Premium vs regular kaisendon at Ilpum, a Gangnam Japanese restaurant

Where is Ilpum Gangnam Branch, and what are its hours?

Ilpum Gangnam Branch is a kaisendon (seafood rice bowl) specialty restaurant on the basement floor, 3 minutes' walk from Gangnam Station Exit 6. We booked through Naver Reservation.✨

Hi everyone! Today I came to Gangnam Station with a close friend. If you've seen my posts before you'll know I really love sashimi! A rice bowl piled with all kinds of seafood is called kaisendon, and today we came to Ilpum to enjoy exactly that. It's only a 3-minute walk from Exit 6, so we got there really quickly.

• 📍Location: 23 Seocho-daero 74-gil, B1, Seocho-gu, Seoul
• ⏰Hours: Mon–Sat 11:00–21:30
• Break time 15:00–17:30 / Last order 20:00
• Closed every Sunday
• 🚗1 hour free parking
• 🍾Corkage free or paid, available

Bar counter seats at Ilpum: solo-friendly, with bag storage

Ilpum Gangnam Branch has both bar-style counter seats and hall seating, so it works well for solo diners and groups alike. Sometimes places with counter seats have nowhere to put your bags, but here there was proper storage, which was really convenient👏

There were about 3–4 tables in the hall seating area.

Ilpum Gangnam Branch menu and how to order

The menu had kaisendon, unagi-don (eel rice bowl), and options served cooked like aburi-don, salmon sake-don, and seasonal buri-don (yellowtail bowl), plus sea urchin, croquettes, and karaage (Japanese fried chicken). They also serve alcohol, so it's a good spot for drinking solo too.👍 We ordered the premium kaisendon and the regular kaisendon.

You could also order from the table via QR code. It was convenient not having to speak to order.

Side dishes at Ilpum: seaweed, broth, white kimchi, chawanmushi

The basic side dishes at Ilpum Gangnam Branch were seaweed, a broth soup, white kimchi, and chawanmushi. There was gamtae (seasoned seaweed) on top of the chawanmushi! (Chawanmushi is a steamed egg custard.)

Taking a spoonful, it was soft with a rich umami flavor, and I liked that it was warm. It paired really well with the gamtae! There was shrimp underneath, too.

There was a water dispenser right on the table, which had an unusual look. It was small but dispensed both hot and cold water!

What comes on the premium kaisendon?

The premium kaisendon had rolled egg, scallop, sweet shrimp, tuna, sea urchin, salmon, Spanish mackerel, hanchi (squid), abalone, yellowtail, flounder, salmon roe, monkfish liver, and even gamtae on top — really such a wide variety of seafood.

Sea urchin and sweet shrimp on the premium bowl

Sea urchin is one of those seafoods that's amazing when it's good, but fishy when it's not! This one was rich with zero fishiness, and the pieces were nice and plump — really delicious.

The sweet shrimp still had the head on! It was sweet and plump with great texture, and it melted in my mouth.

Tuna and flounder on the premium kaisendon

The tuna seemed to be around medium fatty belly cut. Nice acidity, and again that melt-in-the-mouth quality was fantastic! It was thickly sliced too, so the tuna flavor filled my whole mouth — really good.

The flounder was well-aged too, so it was chewy and firm — really tasty! I ate it with gamtae and wasabi.

Torch-seared yellowtail and salmon at Ilpum

Yellowtail is something I've really been loving lately... this looked like it might specifically be amberjack rather than regular yellowtail, and it was lightly torch-seared, which added an extra layer of richness — even better.

The salmon also had grill marks, with a subtle smoky flavor and a firm, chewy texture. I enjoyed the salmon too — eating it with wasabi and rice was the best!

The rice was already seasoned on its own, so you could dip the sashimi in soy sauce, but it was also delicious just eaten together with the rice as is.

There was also lotus root tempura, sliced thin and fried so it was easy to bite through with a unique texture. What was unusual was that the torch-seared hanchi was cut thick — quite a different feel from eating hanchi as sushi. You could really taste that dense, chewy-yet-melting quality unique to hanchi — unusual and delicious!

Premium vs regular kaisendon: what is different?

Ilpum Gangnam Branch's regular kaisendon has flying fish roe on top compared to the premium, but no sea urchin, and the tuna cut used is akami (lean tuna) that's been marinated instead. There's also no monkfish liver, but the regular kaisendon was still plenty delicious on its own. If you want to feel a bit more treated that day, going premium is a good call!

Karaage and cold udon served midway through the meal

About halfway through the rice bowl, they brought out a karaage cold udon.

Being cold udon, the noodles had great bouncy elasticity! The slightly sweet-and-sour flavor paired really well with the rice.

Dessert at Ilpum: pudding topped with sweet pumpkin purée

Once we were about done, they brought out pudding for dessert, topped with sweet pumpkin purée. Rather than tasting strongly of pumpkin, it had a sweet, refreshingly cool feel that was really delicious.

The pudding underneath was sweet and nutty too, and it went so well together!

Today I visited Ilpum, a kaisendon spot near Gangnam Station. Considering the seafood piled on top, the price was quite reasonable, so I got to enjoy a good-value meal. If you're someone who loves seafood, I really recommend giving this place a try at least once.☺️