After-work sushi and buffalo wings in Gwanghwamun: Elephant Sushi

There are so many restaurants in the basement arcade of the KT Building in Gwanghwamun, and I decided to give Elephant Sushi another try after visiting once before — this time right after work.

There must be a lot of waiting here, because there was a CatchTable kiosk and a sofa set up for waiting comfortably. At lunch, I'd guess there's a wait given how many office workers are around.

Elephant Sushi Gwanghwamun: hours, location and parking

• ⏰ Hours: 11:00-21:00 (break time 15:00-17:00)
• 📌 Location: 1-minute walk from Gwanghwamun Station Exit 2
• 🅿 Parking: 2 hours free at KT Gwanghwamun branch underground lot

What the interior and solo-diner seats are like

Elephant Sushi Gwanghwamun is on basement level 1 of the KT branch building, so it connects directly to the subway. I showed up right as the Tuesday 5pm break ended and was the very first customer in!

The interior feels open, with quite a lot of tables inside, mostly set up as 2-person or 4-person tables.

On the opposite side from the 2-4 person tables there's also bar seating, so solo diners could sit comfortably there too.

What's on the Elephant Sushi menu?

First, you can get a potato croquette for a Naver review, or a cup of sake for following the account. Elephant Sushi has sushi sets first, and the Elephant A, B, C sets seem to be the signature options. Beyond that there's akami, toro, akami+toro, an all-salmon platter, and even a kids' set menu.

There's also an à la carte sushi menu, so you can add extra pieces that aren't in the sets or order more of ones you like. Beyond sushi there's also kaisendon (seafood rice bowl), hoedeopbap (raw fish rice bowl), and sashimi.

There are also single dishes, good as sides for a drink in the evening — grilled fish, futomaki (thick seaweed rice roll), tempura, karaage (Japanese fried chicken), and more, all very much hard-seltzer-or-sake-friendly.

The Elephant B sushi set comes with 12 pieces of sushi and noodles. It includes 2x white fish, tuna belly, horse mackerel, akami, amberjack, grilled salmon, soy sauce shrimp, seasoned squid, monkfish liver, swordfish, and futomaki. It seems slightly different from my last visit — probably seasonal sashimi!

What we ordered: two Elephant Sushi B sets and 6 buffalo wings

• ✔️ Two Elephant Sushi B sets
• ✔️ 6 pieces buffalo rolls

This is the salad and soup that comes standard with any order. Pickled radish and soy sauce are set out on the table so you can help yourself to as much as you want.

Ta-da~ this is the Elephant Sushi B set. Looks great, right?

A close-up of the Elephant Sushi B set! It's made up of more varied, better-quality pieces than a typical sushi platter.

The set noodles came warm this time

And this is the noodles that come with the set — this also seems to change with the season. A few months ago when I came it was buckwheat soba, but this time it was warm noodles. The mugwort aroma was lovely, and being a soup, it was great for cleansing the palate between sushi.

Buffalo wings and vinegared squid with shiso

Next up, buffalo rolls!! Sometimes when I'm just eating sushi I crave something fried, so I debated between this and karaage and went with buffalo rolls — hot and salty, pretty solid haha.

There's flounder, squid, negitoro, and white fish, and the squid piece had a shiso leaf tucked in, which was really fragrant and nice. But shiso is a love-it-or-hate-it thing, so if you don't like it, make sure to ask for it removed haha.

Monkfish liver, rare on a sushi platter

Monkfish liver, tuna, amberjack, and more! It's been ages since I've seen monkfish liver on a sushi platter. It's pricier so it doesn't show up often, but I was glad Elephant Sushi had it.

Soy sauce shrimp, grilled salmon, futomaki, and more! I honestly couldn't tell you what one or two of the pieces were haha. The futomaki was huge, packed inside with salmon, fried shrimp, and more — a mouth-filling kind of good. It was a satisfying day to eat this much variety of sushi at once >.<

Verdict: a Gwanghwamun sushi spot that stays quiet at dinner

Elephant Sushi is a favorite among Gwanghwamun office workers! It's exactly the place to go when you're craving a sushi platter. Lunch will probably have a wait, but dinner is quieter than expected and pairs nicely with a drink, so it seems like a good spot to visit often~ Or I'd also recommend it for a weekend date.