Hongdae sushi restaurant, webfoot octopus baked roll: Yu Iksang Sushi

Today I visited Yu Iksang Sushi (유익상스시), famous in Hongdae for value-for-money sushi! The first thing you notice when your sushi arrives is the fish draping way, way past the rice.

🍣 Just looking at the long-tailed sushi tells you how generous the owner is. Usually the rice-to-fish ratio is pretty balanced, but at Yu Iksang Sushi the fish sits so much bigger than the rice that it's visually striking the first time you see it.

What comes in the Couple A Plus set at Yu Iksang Sushi?

🍣 Today's order was the Couple A Plus, a set that lets you try a bunch of Yu Iksang Sushi's menu at once. It comes with sushi, rolls, and tempura all together, so it's a good pick when two people want to eat a lot.

As the dishes started coming out one by one, I felt it again — the portions here are seriously no joke, haha. Even people who normally eat a lot probably won't feel like it's not enough.

Flounder sushi with aged kimchi: fish bigger than the rice

🐟 One of my favorite-looking dishes at Yu Iksang Sushi! Flounder sushi topped with aged kimchi (묵은지, mukeunji). The flounder drapes long over the rice, and then aged kimchi is piled on top of that.

The clean flavor of the flounder plus the aged kimchi brings out a much deeper savory taste than plain flounder sushi. And because the fish is so long, it has way more presence than the rice. If you're not a fan of sushi with too much rice, this one will especially win you over.

Thick-cut salmon sushi

Thick but soft and delicious salmon!! The onion and sauce pair so well with it! Salmon is always a safe bet, but Yu Iksang Sushi's salmon is on another level!! I'll have to come back and order just salmon or just flounder sometime.

Crispy fried shrimp served mid-meal

🍤 The Couple A Plus also comes with fried shrimp partway through, great to eat alongside everything else. The batter was so crunchy! After a run of sushi and rolls, having a warm, crispy shrimp kept the whole meal from feeling repetitive.

If you like eating a bit of everything, the Couple A Plus set seems like a solid choice.

Sweet, soft aburi sushi

🔥 Personally, I think college students would especially love this aburi (torched) sushi! It's torch-seared sushi topped with mayo and sauce, giving it a really soft, sweet style — totally different from the clean flavor of traditional sushi!

Since it's finished with a savory-sweet sauce, it'll suit people who like sushi and rolls with sauce more than the raw taste of fish itself. I could see this being exactly the flavor a group of college students hanging out in Hongdae would love :)

Baked roll with webfoot octopus and egg: don't eat it in one bite

😲 The real showstopper on the Yu Iksang Sushi table is the baked roll. I don't know if the photos capture the size properly, but it's genuinely huge, haha. It's packed with baby octopus, egg, and other ingredients, so even one piece fills your mouth completely.

And here's an important tip! Do not attempt to eat it in one bite!! 😂 If you get greedy, you might end up in an awkward spot, haha. It's not just the size — it's stuffed so generously that even people with a big appetite should feel pretty full.

Where to eat sushi until you're full in Hongdae

🍣 Yu Iksang Sushi isn't the kind of place for savoring one piece slowly like a high-end sushiya — it's the place that comes to mind when you think, 'Let's really eat our fill of sushi today!'

• Fish draped far longer than the rice underneath
• Flounder sushi topped with aged kimchi
• Thick, soft salmon sushi
• Rolls so big they're hard to eat in one bite
• Thick tamago (egg omelet)
• Crunchy fried shrimp
• Sweet, soft aburi sushi

The Couple A Plus set we ordered this time let us try a bunch of menu items at once, and the portions were seriously generous. Especially when you pick up a piece of sushi and see the fish draping way past the rice, you get why this place is known as value sushi in Hongdae.

If you're in Hongdae with friends or a partner and want to eat sushi generously without breaking the bank, give this place a try :) And one more time, just to be safe... don't eat the big roll in one bite. I warned you in advance, haha! 😂