Gangnam eel restaurant for solo hitsumabushi: Chisot

Chisot near Exit 7 of Yeoksam Station

I visited Chisot Yeoksam Main Branch (치솟 역삼본점), a great Japanese restaurant near Yeoksam Station. They serve hitsumabushi (Nagoya-style grilled eel over rice)! My head happened to hurt that day and I felt like I needed something nourishing, so off I went. But wow, it was so good!! If you’re craving hitsumabushi, go visit haha.

It’s at 102, 1F, 59 Bongeunsa-ro 30-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea. It’s closest to Exit 7 of Yeoksam Station.

Arrived at Chisot!! I got there around 6:10 p.m., and before long all the seats were full haha.

The menu is posted out front, so you can look it over before going in. I kept going back and forth while I walked in.

Chisot menu and prices

There are three sizes of hitsumabushi. The mini is ₩25,000, the regular is ₩37,000 (one eel), and the deluxe is ₩48,000 (one and a half eels). It comes with pickled peppers, ginger, seaweed, scallions, wasabi, chawanmushi (steamed egg custard), ochazuke (rice with tea-based broth), and soup. Chisot’s hitsumabushi is apparently Nagoya-style eel over rice.

Besides eel rice bowls, they also sell sake-don, chashu-don, and grilled eel. Sake-don is ₩16,500, yusake-don is ₩17,500, and chashu-don is ₩14,000. For sides, there are salmon sashimi, mochiri tofu, and different kinds of croquettes. Mini salmon sashimi is ₩17,000, mochiri tofu is ₩8,000, four potato croquettes are ₩8,000, and four cream cheese croquettes are ₩14,000.

They also have aged superior salmon sashimi for ₩35,000. Just hearing that it’s aged makes me think the salmon must be incredibly soft. Now I’m curious about the salmon too!!

There are lots of drinks too, from beer to spirits, soju, and sake haha. After all that debating, I ordered the deluxe hitsumabushi. Time to eat loads of eel...

There’s salmon salad through a review event too. And they have Korean domestically raised Japanese eel soup and grilled eel. Such a varied menu haha.

Solo deluxe hitsumabushi at a table

Inside, there are table seats as well as counter seats. I dined solo at a table for two. The atmosphere was nice, and the staff were kind too!

When the basic water tastes good, it somehow puts me in a good mood haha.

Here it is!! Everything arrived so neatly on one tray haha. Eel rice bowl, chawanmushi, ochazuke, soup, scallions, wasabi, seaweed flakes, peppers, and ginger! I eat everything except ginger lol. I’m honestly not a picky eater at all, but ginger is the one thing I just can’t eat lol.

Ahhh... the power of one and a half eels, seriously lol. It looked so delicious, and the color was incredible.

Delicious things need a big close-up!! With one and a half eels, there was really so much that I ran out of rice and ate the eel on its own at the end. I honestly thought that anyone who doesn’t eat much might not be able to finish the deluxe lol.

Four delicious ways to eat hitsumabushi

• Eat the rice and eel on their own
• Mix rice, seaweed, wasabi, scallions, and eel
• Pour ochazuke over the rice and eel
• Eat it once more in the way you liked best

Whenever I come for an eel rice bowl, I always divide it into four and eat it the way they explain lol. Every method has its own charm, so it’s hard to say which is best. I like methods one through three. But for the last quarter, I always seem to eat rice, eel, and wasabi together.

There’s shrimp in the chawanmushi too! Chawanmushi is so nice as a first little palate cleanser haha.

I want it again... This is method number two lol. The combination of seaweed flakes, scallions, and wasabi goes so well with the eel.

Can you see how packed with eel it is! I ate one piece of eel with every spoonful of rice, and there was still eel left, which made me so happy lol. There wasn’t a single tiny bone in the eel; it was chewy, tender, and so delicious. I highly recommend Chisot if you like hitsumabushi. I think I’ll remember it the next time I want hitsumabushi!