Daejeon fusion Korean late lunch after Sungsimdang cake: Usul

Daeheung-dong in Daejeon has a few spots where you can enjoy familiar Korean food with a bit of a twist. This time, I visited Usul, a fusion Korean restaurant that reinterprets Korean food in a modern way.

Rather than serving traditional Korean dishes as-is, Usul adds different ingredients and techniques to give them a new style. On this visit, I ordered clear gomtang (clear beef broth soup), basil doenjang cream sujebi (hand-torn noodle soup), sweet corn shrimp potato pancake, and cheonggyul ade (green tangerine ade).

Usul's location and hours

• Location: 48 Jungang-ro138beon-gil, 1F Unit 109, Hangari Geurim Building, Jung-gu, Daejeon, South Korea (323m from Exit 3, Jungang-ro Station)
• Hours: Tue–Sun 11:00–21:00 (last order 20:00), closed Mondays
• Parking: Available, free
• Amenities and services: Separate men's/women's restrooms, group-friendly, Wi-Fi, reservations

Usul's exterior on the Daeheung-dong street

Walking along the Daeheung-dong street, you'll come across Usul's storefront. The exterior has large floor-to-ceiling windows, so you can see the interior fairly well from outside.

The atmosphere and seating inside Usul

Walking inside Usul, I noticed a warm atmosphere built around wood tones throughout. The walls, tables, and chairs all used brown color schemes, which felt cozy, and soft lighting scattered around the space added to the relaxed mood.

On one side there were bar-style seats, and there were also table seats, making the space comfortable for a proper meal.

Part of the kitchen was open, so you could watch the food being prepared. The overall space was clean and tidy, making it a nice place to spend some relaxed time over a meal in Daeheung-dong.

What we ordered at Usul and the prices

We had wanted to order the gochujang yukhoe (spicy raw beef) and yubu rolls (fried tofu skin rolls) that day, but unfortunately they were sold out, so we ordered other dishes instead.

• Clear gomtang (clear beef broth soup): ₩10,900
• Basil doenjang cream sujebi (hand-torn noodle soup): ₩14,900
• Sweet corn shrimp potato pancake: ₩18,900
• Cheonggyul ade (green tangerine ade): ₩5,000

Cheonggyul ade and the side dishes

The cheonggyul ade we ordered along with the food came out first. It's a drink that highlights the tart flavor of green tangerine, and it was nice to sip before the meal — sweet and tangy at once, and it seemed like it would pair well with richer dishes too.

The green tangerine syrup settles at the bottom, so just give it a good stir before drinking.

Here are the side dishes that came out with the meal: baek-kimchi (white kimchi) and garlic scapes.

We had already been to Sungsimdang Cake Boutique and had cake, so this was our second stop for lunch — I snapped a photo of the table right before the food arrived.

Clear gomtang, ₩10,900

The first dish was the clear gomtang. Usul's version of gomtang is made by simmering burdock root and vegetables for a long time to create a clear broth, topped with sliced boiled pork.

Rather than the thick, heavy style you'd expect from a typical gomtang, what caught my eye first was the clear, light-colored broth.

The broth was made with burdock root and vegetables, giving it a light yet quietly deep flavor, and it came with boiled pork inside so you could eat the broth and meat together.

It was put together quite differently from the gomtang I'm usually used to, so it really showed off Usul's fusion Korean concept.

Basil doenjang cream sujebi, ₩14,900

Next up was the basil doenjang cream sujebi. It's Usul's signature dish, made by simmering traditional doenjang (fermented soybean paste) together with milk into a soft sujebi, then adding basil pesto and house-made jambon.

With basil pesto added to a cream base made from doenjang and milk, this was definitely a different composition from your typical sujebi.

On top of that, the house-made jambon was added as well, so it was a dish where you could taste a variety of ingredients in one bowl.

Using traditional doenjang while combining it with cream and basil really showed off Usul's own style of fusion Korean food.

Sweet corn shrimp potato pancake, ₩18,900

Last up was the sweet corn shrimp potato pancake.

It's a crispy pan-fried potato pancake topped with sweet corn, ricotta cheese, and flame-grilled shrimp. Unlike a regular potato pancake, the key feature was all the different toppings piled on to make it much more substantial.

On top of the crispy potato pancake, sweet corn, soft ricotta cheese, and flame-grilled shrimp were added, so you could taste several ingredients together in one bite.

It was impressive how a familiar potato pancake was reinterpreted in Usul's own way as a signature dish. It went even better paired with the Caesar sauce that came alongside it.

Who would enjoy a Daeheung-dong lunch at Usul

On this visit to Usul, I got to try dishes built on familiar Korean ingredients — gomtang, sujebi, and potato pancake — all put together in a distinctive way.

If you're looking for fusion Korean food near Jungang-ro Station in Daejeon, or a restaurant in Daeheung-dong that's comfortable for casual gatherings like a wedding invitation get-together, this was a solid choice. And if you're after a fusion Korean lunch spot in Daeheung-dong, it's worth a visit.

Rather than just serving traditional Korean dishes as they are, Usul offers them reworked in a slightly different way, making it a good place to visit when you want to try Korean food that's a bit out of the ordinary.