Hongdae sushi restaurant after a workout with Mom: Yu Iksang Sushi

Why I chose Yu Iksang Sushi in Hongdae

I went to Yu Iksang Sushi (유익상스시) because it has over 5,000 Naver reviews and a 4.91 rating (as of writing). I'd worked out way too much, haha, and was exhausted. Lying at home, I couldn't be bothered to cook dinner... but I felt like I needed protein... and that's how I found this place!

A place with that many reviews AND a high rating is rare, right?! Getting above 4.9 isn't easy... I thought "I have to go here!" and headed straight out. haha

How to get to Yu Iksang Sushi and opening hours

Yu Iksang Sushi is about 350 m from Exit 9 of Hongik Univ. Station, around a 5-minute walk. Following the map, you climb a bit of a hill at the end, and since it's on the ground floor it wasn't hard to find.

• Address: 18-7 Wausan-ro 23-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul, Unit 101
• Hours: daily 11:00–21:00
• Last order: 20:00
• Closed: Mondays
• Break time: none

How long is the wait at Yu Iksang Sushi on a Thursday evening?

When I got to Yu Iksang Sushi around 7 p.m. on a Thursday, I waited outside for about 10 minutes before getting in. It was the day before a holiday, so Hongdae was crowded overall and the restaurant was full.

The inside isn't big, so we waited outside. It was a little hot, but waiting inside feels awkward to me (???), so I looked at the posters while I waited. haha The people behind us seemed to get in with no wait at all!

Yu Iksang Sushi atmosphere and seating

Yu Iksang Sushi is cozy and small, with 2–3 four-person tables and about 6 bar seats. By the time we finished, most customers had left, so I took some shots of the inside. haha The bar tables looked fine for eating alone in Hongdae too! Since I went in the evening, most of the customers were couples on dates or married pairs.

Japanese anime posters and a Yu Iksang Sushi comic are stuck on the walls, so it's fun to look at them while you wait for your food. haha

How to order at Yu Iksang Sushi and menu prices

At Yu Iksang Sushi you order and pay at the kiosk at your own seat, then just wait! We ordered the Couple A Plus set (₩56,000).

• Yu Iksang Value Set (8-piece assorted sushi) ₩15,000
• 8-piece sushi sets from ₩15,000
• Couple A set ₩52,000
• Couple A Plus ₩56,000
• Couple B set ₩60,000
• Yu Iksang Sushi ₩24,000
• Yu Iksang Special Sushi ₩27,000

That's the signature menu as I checked it on Naver. If you go alone, the Value Set or the 8-piece combos seem fine. There are three couple sets too, so you can pick the one you like.

What comes first with the Couple A Plus set

The Couple A Plus set at Yu Iksang Sushi starts with cabbage salad, mini fried shrimp, clear soup, mini soba (buckwheat noodles), ginger and garlic. You get your own little brush for the soy sauce and paint it onto the sushi yourself, and you can add as much wasabi as you like. There was plenty of everything, so I never felt it was too little.

As the kiosk told us, we ate the fried shrimp first. They're small, but crispy and plump, a perfect appetizer! The mini soba broth isn't sharp or salty, it's slightly sweet and mild, so it's nice to eat first.

The owner runs the place alone, so the food took a little while, but eating the first dishes while waiting meant it didn't feel that long.

I read the origin-of-ingredients notice on the wall... finished the cabbage salad... haha and then, finally, the sushi arrived!!

How long is the long-tail sushi at Yu Iksang Sushi?

What impressed me most at Yu Iksang Sushi were the long-tail salmon sushi and flatfish sushi. Wow~~~ It looked generous in photos, but seeing it in person surprised me even more, haha. It's really generous. I'd read the reviews, but it really is long.

Aged-kimchi flatfish sushi and salmon sushi

First, the flatfish! Eaten with the tasty aged kimchi (mukeunji), it was chewy and crunchy at once... and delicious.

The salmon was soft and nutty, really delicious too. The amount of onion and the sauce were just right, and it was so fresh and soft that when I stuffed it all into one big bite, yum yum yum, it was SO good!

The photos don't show how long the tails really are, so I tried to capture it. Can you tell, haha?

Honestly, the fish slices felt about twice as long as at a regular sushi place, and at most 2–3 times as long. At first I wondered how I'd eat it in one bite. Putting it on a spoon worked perfectly, haha. If you have a small mouth, cutting it in half seems fine too, haha

Tuna and beef sushi with a crunchy fried topping

The tuna sushi in the Couple A Plus at Yu Iksang Sushi was fresh, nutty and soft. The beef sushi was cooked just right and so good. (I have nothing to say but "delicious"...)

This one wasn't beef, I think, something else, but I can't remember. Everything was delicious.... Oh, and the nutty, crunchy fried topping(??) on top was the real kicker!!

With that nutty crunch alongside, the flavor felt much richer, and I never got tired of it to the end.

Yu Iksang Sushi's mayo-sauce shrimp sushi and rolls

For the raw-shrimp and grilled-shrimp sushi at Yu Iksang Sushi, the mayo sauce on top was the key. Of all the mayo sauces I've had on sushi or rolls, this was the most to my taste, haha. It's not greasy but sweet and nutty, and it went really well with the shrimp.

Egg sushi too, yum yum

There were also 2 pieces of roll. Both had egg and cabbage salad inside, and one had shrimp! This was yum yum too... and again the mayo sauce was really good. I usually think rolls are a bit heavy so I don't love them, but this one was good??

Alternating sushi with and without mayo sauce

There's such a variety that wondering "which one first?" and eating them one by one was fun, haha. I ate one piece without mayo sauce, then one with mayo sauce! Alternating like that, I enjoyed it to the very end.

Eggplant sushi on the house

About halfway through the meal at Yu Iksang Sushi, we were given eggplant sushi as a freebie. It wasn't fried eggplant but softly cooked eggplant, and since I love eggplant anyway, this was really good too, haha. The sauce had a sweetness that suited it perfectly? It made the meal even nicer!

Is the Yu Iksang Sushi Couple A Plus set filling and worth it?

Every single item in the Couple A Plus set at Yu Iksang Sushi was delicious, and the portion was big enough that some tables left food. With set menus, I think there's usually one or two disappointing items, but at Yu Iksang Sushi it was all really good..

Totally satisfied!!! The fish was fresh, the slices on the sushi were really generous, and above all the long-tail sushi was so impressive... I think I'll remember it for a long time. I don't eat a huge amount, so I took off some of the rice as I went, and I was still really full. Looking at other tables, quite a few people left food because of the size. I think it's a set that even big eaters can enjoy plenty of!

You can see we ate it ALL, right? haha The owner was really kind too, and even though the weather was hot like it is these days, the air conditioning was blasting and it felt cool the moment we walked in, haha. (Almost cold?! haha)

Downsides of Yu Iksang Sushi

• Even on a weekday evening, there was about a 10-minute wait.
• The inside isn't big, so you wait outdoors.
• The owner runs it alone, so food takes a little time to prepare.

But considering the taste and quality, it was a wait well worth it.

What I want to try next time at Yu Iksang Sushi

Next time I want to try Yu Iksang Sushi's lunch soba set, and I'm curious about the Value Set too. If you're looking for a good sushi place in Hongdae, a Hongdae date spot, or long-tail sushi with really generous slices of fish, it's worth a visit. It was a dinner with my mom that we both really enjoyed, for the first time in a while. haha!!!