Yeosu izakaya with free side dishes and bokbunja highball: Tsukiya

A new izakaya has opened up in Yeosu's Hakdong neighborhood. It's the kind of place where you can settle in comfortably with all sorts of Japanese-style bar food — sashimi, nabe (hot pot), fried dishes, tonkatsu, and more. With a warm, cozy atmosphere and delicious food to match, word is a lot of people have already been making their way there. I heard about it and rushed over before it got even more crowded :)

Tsukiya

Tsukiya opening hours and where to park in Hakdong

Tsukiya is open year-round, daily from 17:00 to 04:00. There's no dedicated parking, so use the public parking lots around Hakdong.

• ✔️ Open year-round
• ✔️ Daily 17:00–04:00
• 🚘 Use public parking in Yeosu Hakdong

Since it's on the Hakdong bar street, there's no lot at the restaurant itself, but there are plenty of public parking lots nearby — just grab the closest one!

The sign just says 月: how to find Tsukiya

Tsuki (つき) means moon (月), and true to that, the sign outside isn't written in Japanese script at all — it's just the character 月. I'll admit I wandered around a bit looking confused before I figured that out, haha. Search for TSUKIYA to find it.

What Tsukiya looks like inside

The interior of Tsukiya is fairly dark overall, but it feels warm and cozy, like having a drink under moonlight. Yellow lighting was set up over every table, and I thought it fit the restaurant's name perfectly. On one wall, a screen played BGM visuals, adding a full dose of atmosphere on top of a hip vibe 🎶➕➕

Ordering at Tsukiya: half beef sashimi, half salmon

Every table at Tsukiya has a tablet for ordering, so I actually pulled the menu info from Naver instead... haha. Back in the day, there was something to just flipping through a physical menu, you know? Sometimes I miss that old-school feeling.

There's a wide lineup of Japanese-style bar food — nabe, sashimi, stir-fries, fried dishes, rice dishes, and sides — and every single one had me curious. Still, we kept it simple(?) and ordered half raw beef sashimi, half salmon.

The free side dishes that arrive first

The complimentary sides were tomato marinade and green chili peppers. It was a bit strange that they were served on the same plate, haha, but the tomato marinade was tasty — passed the test, lol.

While we were sitting there waiting on our order, out came fries and... mochi tofu? First time trying mochi tofu, and here I am eating it as a basic side dish in Yeosu, haha. It's soft, with a texture just like pudding. The fries were the fries you know and love, drizzled with garlic sauce — sweet, salty, warm, and really delicious.

I couldn't quite figure out if this was a limited-time opening event or a regular thing, so I never got around to asking. But honestly, giving out this many side dishes as standard — is there any profit margin left for the owner? Well, since they're giving it to us, I'll eat it gratefully.

Half beef sashimi, half salmon and its four sauces

Half beef sashimi, half salmon ♥️ When you want both, going half and half is the way to go. And it came with a nice variety of condiments to suit your taste — ginger, tartar sauce, aged kimchi, and gochujang garlic sauce. The salmon was perfect with the tartar sauce, and the beef sashimi with rinsed aged kimchi — why is that so good? It's also great just eaten plain. Really delicious.

For drinks, we kept it simple with a Suntory highball. Cool ice cubes bobbing, a refreshing lemon slice, and just the right buzz, lol lol lol — all I could manage was a fluent 'this is delicious.'

Not a hint of fishiness, springy texture, very fresh. The fun of alternating bites between salmon and beef sashimi — that's exactly why we ordered the half and half. We'd already filled up on samgyeopsal (grilled pork belly) at our first stop, so this made for a nice light second round.

Finishing the night with a bokbunja highball

For the last sip to cleanse the palate, a bokbunja (Korean black raspberry) highball, lol lol lol lol. The color alone gets a passing grade... haha. Starts off sweet and finishes with a fizzy kick — a fresh combination 🍇

If tonight you're in the mood for a cozy dinner under the moonlight, with the fun of picking through a wide range of side dishes where even the complimentary ones make you want to drink more, I highly, highly recommend Tsukiya, the Japanese izakaya on the Hakdong bar street in Yeosu 👍