Izakaya near Moran Station, Seongnam, mackerel bo sushi: Robata Sobeu

I had an early dinner meetup in Moran and was looking for somewhere to have a light drink, which is how I ended up at Robata Sobeu (로바타소브), a Japanese izakaya (Japanese-style pub) in Moran. With everything from sashimi to mackerel bo sushi (pressed mackerel sushi roll), grilled dishes and all sorts of Japanese drinking snacks, it looked like a decent place for a meal and a drink at the same time. That day we ordered the mackerel bo sushi and the pollack roe cheese potato (potato topped with cheese and myeongran, salted pollack roe), plus a draft beer and soju. The atmosphere was nice, but what also stuck with me was that the day's recommended dishes are written up separately, which made choosing easy when the long menu had me torn.

Robata Sobeu hours and parking

• 1F, 28-1 Jeil-ro 63beon-gil, Jungwon-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do
• 17:00–24:00 / last order 23:00
• Closed every Monday
• No parking near the restaurant; use a public parking lot
• Reservations available

From the alley between exits 3 and 4 of Moran Station, go straight ahead, turn right when you see a GS25 on your left, then turn left when you see a fruit shop.

Even from the outside it has the feel of a Japanese pub, so it definitely stands out from the rest of the Moran alley. If you know Moran well, you'll all know where this is! The sign is small, but the atmosphere makes it stand out, so it's easy to spot!

Japanese izakaya atmosphere and seating

Inside, the interior nails the izakaya feel so well it's like being in Japan. There are tables for four or more as well as bar seating, so just sit wherever you're comfortable. That makes it a good fit not only for drinks with friends but also for a date where you take your time over food and drinks.

It has an open kitchen like this, with the live seafood used for the ingredients displayed in front, but since I went right at opening they were still setting up, so that fish was all I saw.

Japanese drinking snacks picked from the day's recommendations

Robata Sobeu had quite a varied menu, from sashimi to mackerel bo sushi, grilled dishes, nabe (Japanese hot pot) and a range of other Japanese dishes. What I especially liked was that there's a separate list of the day's recommended dishes. At an izakaya you're visiting for the first time, you can end up staring at the menu forever, so having recommendations definitely helped us decide what to eat.

After some deliberating we went with two dishes that seemed to be the signatures here, the mackerel bo sushi at ₩29,000 and the pollack roe cheese potato at ₩14,000, and ordered a glass of draft beer and a bottle of soju as well.

The draft beer here is Kirin draft, so it's just plain delicious, honestly. And the fridge is nice and cold, so the drinks come out at a good temperature too.

They give you a salad as the basic starter, and this was good too: the dressing was tasty and the topping on it added texture, so we kept going back for more!

Pollack roe cheese potato with plenty of cheese

The pollack roe cheese potato came out first. The dish is hot, so be careful!

Some other places skimp on the cheese or pollack roe on top of the potato, but here the cheese was laid on thick, so there was still cheese right until we finished the potato. The seasoning was spot on, and we never ended up with just plain potato left over, so it was a pleasure to eat right to the end.

Mackerel bo sushi is best with seaweed and wasabi

And then the mackerel bo sushi! It came out looking great, exactly the kind of presentation that suits a drinking snack, and I liked that you could eat it comfortably one bite at a time.

That said, I could pick up a bit of that fishy smell mackerel has. It wasn't so strong that I couldn't eat it, but eaten plain the smell was definitely there, and wrapping it in the gim (dried seaweed) that came with it made it much more savory, so that way suited me better. Putting wasabi on top as well made the fishiness a little less noticeable.

Still, it doesn't disappear completely, so if you're sensitive to fishy smells, it's worth keeping in mind. Personally, seaweed + mackerel bo sushi + wasabi was the combination that worked best.

A Japanese bar with a nice atmosphere near Moran Station

If you're looking for a bar with a good atmosphere near Moran Station, Robata Sobeu was worth keeping in mind. The overall atmosphere was good, the menu was varied, and with the day's recommendations listed separately, choosing wasn't hard even on a first visit. There were also dishes not yet written on the menu, and you can ask the owner for recommendations, so feel free to ask before ordering!

The mackerel bo sushi had a slightly fishy smell for my taste, which was a bit of a letdown, but with seaweed and wasabi it was much easier to eat, and the pollack roe cheese potato was well seasoned and, eaten hot, made a satisfying drinking snack. Rather than praising every single dish unconditionally, I'd say tastes will differ dish by dish, but given the atmosphere and the menu lineup, it's a place I'd like to go back to and try other dishes.

⭐⭐⭐☆

If you're looking for a Japanese izakaya near Moran Station where you can enjoy Japanese drinking snacks along with your drinks, check out Robata Sobeu. There's a wide range of options, from dishes that pair well with drinks like the mackerel bo sushi to lighter snacks to nibble on, and the recommended menu made it easy to choose even on a first visit. Of the dishes I had that day, the pollack roe cheese potato eaten hot was especially well suited as a drinking snack. Robata Sobeu, a Moran izakaya where I'd like to try the other recommended dishes next time.