet on its own, but the set with kimchi fried rice is better value. The catch is the amount.

The cutlet itself is large, and then a full bowl's worth of fried rice arrives on top of it. I couldn't finish it, and I usually can. Two people ordering one set plus one plain cutlet and sharing is a reasonable move.

Good to know before you order

• Getting there — Haengdang-dong, Seongdong-gu, between Hanyang University and Wangsimni Station. The name is common, so check the branch on the map before you go.
• Hours · prices · closing day — Open 10:30 AM–9:00 PM, the kimchi fried rice set runs around 10,000 won. I don't know the regular closing day, so check the map or call before you go.
• Ordering — the kimchi fried rice set is the value pick. If the volume is daunting, get a plain cutlet, or share between two.
• Spice level — the cutlet and brown sauce are not spicy. The kimchi fried rice in the set is only mildly spicy (about 1 out of 5).
• Utensils — a fork and knife come with it. No chopstick skills needed.

Who this fits

The main thing to know is that this is a different dish from Japanese tonkatsu — it's an old Korean take on Western food, so think of it as "the taste of an old Korean Western-style diner."

• ✅ You want the old-school (gyeongyangsik) cutlet, not the trendy Japanese-style one
• ✅ You want both value and volume
• ✅ You have plans near Hanyang University or Wangsimni
• ✅ You can't eat spicy food — the cutlet itself isn't spicy
• ✅ You also want something completely different on the same Seoul trip — I visited Roofcatme Cat Cafe, Hongdae on another day; it is across town from here
• ⚠️ You have a small appetite — the set is genuinely a lot
• ⚠️ You're expecting a thick Japanese katsu — this is a different thing