Gongdeok Korean beef dinner with a self-extinguishing grill: Usu

I took my mom out for hanwoo (Korean beef) omakase since she'd been craving beef. Wanting to set a nice mood for her, I went to Usu, a private-room restaurant near Gongdeok Station that's also famous as a family gathering spot.

Finding Usu: basement level 2, right by Gongdeok Station Exit 2

Usu is located on basement level 2 of the Lotte Castle President commercial building, right in front of Exit 2 of Gongdeok Station. I heard it's also famous as a Seoul meeting-the-parents restaurant — now that I think about it, quite a few private room restaurants good for those occasions seem to be tucked away in basements.

Usu is a high-end hanwoo dining spot with both lunch and dinner courses.

Private rooms at every seat, for parties of 4 to 66

Passing through the glass door and past the Usu sign, a hallway lined with several rooms appeared. Usu is made up entirely of private rooms!

Basically the rooms seat 4 people each, but looking closely, the layout allows rooms to be connected, so it seemed plenty capable of hosting larger gatherings too. According to Naver Maps, group seating goes up to 30 and rooms can hold up to 66. The whole atmosphere was quiet and private, and I could see why it's popular as a Seoul meeting-the-parents restaurant.

It was nice being able to spend cozy one-on-one time with my mom. She has a hard time hearing me sometimes, so having a quiet private room made conversation much easier too.

Usu menu and course prices

The Usu hanwoo dining menu! Since we'd already booked the Dinner B course, I didn't really need to look at the menu, but I flipped through it like a book while waiting for the food. There were four types of course each for lunch — A, B, C, and Signature — and dinner — A, B, C, and Premium. Within each course, the price also varied depending on the amount of meat.

• Dinner B course 90g (₩109,000) — what we ordered
• Dinner B course 120g (₩119,000)
• Dinner B course 150g (₩129,000)

Classic me — I meant to photograph the dinner menu but ended up photographing the lunch menu instead. Among the course items was a '3 bite-sized dishes' section, which looked like it could also be ordered à la carte. Besides the courses, you could also order grilled hanwoo, yukhoe (₩45,000), Jeju tilefish (₩30,000), hanwoo seaweed soup (₩15,000), and other à la carte items.

What is the showing box, the smoking wooden ingredient box?

Past the hallway of rooms, this space opened up, and turning to the side led to another hallway of rooms. I'd been curious about this wooden box we passed on the way to our room.

Before the course began, I found out what the box was for. Right before the meal started, the staff showed us the fresh ingredients that would go into the course, laid out in this pretty wooden box. Whoa.

Smoke was even coming out of it!! It felt kind of mysterious, and everything looked super fresh. What a performance?! They called this box the 'showing box.' Tomato, mushroom, corn, beef, caviar, and more.

That smoke was genuinely so mysterious-looking, and it really elevated the quality of the whole performance.

What comes in the Usu Dinner B course, 90g for 109,000 won

1. Beef and chicken rice porridge (u-gye jinjuk)

A broth blending hanwoo beef bone stock and chicken stock, garnished with crispy rice, scallion crust, shiitake mushroom, asparagus, and white wood ear mushroom. At first glance it looked light on garnish, but as I ate my way through it, there turned out to be quite a lot in there. Savory with a deep broth flavor — delicious.

2. Three one-bite dishes

Bulgogi sandwich – scallop and clam – sweet shrimp and gim-bugak (crispy seaweed chips). I started with the bulgogi sandwich made of brioche, hanwoo bulgogi, mushroom duxelles, and truffle cream cheese. Delicious!

Next was the scallop & clam, made with brick pastry, grilled scallop, abalone mushroom, clam cream sauce, apple, onion, and gamtae (seaweed powder) — the flavor was different from what I expected. Last was the sweet shrimp & gim-bugak, with gim (dried seaweed) brushed with pollack roe, fried abalone-innards rice, sweet shrimp, and yuzu sauce!! Of the three, this was most my style. All three were nice to eat by hand — trying to use chopsticks actually made it harder, haha.

3. Shiitake mushroom with shrimp, and young zucchini

A dish made with shrimp, shiitake mushroom, zucchini, tofu, aged kimchi, golden enoki mushroom, peanut tofu sauce, and wild chervil oil. First of all, it was a treat for the eyes — course meals really are visually pleasing. The plating was so pretty. The shrimp and shiitake side was crispy, and everything paired really well with that peanut tofu sauce.

4. Yukhoe (Korean beef tartare) with gamtae seaweed

House-made aioli sauce, fried crispy rice, pickled Chinese artichoke, cured egg. So many unfamiliar-sounding ingredients.

It was fun wrapping the yukhoe (Korean beef tartare) in gamtae seaweed — when I told my mom to wrap it, she started from the long end, haha ha. It tasted like the yukhoe sushi we know, but also something distinctly different.

5. Tilefish

Tilefish, barley and wild chervil rice, mullet roe, black trumpet mushroom broth. I was surprised when they poured what looked like water for me. Huh?! Turned out to be black trumpet mushroom broth!! It's technically broth but looks just like water, poured over rice fried a bit like crispy rice with the fish... it reminded me of the old days of mixing rice into water to eat with fish. Like a slightly upscale version of that, haha. The tilefish was completely tender, the rice was delicious, and the mushroom broth paired perfectly.

6. Tteokgalbi (grilled short rib patty)

Crushed pistachio, celeriac purée, shiitake mushroom duxelles, white balsamic sauce, basil oil. I'd been looking forward to the tteokgalbi course, but course meals really never turn out how you imagine. In my head, tteokgalbi is always a flattish patty shape no matter how small, but look at that fancy sauce, haha. As expected, it was a dish that mixed familiar flavors with new ones.

7. Abalone with five-color gardenia noodles

Black sesame julienned radish, bracken fern, shiitake mushroom, seasoned wild chervil, perilla leaf, abalone, gamtae dressing, mustard-garlic sauce, gardenia-dyed noodles. It had a slightly tangy, palate-cleansing taste, maybe meant to prep us for the main dish. This was the dish my mom liked best before the main course! Genuinely delicious, haha.

The main hanwoo grill and rice table: a grill that shuts off right on time

(Dish 8) The main course (hanwoo grill & table setting) finally arrived!! The star of the hanwoo omakase!! A table spread of 1++ grade sirloin and hanwoo seaweed soup!

The seaweed soup alone looked filling. Course meals really are curious — each dish on its own looks like it wouldn't be enough for anyone, but by the end you're stuffed. And it's not so much that you're uncomfortably full, either — figuring out that balance while designing a course must take real skill.

Anyway, my mom had really been wanting kimchi, and she was thrilled when it finally showed up. Couldn't help but laugh.

True to its name, the hanwoo seaweed soup was packed with beef inside too. A moderate amount of rice, plus kimchi, seasoned vegetable side dishes, salted seafood, and even salt for dipping the meat!!

The vegetables that came with the meat had already been lightly pre-grilled. Wanting them more cooked, I grilled them extra, extra, extra.

My mom put all her meat on the grill at once, while I grilled just 2-3 pieces at a time. The really funny thing was, right as I finished grilling and reached for rice, the fire turned itself off. Whoa — is even the timing calculated like that? Amazing. My mom's grill seemed to turn off about 20-30 seconds after mine.

Dessert at Usu

(Dish 9) Dessert was corn ice cream, corn cream cheese, apricot, corn crumble, sponge cake, and green citron cream sauce. The final dish following the main course!! The moss-looking bits turned out to be the sponge cake, lol. How do people even come up with that? Holy moly. The tangy-looking ice cream turned out to be corn ice cream!! So savory! Delicious, ugh. I wanted more ~0~ For a final palate cleanser, we even got to enjoy a refreshingly cold omija (schisandra berry) tea.

Final thoughts on a mother-daughter dinner at Usu in Gongdeok

Usu was wonderful for enjoying a delicious hanwoo course meal with my mom and spending some cozy time together. From start to the last dessert, the plating was gorgeous, and it was fun to enjoy familiar Korean ingredients presented in unexpected ways. With a great course lineup and the option of private dining, it'd be good for family gatherings or meals with parents, and it'd also work well as a nicely atmospheric Seoul meeting-the-parents restaurant. It's right in front of Gongdeok Station so it's easy to get to, and parking is ample too — I'd recommend it if you're looking for a Gongdeok restaurant with both good food and good atmosphere. Most of all, my mom really enjoyed the meal, so I was glad I brought her.

Usu location, hours and parking

• Address: Basement level 2, Unit 201, 109 Mapo-daero, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea (Lotte Castle President commercial building)
• Hours: Daily 11:00–22:00 (break time 15:00–17:00)
• Parking available (free for 3 hours)
• Corkage allowed (free)
• Group seating (4–30), private rooms (4–66)
• Birthday perks, wine pairing, dedicated sommelier, Wi-Fi, high chairs, wheelchair accessible