Gongdeok Station Korean beef set-menu dinner with 4 starters: Usu

What kind of restaurant is Usu Gongdeok?

I visited Usu Gongdeok, located right in front of Gongdeok Station Exit 2. Every seat at Usu Gongdeok is a private room, and there are also dedicated private rooms, so it seemed like a good pick for gatherings and meals with company. Here's my review after eating the Dinner B course at Usu Gongdeok, a Seoul restaurant well suited to formal family meetings.

First, let me show you photos of the ingredients used in the Dinner B course.

Location, parking and private-room seating

Usu Gongdeok is located on basement level 2 of the Lotte Castle President commercial building, right in front of Gongdeok Station Exit 2.

Every seat is a private room, and there are also private rooms and group seating. I felt this was a good restaurant to consider for formal family meetings, family gatherings, or any kind of get-together.

Usu Gongdeok menu: lunch and dinner courses

Lunch courses

Dinner courses

À la carte hanwoo grill menu

There's a range of menus, including Lunch A, B, C courses, Dinner A, B courses, and à la carte hanwoo grill items.

The anniversary hanwoo cake also caught my eye.

What comes in the Dinner B course?

• Dinner B 90g
• Beef & egg jindeuk-juk
• Four bite-sized dishes
• Shiitake shrimp, zucchini
• Hanwoo tartare with gamtae
• Jeju tilefish
• 1++ hanwoo tteokgalbi
• Abalone five-color gardenia noodles
• Tabletop-grilled 1++ hanwoo, chef's selection
• Seasonal fish hot-pot rice
• Bansang
• Dessert

This time I ordered the Dinner B course. It's a course where dishes made with a variety of ingredients, including hanwoo, come out in sequence, so you get to try quite a few different menus.

Inside the room there was a coat hanger, and the table was already set with spoons and chopsticks.

The water was barley tea, which was delicious.

I got to see the ingredients that would be used in today's course.

The four one-bite dishes at Usu

Following the beef & egg jindeuk-juk, the four bite-sized dishes of Usu Gongdeok's Dinner B course arrived.

Out came a bulgogi sandwich, scallop and clam, sweet shrimp with gim-bugak (fried seaweed chips), and a lobster taco. Since they came in bite-sized portions, I could look at each one and enjoy the start of the course.

Bulgogi sandwich

Hanwoo bulgogi, mushroom duxelles, truffle cream cheese, and apple pickle were layered between brioche, finished with hanwoo jerky powder and porcini powder. It was an impressive dish that reimagined familiar hanwoo bulgogi in sandwich form.

Scallop and clam

Centered on brick pastry, grilled scallop, and abalone, this dish was paired with clam cream sauce, apple, and onion, finished with gamtae (seaweed) powder. With several ingredients combined around scallop and clam, it offered a range of flavors and textures.

Sweet shrimp with gim-bugak (crispy fried seaweed)

Grilled seaweed brushed with pollack roe and fried abalone-innard rice were topped with sweet shrimp and finished with yuzu sauce. It was designed to be eaten all together in one bite — seaweed, sweet shrimp, and abalone-innard rice.

Lobster taco

A tortilla made with squid ink and black sesame held sous-vide lobster, tomato, and onion, paired with a smoky gochujang mayo sauce. With frilly ice lettuce and amaranth added, it felt like a distinctive dish.

From shiitake and shrimp to abalone gardenia noodles

Shiitake, shrimp and zucchini

Next came the shiitake shrimp and zucchini dish. It used shrimp, top-grade shiitake mushroom, zucchini, tofu, aged kimchi, and golden enoki mushroom, paired with peanut-tofu sauce and wild chervil oil.

With so many ingredients combined, there was plenty to look at within a single plate.

Hanwoo tartare with gamtae seaweed

This dish centered on beef tartare and gamtae, paired with house-made aioli sauce, fried scorched rice, pickled Chinese artichoke, and a cured egg. The crispy scorched rice and pickle brought out the texture of each ingredient.

Jeju tilefish course

Tilefish was paired with barley and wild chervil rice and mullet roe, along with a mushroom broth.

It felt refreshing to see familiar Korean ingredients reworked into course-dining form.

1++ hanwoo tteokgalbi (grilled beef patty)

Crushed pistachio, celeriac purée, and shiitake duxelles were paired with white balsamic sauce and basil oil. Unlike typical tteokgalbi (grilled short rib patty), this one came with a variety of accompaniments, presented properly as a course dish.

Abalone five-color gardenia noodles

Black sesame radish salad, bracken, shiitake mushroom, wild chervil salad, perilla leaf, and abalone were used as garnish, paired with gamtae dressing, mustard-garlic sauce, and gardenia-colored noodles. With so many colorful ingredients on one plate, it looked appetizing.

How is the 1++ sirloin and bansang served?

The main course was hanwoo grill and bansang (table setting of rice, soup and side dishes). It included 1++ sirloin, hanwoo seaweed soup bansang, and seasonal fish hot-pot rice. After trying a variety of dishes earlier, it was nice to finish the meal with grilled beef, rice, and soup.

1++ sirloin on an individual brazier

The marbling on the hanwoo was excellent, and it looked delicious just from the visuals.

You grill the hanwoo yourself on the tabletop brazier to your preferred doneness.

The well-grilled beef was tasty on its own, but it also paired well eaten with rice.

Seasonal fish pot rice

Seasonal fish hot-pot rice was also served. The fish was tender with good texture, making for a satisfying meal.

Corn dessert to finish

Dessert came out to finish the meal.

Corn ice cream, corn cream cheese, apricot, corn crumble, and sponge cake were paired with green tangerine cream sauce, coconut chips, and dill. Even after the main meal, the dessert kept making use of varied ingredients, wrapping up the course on a clean note.

I also captured the menu I ordered at Usu Gongdeok, a Seoul restaurant for formal family meetings, on video.

Overall, I could feel the care put into each dish, and it was a course that felt both clean and satisfying — my review of the Dinner B course at Usu Gongdeok. It seems like a good place to visit when you want to set a special mood, or when you want to enjoy a nice meal with family or friends. If you're looking for a hanwoo course meal in Gongdeok, it might be worth checking out.