Yeouido Japanese restaurant with whole-eel unagidon for couples: Ilpum

My morning sickness has finally calmed down and I've been feeling better lately, so we took a little trip to Yeouido~~ The weather was nice too, so we decided on a plan: eat out, then head to the Han River!

I don't know why I've been craving sashimi so much since getting pregnant... but everyone says it's fine if you go somewhere good and get fresh fish, so ㅠㅠ wanting a few bites of salmon plus some eel, we ended up at this restaurant near National Assembly Station, Ilpum Yeouido Branch!

Ilpum Yeouido Branch: location, parking and opening hours

💌 Name: Ilpum Yeouido Branch 📍 Address: B1, Anwon Building, 25 Eunhaeng-ro, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul 🚊 Transit: 354m from National Assembly Station Exit 3 🅿️ Parking: Available - free up to 2 hours / ground floor, B2, B3 parking possible ⏰ Hours: 11:00–21:30 / break time 15:00–17:30 / closed every Sunday

It's located in the basement of the building, and when you go down there are other Japanese restaurants gathered around too! Is this a Japanese-food building or something (?)

Apparently Lee Young-ja (a famous Korean comedian) has visited this place too~~ In any case, the photos already pass the visual test.

What the bar seats are like at Ilpum, and how to order

Ilpum Yeouido Branch has an open bar-counter layout where the chef cooks right in front of you, so my eyes were entertained the whole time. Apparently, if you book through Naver Reservations, tables are only bookable for parties of 3 or more, so we naturally ended up at the bar counter! But watching from the front turned out to be fun too.

Seems like a good spot for solo dining, and also fine for a date or a small get-together~~

I ordered the signature kaisendon (assorted sashimi rice bowl) and the whole-eel unagidon (I was more excited for the kaisendon). Ordering is a simple QR code system.

Steamed egg and the side dishes served first

As soon as we sat down, egg custard (chawanmushi-style steamed egg), a light soup, and white kimchi came out first. The egg custard seemed to be made with a seafood-based broth — it definitely had a deep umami flavor! And it was really soft, moist, and jiggly >ㅁ< There was also gamtae (dried laver) in it, plus a single ginkgo nut and shrimp tucked inside, so it had a fun texture to bite into as well.

Whole-eel unagidon: a full eel over the rice

When the Ilpum Yeouido Branch unagidon (eel rice bowl) arrived, I was genuinely shocked the moment I saw it ㅋㅋㅋ I'd never seen an eel served whole like that... whoa whoa.

The eel had absolutely no fishy smell, and the first bite was truly perfect. The sauce wasn't overly sweet either, with a subtle, deep savoriness running through it.

The eel gets cut up like this~~ underneath it was a thick layer of rolled omelet, and eating that together with the rice made the rice go down so easily. The portion is bigger than it looks in photos!!

Kaisendon with only a few slices of salmon during pregnancy

And now for the kaisendon. Since I'm currently pregnant, I couldn't enjoy sashimi as freely as I wanted, which was a bit disappointing, but I still tried the salmon on top of the kaisendon. Having only ever eaten supermarket sashimi normally...^^ trying this, it was clearly different. The texture was firm and springy, with no fishy off-taste at all, clean through and through. Since it's this fresh, I figured it should be fine even for a pregnant person...

We ate it wrapped in the seaweed they gave us and dipped in soy sauce too, and my husband said the sashimi was really thick-cut, which made for satisfying texture, and that the ika-like piece (like squid) was super chewy and fresh. All the sashimi was fresh! There were three different sauces served alongside, and he said the combination of all three worked really well ㅋㅋㅋ

Cold udon and the mango pudding at the end

There's a cold udon that comes as a default side with the main dish. It hits just right around the point when you've been eating rich food for a while and start to feel a little full/greasy. The broth was clean and did a great job of resetting your palate.

At the very end of the meal, they brought out a dessert like mango pudding, and its sweet-tart flavor finished things off perfectly. It also had hints of cheese and yogurt flavor, so anyway it was really tasty and cleared any lingering fishy taste~ Since everything comes out in sequence like a course meal, there wasn't a dull moment the whole time we were eating.

Who should visit Ilpum Yeouido Branch

If you're looking for good sashimi near Yeouido, and especially if you want to find a spot near National Assembly Station where you can watch the chef cook right at the bar counter, I definitely recommend Ilpum Yeouido Branch.

Even among sushi restaurants in Yeouido, the bar-seat experience itself is what really raised our satisfaction here. The unagidon in particular nailed both looks and taste, so if you like eel, I think you'll be very happy. Next time, I want to come back after giving birth to properly enjoy a full bowl of kaisendon :)

+ Eating this and then heading to the Han River in this weather is seriously so healing 💖