Date-night sashimi bowls and persimmon panna cotta: Ilpum, Gangnam

Back when my boyfriend's office was near Gangnam and Yangjae, Gangnam was always our date spot — lately we'd been neglecting it, so I'd missed it. Friday in Gangnam, everyone's faces blooming with smiles!

Once my boyfriend and I clock out, the smiles come on automatically. Feeling good, off to Gangnam for some fancy kaisendon (seafood rice bowl).

Where is Ilpum Gangnam Branch, and is there parking?

Ilpum Gangnam Branch is within 5 minutes of Gangnam Station's Shinbundang Line Exit 6, tucked behind the 'Dunkin Live' branch we love so much. It's on the basement level.

Parking: 1 hour is supported at Seocho Town Trapalace.

Heading down to the basement, you follow a path where you think 'is there really a restaurant here?'... and oh, a clean, sharp storefront appears! That's 一品 (Ilpum).

Right from the entrance, celebrity autographs everywhere —

Seriously, when did all these celebrities come eat here...??

Bar seats or table seats at Ilpum Gangnam Branch?

Seating is split into bar seats and table seats — most people sit at the bar, and groups of 4 or more use the tables. Booking through Naver Reservations comes with a ton of perks.

Kaisendon at 26,000 won vs premium kaisendon: what you get

When I asked about the difference between kaisendon and premium kaisendon — I think it was tuna? — one type of fish changes, plus ikura (salmon roe) and uni (sea urchin) get added. Since I can't handle ikura's fishiness well, I went with the regular kaisendon (26,000). My boyfriend got the (premium) sashimi-don (39,000).

Once seated, there's a water dispenser right at the bar, so water's easy to get.

They immediately bring chawanmushi (savory egg custard), broth, and mukeunji (aged kimchi). The chefs start cooking the second our order goes in, moving quick, quick, quick, quick.

This is the charm of bar seats. You get to watch your food actually being made.

They set out the seaweed ahead of time like this, and while watching the kaisendon come together, a bite of chawanmushi,

This chawanmushi isn't warm, but it's just soft with the right amount of sweetness, gliding in softly and waking up your appetite.

Inside the chawanmushi there's shrimp too, so you get a little bit of bite texture here and there. Makes it even better.

For the (premium) sashimi-don, they pull out the sashimi storage case, wash their hands, and slice the fish fresh like this to make it.

Kaisendon vs premium sashimi-don at 39,000 won: how they differ

First up, the finished kaisendon. How did Japan figure out eating tempura over rice, sashimi over rice...? And made it pretty too.

The bowl is surprisingly deep, so there's a generous amount of rice packed in.

And right after, the (premium) sashimi-don arrives

My boyfriend figured with 'premium' attached it'd be a bigger bowl, but the plate size is the same, right? Got fooled, huh? Haha.

The composition looks like this — unlike kaisendon, the sashimi-don's fish is pulled from a separate storage area and sliced to order, so the 'special' in 'premium' checks out.

The cuts of fish on the sashimi-don are thick and generous, with white fish and red fish laid together in harmony.

The kaisendon's composition isn't bad either — right in the middle is exactly the red fish I love, plus scallop as a bonus! Nice, nice.

How to eat kaisendon wrapped in gim and gamtae seaweed

They give us a small side plate each, partly to see the full composition of the bowl and partly so we can eat things selectively with the rice — pulling pieces out one by one.

Trouble-maker #1, taking the beautifully arranged bowl apart just to lay it out again, beautifully.

Trouble-maker #2, watching me eat the kaisendon and going 'oh, that's how you're supposed to eat it?' and copying me by pulling pieces out too. What was the chef thinking watching us do this..^^; (But honestly, taking everything off made it way easier to scoop the rice.)

I even stole my boyfriend's gamtae (seaweed), plopped a piece of red fish on top, one bite,

These days my boyfriend's obsessed with mukeunji, so I made a flounder + mukeunji gimbap and took a bite — 'Eureka!!!!!!!' Long live kaisendon, long live Ilpum, the Gangnam Station kaisendon spot!

So you layer the seaweed and gamtae like this, top with as much rice and sashimi as you want, add a dab of wasabi, and

No need to envy those fancy botanical garden gimbaps. Gangnam Station's kaisendon spot 'Ilpum' is number one!!! It's so good that even eating just the rice alone, oh, that's tasty too.

We really wrapped it endlessly. Diligently rolling gimbap and eating, rolling and eating, having the time of our lives with the kaisendon, when

Cold udon, served right on cue

Oh! Cold udon shows up on the bar. The timing was so perfect I thought, 'ah, the chefs must be watching us eat' haha.

Taking a bite of kaisendon and then some broth is already so good, but

The cold udon with a piece of karaage on top — it cools your stomach down so refreshingly.

I stole some sashimi from my boyfriend's (premium) sashimi-don — more aged and tender-feeling than the kaisendon's fish, delicious. But! The kaisendon's fish is delicious too.

Now just straight-up shoveling it with a spoon

While we were eating, another table ordered a salmon-don, I think, and watching them make it... 'ah, I've got to try sake-don next time,' I decided.

After diligently wrapping rice and fish in seaweed, you gave me a piece of beet — ....... do you see that huge chunk of wasabi...... you eat it!!!!!!!!!! ugh.

It's a punishment ^-^ (my whiny baby who does whatever I ask ♡ said he'd pluck a star from the sky for me. Skip the star, just buy me sake-don next time.)

Hongsi (ripe persimmon) panna cotta to finish

The timing is uncannily perfect — right as we're scooping the last of the rice... they bring out this hongsi (ripe persimmon) panna cotta. This little pudding wraps up the palate cleanse perfectly.

It cleans up even the lingering aftertaste of the sashimi. Confirmed, once again: this is a Gangnam Station kaisendon spot worth recommending.

While we were eating, we saw them prepping a ton of takeout orders up front — a lot of them were unagi don (grilled eel rice bowl) boxes. Seems like they're great at eel here too, so next time I'll come once for sake-don and once for unagi don. -> Apparently actor Hwang Jung-min gave the unagi don a thumbs up and left.