Korean beef omakase in Gongdeok with my wife, tartare and abalone: Usu

Usu (우수) in Gongdeok is a place I went to for a company dinner back when I worked nearby, and both the atmosphere and the food quality were fantastic! A good opportunity came up, so I went back to this Gongdeok private-room restaurant. Usu serves a hanu (Korean beef) course, and it's not just grilled meat: from the very first soup to dessert, it's a proper dining experience. Today I'll show you Dinner B at Usu, a beef dining spot in Gongdeok!

Usu Gongdeok parking, corkage and reservations

Usu has a big parking lot with 3 hours covered, so driving is fine! It's also a free-corkage restaurant in Mapo, so bring a nice bottle of wine if you have one. It's perfect for anniversaries and gatherings.

You can reserve Usu through Naver or by phone, and I recommend booking before you go!

Are Usu's rooms really private?

Every seat at Usu is a private room, which makes it one of the best private-room restaurants in Gongdeok for anniversaries. They're fully enclosed rooms, not partitions or curtains, so for an important gathering or a wedding anniversary you'll have a really good time.

Usu has rooms from small to large, so I recommend it for dates, of course, but also family gatherings or if you're looking for a good company-dinner place near Yeouido.

Usu lunch and dinner course lineup

For lunch at Usu you choose between the A, B and C courses and the Signature course, and you can add options too!

The premium course lets you taste the essence of a hanu omakase 👍🏻 Dinner is also split into A, B and C courses, and options can be added!

Dinner B price and the ingredient jewelry box

The Dinner B course (90g hanu) I chose this time is ₩109,000 per person, and the lineup was truly excellent. Before the meal starts, Usu does a little performance where they let you see today's ingredients with your own eyes.

They open a wooden drawer cabinet, and inside are the basics: 1++ hanu, clams, abalone, sweet shrimp, tilefish, shiitake mushrooms, melon and golden enoki mushrooms. Caviar and truffle can be added as options if you want them!

Honestly, it's my favorite jewelry box 💎 Seeing the day's ingredients in person made me trust the meal even more, and I felt well looked after.

Usu Dinner B, dish by dish

Woo-Gye Jinjuk (beef and chicken porridge)

Dinner B at Usu starts with Woo-Gye Jinjuk (우·계 진죽), a rich porridge simmered with hanu bone broth and chicken stock. It has nurungji (scorched rice), a scallion crust, shiitake, asparagus and white wood-ear mushrooms.

You mix it all together; the texture is thick, and the flavor from the beef and chicken is unreal. The crunch of each ingredient survives too! It was a great starter to get my appetite going.

Three bite-sized dishes

① Bulgogi sandwich: a moist brioche topped with hanu bulgogi and a button-mushroom sauce, then loaded with truffle cream cheese slices!

② Scallop and clam: brik pastry rolled into a round shape and filled with grilled scallop and a clam cream sauce.

③ Sweet shrimp and gimbugak (seaweed crisp): fried abalone-innards rice topped with sweet shrimp and yuzu sauce, wrapped in roasted seaweed brushed with pollock roe!

All three come on one tray, and you eat counterclockwise starting from the brioche. Every bite has a different charm, which is fun. My wife and I both loved the bulgogi sandwich!

Shiitake shrimp and zucchini

The shiitake shrimp has minced shrimp tucked between shiitake mushrooms. You can imagine the texture, right? The plump shrimp and the mushroom go really well together.

For the zucchini, tofu, aged kimchi and golden enoki are rolled in zucchini and dunked deep into a peanut tofu sauce drizzled with chamnamul (pimpinella) oil. The sauce is so nutty and fresh and delicious. I recommend dunking it in generously right from the start!

Beef tartare with gamtae seaweed

The beef tartare with gamtae (육회감태) has fried nurungji topped with an umami-bomb pickle made from Chinese artichoke and a generous helping of homemade aioli, then piled high with 1++ hanu tartare!

You roll it up in the gamtae seaweed and eat it. Apart from the main, this was my favorite in the whole course. I could feel the chef's skill in how the ingredients come together, and I ate it in awe.

Tilefish

For the tilefish, chamnamul barley rice is grilled to bring out texture, topped with nicely grilled tilefish, and then neungi mushroom broth is poured over.

You mix everything together, and the elegant, subtle flavor felt so good.

Tteokgalbi (grilled short rib patty)

Tteokgalbi made from 1++ hanu, served on celeriac purée with assorted salad and a shiitake dixelle!

Dip it generously in the white balsamic sauce and basil oil. The hanu tteokgalbi was moist and juicy inside and perfectly seasoned, and I really enjoyed it.

Abalone five-color gardenia noodles

The abalone five-color gardenia noodles (전복오색치자면) have tender abalone on top of noodles made with gardenia, along with five vegetables: black sesame radish strips, bracken, shiitake, chamnamul salad and perilla leaf.

The sauce is a gamtae dressing and mustard-garlic sauce, and it ties for first place with the beef tartare. The fresh gamtae dressing brings all the ingredients together and really wakes up your appetite.

Main hanu grill and bansang (set meal)

Finally, main grill time! The main of Dinner B at Usu is 1++ hanu sirloin with a hanu seaweed soup bansang (반상, a traditional set meal).

You can tell the quality from the color alone. You grill the 1++ sirloin yourself on a personal cast-iron brazier.

I took my time, pairing it with the three side dishes and the seaweed soup, and it was really delicious and really filling. If you have the dinner course at Usu, a beef restaurant in Gongdeok, 90g of hanu is more than enough!

Dessert: melon sorbet

Usu's dessert is a Korean melon (chamoe) sorbet with green tangerine juice poured over, topped with melon cheese, coconut chips and dill. It finished the meal with a melon dessert that really feels like summer!

Who is Usu good for?

In Usu's dinner course you can feel the care in every dish, and seeing the ingredients with my own eyes before eating was a truly memorable experience. Free corkage in Mapo and all-private-room seating are big perks, and with food quality like this, I think it's a great pick for a special anniversary or a company dinner near Yeouido!

It suits any occasion, from anniversaries and meeting the parents-in-law to birthdays and company dinners, so I recommend it. Reservations before you visit are a must!