Marbled tuna and grilled sea bream head at a Cheongju sushi lunch

I was looking for somewhere to grab lunch in Cheongju and ended up at Dining Mihyang, which has a Japanese omakase course in the 30,000-won range. The lunch course is 35,000 won, which is fairly easy on the wallet given how much omakase tends to cost these days — but once I actually started eating, way more came out than I expected, from sashimi and sushi to grilled dishes and tempura. Midway through, they brought out tuna that looked like it had beef-level marbling running through it, and I remember thinking, wait, you get this cut at this price?

Location and hours

Dining Mihyang runs both lunch and dinner as timed courses. Since the dishes come out in sequence, I'd recommend booking ahead and showing up right on time.

Lunch and dinner course times

Lunch and dinner are split into separate seatings — lunch at 11:30 (1st) and 13:00 (2nd), dinner at 17:00 (1st) and 19:30 (2nd). Instead of everything being set down at once, dishes come out one by one, which made for a nice, unhurried meal.

Interior and seating

Dining Mihyang has both a bar table for watching the omakase get made and regular tables. The vibe works whether you're coming with family, a partner, or friends.

The whole place is done up in wood tones, giving it that calm, understated feel typical of Japanese restaurants, and big windows let in a lot of light during the day, making the space feel quite bright.

I sat at the bar table right in front of the chef, so I could watch the food being made and get each course handed to me straight away — it really delivered on that omakase feeling.

The lunch omakase course, in order

After the salad, the dish that really got my appetite going early on was the octopus. The owner said he makes his own soy sauce, and even though it's a soy-based dish, it wasn't salty at all, and the octopus was tender — a great way to start the meal.

Next came sashimi and sushi, one after another.

White fish, salmon, shrimp — the type kept changing, so even though each portion was just a few bites, there was fun in waiting for each new piece instead of it all being over at once.

Marbled tuna

Then the tuna showed up... even in photos you could see marbling running through the flesh almost like beef, and it was incredibly tender in the mouth. Getting tuna like this in a 35,000-won lunch course is honestly the standout moment.

Grilled sea bream head, also sold as a standalone dish

Then came the grilled sea bream head, which apparently is also sold on its own as a single item. I wasn't sure how much meat there'd be on a head, but there was actually quite a lot to pick off, and it was nutty and chewy! The flesh was thick and moist enough that I could see why it works as a standalone dish too.

From tempura to the finish

Toward the back half of the course, a generous tempura plate came out — shrimp, sweet pumpkin, mushroom, perilla leaf, several types, so one plate alone had real volume. The batter wasn't too thick, so even this late in the meal it didn't feel heavy.

The final savory dish was a cold soba, which was refreshing and a great way to finish cleanly after all the sashimi, grilled dishes, and tempura.

And the actual last item of the lunch course was omija tea (five-flavor berry tea)! Sweet, tart, and cold, it left my palate feeling completely refreshed.

So, a 30,000-won-range omakase — the verdict

Given the 35,000-won price, Dining Mihyang's lunch felt like a genuinely solid lineup. I liked that it wasn't just endless sashimi and sushi — you get to work through octopus, tuna, sushi, grilled sea bream head, tempura, and cold soba, all in one sitting. A great option when a pricey omakase feels like too much but you still want a course-style Japanese lunch in the 30,000-won range. Lunch was great, and now I'm curious about dinner too. Dining Mihyang, an omakase spot worth knowing in Cheongju's Dongnam district. 👍