Gongdeok Korean beef restaurant with buchaesal charcoal grill: Usu

Last week of August was our 2nd anniversary! We've been happily bickering and getting along, so on such a good day we figured we should eat something good — heard there was a hanwoo (Korean beef) dining spot near Gongdeok, so we ran over. This is Usu, a Seoul hanjeongsik (Korean course meal) restaurant.

Where is Usu in Gongdeok, and where do you park?

Usu is a 2-minute walk from Gongdeok Station, at 201, B2, Lotte Castle President Complex, 109 Mapo-daero. Hours are 11:00–22:00 with a break time of 15:00–17:00, and you can reserve through Naver Reservations or Catch Table.

• Address: 201, B2, Lotte Castle President Complex, 109 Mapo-daero, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea
• Location: 2-minute walk from Gongdeok Station
• Hours: 11:00–22:00 / Break time 15:00–17:00
• Parking: building parking lot available, no limit on number of cars, 3 hours free
• Reservations: Naver Reservations, Catch Table
• Corkage-free

This Seoul hanjeongsik spot in Gongdeok sits inside the Lotte Castle President complex, connected to the Gongdeok Station underground arcade, so it's easy to reach. On top of that, 3 hours of free parking made it a very stress-free Gongdeok restaurant to visit.

Inside Usu, an all-private-room hanwoo restaurant in Seoul

Usu is a Gongdeok private-room restaurant where every seat is a room. From the hallway alone, this Seoul hanjeongsik private-room restaurant oozed elegance. Since the whole place runs on private rooms, it felt wonderfully private, and the greenery and wooden crates styled at the end of the hallway showed off Usu's charm in style. We had reserved ahead, so we were guided straight into our room.

Excellent ingredients, excellent space, time spent with excellent people — apparently that's what the name Usu (우수, meaning 'excellent') means. Water was barley tea, and we ordered the Lunch C course at 80g. If the meat portion or anything in the course feels lacking, you can order à la carte extras too, so it's worth checking :)

The ingredient presentation before the Usu course begins

Before the Gongdeok hanjeongsik restaurant Usu's Lunch C course began, they showed us the ingredients going into the meal — shiitake, corn, sea bream, sweet shrimp, caviar or uni, abalone and shellfish. Presenting the fresh ingredients up front left a strong impression.

Today's Lunch C beef was hanwoo galbisal (flat iron cut), grade 1++! Ooh, the marbling was incredible~~ So exciting, it's beef time. They took the ingredients back, and after a short wait, the course began.

If you mention in advance that it's an anniversary, they let you choose between grape juice or sparkling wine. We had another schedule after, so we went with grape juice.

What comes in Usu's Lunch C course, dish by dish

1. Ugyejinjuk (chicken and abalone porridge)

The first dish was a warm porridge called ugyejinjuk (우계진죽) — u for beef, gye for chicken, jin for rich. A porridge simmered richly on a beef-and-chicken broth base. Silver ear mushroom, shiitake, and crispy scorched rice bits mixed in for a savory, standout flavor.

2. Three bite-sized dishes

Next came Usu's three bite-sized dishes. The plating alone drew gasps the moment we saw it.

1. Bulgogi sandwich. Hanwoo bulgogi and duxelles mushrooms on brioche bread, spread with truffle cream cheese, adding softness and a salty-savory richness — the kind of bite that made us say 'this is so good' about ten times over.

2. Scallop and clam. Inside a brick pastry, grilled scallop and abalgae paired with a clam cream sauce on an apple-and-onion base — the creaminess just took over the whole mouth. The gamtae (seaweed) and abalgae combo added an oceanic aroma on top.

3. Sweet shrimp and gimbugak (crispy seaweed chip). A gimbugak brushed with pollack roe, topped with fried abalone-liver rice and sweet shrimp, finished with a refreshing yuzu sauce. The rich abalone-liver rice, then the sweet shrimp, then that yuzu sauce hitting at the end to refresh the palate — there was a real reason this closed out the bite-sized course. Honestly, we were both amazed that three bite-sized dishes could carry such varied flavors.

3. Shiitake with shrimp and young zucchini

Top-grade shiitake mushrooms were stuffed generously with shrimp and fried, and inside the zucchini was tofu, aged kimchi, and golden enoki mushroom. The sauces were a peanut-tofu sauce and a chamnamul (aster) oil.

You're meant to start with the zucchini — the sweetness of the zucchini, the softness of the tofu, and the crunch of the aged kimchi were wonderfully varied. Flavors that could've clashed came together beautifully thanks to the peanut-tofu sauce.

The shiitake gave off a subtle fragrance while you bit into the springy shrimp inside. Was shiitake always like this? Every shiitake I've eaten in my life apparently wasn't even real shiitake. My mind was blown by that aroma.

4. Abalone five-color gardenia noodles

Next came the noodle dish. A generously sized piece of abalone sat on top, along with radish strips tossed in black sesame sauce, bracken fern, shiitake, and chamnamul (aster) namul. It looked healthy just to look at, and one bite in, the gamtae dressing and mustard-garlic sauce left the mouth feeling clean. That mustard-garlic sauce was the real kick of this dish — one sharp finishing note that made the whole thing shine.

5. Sea bream pot rice

The pot rice comes out last, together with the charcoal-grilled hanwoo. The scallion aroma and rice smell already had this rice sommelier's expectations sky-high.

6. Charcoal-grilled buchaesal hanwoo set

And finally, the charcoal grill arrived. They set up the brazier and brought out the full set — the pot rice and seaweed soup shown earlier, vegetables, beef wasabi, Maldon salt, and side dishes of seasoned fish roe, mustard-leaf kimchi, and gungchae (a leafy vegetable).

The meat had already been pre-seared once, so we finished grilling it to our own liking over the brazier — fun, and nice to be able to eat it exactly to taste. Eating it alongside the pot rice, the herbs mixed into the rice burst with aroma — nearly teared up. We also grilled up the mushrooms, zucchini, eggplant, and paprika thoroughly.

So tender it melted the moment it hit my mouth — ah, this is exactly why grade 1++ hanwoo is grade 1++, it's now burned into my memory 😅😅. Genuinely, so, so good...

Every single dish at Gongdeok restaurant Usu was clean and refined — it seemed like a great spot to bring parents, hold a marriage meet-and-greet, or do a business meeting. The kind of place where you'd get praised five hundred times over for booking well. Once you finish the main grill set, just let them know and they'll bring out dessert.

7. Corn dessert

Corn ice cream, corn cream cheese, corn crumble, apricot, sponge cake, and green tangerine cream sauce. Since it's corn season, they gave us a corn-based dessert. But it wasn't just sweet — the apricot and green tangerine cream sauce balanced it out precisely. Even to the very end, Gongdeok Station restaurant Usu was flawless. We thought that was it, but Usu's blessings kept coming.

8. Tea and sweets

Dried persimmon rolled with cream cheese, yakgwa (honey cookie), and candied walnuts — prepared specially because it was our anniversary. Sweet with a nutty finish, the perfect way to close out the whole course. But honestly, way too good to end here 😭😭 wish it could start all over again.

Is Usu worth booking for a Gongdeok anniversary dinner in a private room?

The server who took care of us was so kind and explained everything so well that we never felt lost about any of the dishes. For anyone looking for a restaurant for anniversaries or special occasions, or a Gongdeok private-room restaurant to bring parents to, I recommend Usu, the hanwoo dining spot near Gongdeok Station 💓💓