Jongno sushi restaurant omakase platter: Ilpum Gwanghwamun

It didn't even have to be a special occasion—I just suddenly wanted some delicious sushi, so I started looking into sushi omakase and ended up at Ilpum Gwanghwamun (일품 광화문점), a great Japanese restaurant in Gwanghwamun where you can enjoy it neatly and without feeling weighed down.

Ilpum Gwanghwamun location and parking

Ilpum Gwanghwamun sits on basement level two of Le Meilleur Jongno Town, between Jonggak Station and Gwanghwamun Station. You can take the stairs from outside straight down to the basement dining arcade, or enter the building and take the escalator—it is right in front of the B2 escalator, so it was super easy to find. If you're driving, you can use the building parking lot, with up to two hours of free parking.

It has even appeared on KBS and is a restaurant approved by Lee Young-ja; apparently, lots of celebrities have visited too.

Inside, there are two tables for four plus counter seats, so I think it would be nice for a date too. Even though I arrived a little after the main meal rush, it was still packed with diners. Luckily, I had made a reservation and could sit down right away.

• Reservations can be made without a deposit, and there is no penalty for cancelling on the day. But if you accumulate two no-shows after the reservation time, future reservations may be refused!
• When reserving, you can request the free corkage event, which covers one bottle.
• There is normally no time limit, but if there is a reservation or a wait for the next seating, dining is limited to 1 hour 30 minutes from the reservation time.

Ilpum Gwanghwamun menu and prices

Sushi omakase platter course

First, an appetizer chawanmushi (savory steamed egg custard) arrived. It was bouncy, soft, and moist like pudding, seasoned so well—such a delicious start already!

The omakase at Ilpum Gwanghwamun comes in a “platter sushi” style, a little different from the usual omakase served one piece at a time, so it felt less intimidating somehow.

The first sushi platter included flounder, sea bream, yellowtail belly, tuna belly, Spanish mackerel, and winged squid. Wow, I was shocked by how delicious it was from the very first bite. For ₩50,000, the sushi quality was honestly surprising, and the texture was incredibly soft. I could taste the clean, simple flavor of the raw fish itself, which made it even better!!

The next part of the course was salmon belly, scallop adductor muscle, and karaage (Japanese fried chicken).

As a salmon lover, this was totally my style~ There was a little sauce on it, and they really know how to get the flavor right!! And the scallop? What more is there to say—it melts in your mouth~ The octopus karaage was perfect for that moment when you're craving something savory!

Then out came the futomaki, abalone, eel, and sweet shrimp uni sushi all at once!

The sweet shrimp uni sushi was so good that calling it the final boss of this course would not be an exaggeration! This was the best!! Ilpum's futomaki was seriously the biggest I've ever seen hahahahaha. No, you absolutely, absolutely cannot eat this in one bite. Absolutely!! It was a seriously filling futomaki haha.

Next came udon with chicken karaage, and maybe because the karaage was in it, the savory flavor in this udon really exploded.

And for dessert, mango panna cotta! Oh, this was so sweet, rich, and crazy delicious! The course was perfect right through dessert. There was quite a lot of food too—I almost blissfully burst at the seams~

An easygoing Gwanghwamun omakase

From its neatly composed sushi to a menu that is easy to enjoy without feeling like too much, Ilpum Gwanghwamun is a lovely place for a special day or simply a day when you want a delicious meal! Especially when you want the omakase atmosphere but want to avoid a meal that feels too heavy or formal—this is just it!! I definitely want to come back next time to try the other dishes~