Sejong izakaya for a work dinner with a ₩4,000 mini oden: Honma

A Sejong tuna restaurant I'd recommend for a team dinner! The Premium Cham-Dan-U was the best value. I wanted to eat properly good tuna in Sejong, searched around, and ended up at Izakaya Honma (이자카야 혼마) in Dodam-dong!

Izakaya Honma exterior

Is the atmosphere at Izakaya Honma in Dodam-dong right for a team dinner?

Izakaya Honma is in the Dodam-dong eating street, so it's easy to get to and a perfect spot for a drink after work. The inside has a cozy, local Japanese izakaya feel, so it suits dates and also team dinners or get-togethers.

Izakaya Honma menu and most popular dish

What we ordered was the Premium Cham-Dan-U set (참.단.우 프리미엄), said to be the most popular dish at Izakaya Honma!

What comes in the Premium Cham-Dan-U set?

As the name says, the Premium Cham-Dan-U set lets you enjoy tuna (cham), sweet shrimp (dan-saeu) and sea urchin (uni) all at once, and the look of it alone made me gasp.

The thickly sliced bluefin tuna was a vivid red and looked really fresh. It's mostly medium fatty belly, so it melted in my mouth, which I loved. The sweet shrimp were so fresh you could tell right down to the heads, and the sweet, savory flavor was the best.

And half a tray of yellow sea urchin sits on top. It was nutty and smooth with no fishy taste, and eating it together with the tuna and sweet shrimp was the best combination.

How to wrap it with vinegared rice balls and gamtae

The set comes with vinegared rice balls and gamtae (seaweed), and this was what I liked most of all.

I put a piece of tuna, a piece of uni and a sweet shrimp on a rice ball and wrapped it in the gamtae. There's no need to go to a separate sushi place. A little wasabi on top really brings out the savory flavor. And here's this dish's hidden tip!

The ₩4,000 mini fish cake soup: is it really mini?

At Izakaya Honma, if you order the Premium Cham-Dan-U you can add a mini fish cake soup (오뎅탕) for just ₩4,000, and it was not mini at all. The pot was full of napa cabbage, mushrooms and fish cake, and the broth was refreshing, so it was almost main-dish level..

Having a spoonful of warm broth between bites of tuna settled my stomach, and it was great with drinks too.

Izakaya Honma drinks: happy hour Asahi draft and review event

Drinks 🍻 The drinks were also very satisfying.

Thanks to happy hour, I could enjoy Asahi draft beer at an easy price, and the Terra draft from the review event made me completely happy!

Midway we also had Cass bottled beer, and fresh tuna, sweet shrimp and uni with a cold beer is a combination that never fails.

Is the Premium Cham-Dan-U good value?

Looking at the price alone, the Premium Cham-Dan-U might make you hesitate a little, but once I saw what's actually in it, the value felt really good. You get bluefin tuna, sweet shrimp and uni at once, plus vinegared rice balls and gamtae, and you can add the fish cake soup cheaply, so satisfaction was very high.

With the good atmosphere and excellent food quality, I'd really recommend it for dates and also as a team dinner spot!

Izakaya Honma restroom

Isn't the restroom super pleasant too..!!

Would I go back?

After stuffing myself like this, I headed home~! If you're looking for a good drinking spot in Dodam-dong, a Sejong izakaya, or a Sejong tuna restaurant for a team dinner, I hope you'll visit Izakaya Honma at least once.

I plan to go back for the Premium Cham-Dan-U next time. The real thing looked much better than in photos, and it was a happy meal the whole way through. The mini fish cake soup is mini in name only, with a generous amount and good flavor, so I'd definitely recommend adding it, haha.

10000% I'll go back!!!