Jongak Station kaisendon with negitoro seaweed wraps: Choe Uyeong

🍣 Choe Uyeong Sushiya has opened in Jongno. I had such a good meal at the Yeouido branch that as soon as I heard about the opening, I ran straight over to this new Jongak Station sushi spot.

From sushi to kaisendon to hot udon, the table filled up fast and it was a feast for the eyes from the start. Today I'll walk through what makes the newly opened Choe Uyeong Sushiya Jongno Branch worth a visit.

Where is Choe Uyeong Sushiya Jongno Branch, and when is it open?

This Jongak Station sushi spot sits on the basement floor of the Tower Building 8 in Jongno, and since it only just opened, the space still feels clean and fresh. It's in a busy office-worker area between Jongak Station and Gwanghwamun, so it's easy to get to.

📍 Restaurant details

• Name: Choe Uyeong Sushiya Jongno Branch
• Address: 104, B1, Tower Building 8, 7 Jongno-5-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea
• Hours: Daily 11:00–21:30
• Break time: 15:00–17:00
• Last order: 21:00
• Corkage: ₩4,000

📍 How to get there from Jongak Station

• 3-minute walk from Jongak Station Exit 1
• 7-minute walk from Gwanghwamun Exit 2
• 2 hours free parking if driving

Inside Choe Uyeong Sushiya, a sushi restaurant by Jongak Station

Walking into Choe Uyeong Sushiya Jongno Branch, the first thing that hits you is the clean, bright atmosphere throughout.

There's a long bar table running down the center on both sides, great for eating solo, and ordering was easy with the tablets set up at each seat.

On the sides there are partitioned tables for 2–4 people, so it works well for a date, a family meal, or a work dinner without feeling out of place.

What makes the Choe Uyeong Sushiya menu different?

Looking at the menu, there are some features that stand out compared to other sushi restaurants.

• 🍣 À la carte sushi starts at ₩1,000
• 🐟 Sashimi is sold by the 100g, handy for drinking solo or ordering small portions
• 🥩 Dishes like seared brisket sushi that you rarely see at a regular sushi place
• 🦪 Premium ingredients like ankimo (monkfish liver), sea urchin roe, abalone with pine needle, and sea cucumber innards available as single sushi pieces
• 🍚 Kaisendon also comes in mixed, special, and top grades, so there's a wide range to choose from
• 🍤 Tempura can be added one piece at a time, so you can build your own side dishes freely
• 🍶 There are drinking-snack menu items too, like sea bream head and ankimo, good to enjoy alongside sashimi

In short, with everything from set menus to à la carte items, the lineup goes for both value and premium at the same time.

What we ordered at Choe Uyeong Sushiya

• Premium sushi 17pc ₩33,000
• Top kaisendon ₩25,000
• Udon ₩5,000
• Sweet rice mochi fritters ₩1,500×2
• Soju ₩4,000

After ordering, you help yourself to pickled ginger and rakkyo from the side dish container on the table, and they bring out a clear soup.

Soju for 4,000 won! Given how prices are these days, you laugh once looking at that price, and any drinker laughs again out of pure joy, haha.

It was also nice that all the dishes came out at once, so we could start eating together.

Top-grade kaisendon, 25,000 won: you can't even see the rice

You can enjoy a variety of fresh seafood in one bowl, and unlike sushi, you can adjust the rice-to-seafood ratio to your own taste, which is why I've been into kaisendon lately. Naturally my expectations for it keep rising.

Living up to its name, the top kaisendon was piled high with premium seafood — uni, otoro, crab meat, freshwater eel, and more. 🍚 I can't even see the rice! 😃

Kaisendon is meant to be eaten with the rice, but I couldn't help snapping up the otoro and squid straight away. Because it was that good.

Raw shrimp mixed generously with flying fish roe is great on its own,

and wrapping the uni and raw shrimp together in seaweed fills your mouth with ocean flavor. Add in the chunky pieces of freshwater eel and every bite is pure indulgence.

Crab meat and scallop topped with negitoro (minced tuna), wrapped in seaweed with a touch of wasabi and soy sauce — an absolutely top-tier combination.

The shrimp tempura eaten in between the sushi and rice worked as a savory palate cleanser, setting up the next bite of seafood even better.

Another killer charm of the top kaisendon: the deeper you dig, the more thick slices of sashimi keep turning up at the bottom of the bowl. It felt like a treasure hunt.

For the finish, I piled negitoro onto the remaining rice and wrapped it in seaweed. The clean rice and rich tuna came together for a perfect last bite of the kaisendon.

What's in the 33,000-won, 17-piece premium sushi set

The premium sushi set is a 17-piece lineup made entirely of high-grade cuts. If you're stuck deciding what to eat, this might be the best possible answer.

Otoro and steamed abalone topped with basil pesto sauce,

charcoal-scented eel sushi, and shrimp topped with uni.

Squid topped with ankimo, seared scallop, and more — a varied, upscale lineup with a delicate balance of flavors. The portion is generous enough that two light eaters could share it comfortably. It's sushi that truly lives up to the word 'premium.'

5,000-won inari udon and sweet rice mochi fritters

The udon topped generously with fried tofu pouch was far more filling than it looked. It came out in a big bowl with a generous amount, hardly believable for 5,000 won.

The broth was clean but full of savory depth, and the springy noodles paired well with the moist fried tofu. It's a great dish to round out a meal alongside sushi or kaisendon, so I'd recommend adding it on.

And finally, the sweet rice mochi fritters! Crispy outside, chewy inside — nothing could be better as a dessert after all that seafood!

Is Choe Uyeong Sushiya Jongno Branch worth a visit?

Choe Uyeong Sushiya Jongno Branch has such a wide menu — sushi, kaisendon, udon — that there's fun in picking based on your mood, and the prices are pretty reasonable too. Above all, 4,000-won soju really got any drinker's heart racing, haha.

It's a great spot for a work lunch around Gwanghwamun or Jongno, or for a light drink after work. Full stomach, good mood, and no worries about the drinks bill — a satisfying meal all around. I'll have to come back and try something different next time! 🍣🍶