Jamsil izakaya group dinner for 4: sashimi and Hwayo 41 highball

A Jamsil group dinner spot, and why we keep going back to the same places

Picking a group dinner spot always feels like drawing lots. We'd already hit the barbecue place twice this month, and at the fried chicken spot you can't even hear each other talk. Most people searching for a Jamsil group dinner spot are probably stuck at exactly this point.

Ichigo is where we went with coworkers after work. Bottom line up front: it suits a table where at least one person actually knows drinks. If your group only drinks soju, though, there's not much reason to come all the way here.

The sign is small enough that you'll walk past it once

It's down an alley, so on your first visit you'll walk past it once. The sign isn't flashy — just the word ICHIGO on a black exterior wall. At night it's faster to spot the light spilling from the windows than the sign itself.

Parking?

We left the car at home since it was a drinking night, so we didn't check the parking situation ourselves. As you can see in the photo, cars were parked in the alley in front of the shop, but I'm not sure if that's dedicated parking. If you're driving, it's better to call ahead.

Seating: counter seats and a table for four

Inside, seating splits into two types. One side is counter seats facing the kitchen, the other is table seating for four. If you're eyeing this place as a Jamsil group dinner spot, plan your headcount around the table seating.

From the counter seats, you can see the prep station straight through the red noren curtain. Seems like the spot for solo diners or pairs. Watching the sashimi get sliced becomes a side dish in itself.

The whole time we sat there, someone was constantly slicing something back there. You end up seeing exactly how a dish gets made before the plate ever arrives.

Table seating you can sit at for two or three hours

The table seating fits four people exactly. The chairs are green leather with backrests, so even after two or three hours our backs didn't hurt. The windows are covered with curtains, which blocks the view outside and somehow makes you lose track of time.

Sound doesn't carry as much as you'd expect. Conversation from the next table never bled over, so we never had to ask each other to repeat something. That matters more than you'd think when choosing a group dinner spot in Jamsil — and it's usually not the case at barbecue places.

The name means strawberry. A blue sign on the wall reads いちご (ichigo) in hiragana. It's not a place that actually serves strawberries.

An aperitif and pretzels arrive before the menu does

As soon as we sat down, two things arrived along with the menu: a red drink in a small glass, and a plate of pretzels.

The pretzels are just pretzels. Salty, crunchy, and your hand keeps reaching for them before the alcohol arrives. I wondered why they even bother, then finished the whole plate.

The aperitif was a red drink that looked like wine, served in a small cut-crystal glass — one sip and it's gone. Sweet with some acidity, seems designed to open up the palate. We didn't get to ask exactly what it was.

Every seat gets set up like this: a floral-patterned plate, a soy sauce dish, a water glass, a wet towel. The chopsticks are black wood with their own rest. This level of table setting doesn't feel out of place even if you've come dressed up.

Hwayo 41, 375mL for ₩60,000, one bottle among four of us

We went with Hwayo 41 — a 375mL bottle for ₩60,000. It comes in a black bottle with gold lettering, served with an ice bucket full of ice.

Straight, it hits you at the full 41 percent. So we ordered tonic water and mixed it into highballs — ice, a little Hwayo, a lot of tonic. That brings the strength way down, and one bottle among four of us lasted quite a while.

₩60,000 might feel like a stretch for a group dinner budget. But compared to ordering several bottles of soju, nursing one bottle slowly makes for a better next morning. The pace of drinking naturally slows down.

Sashimi for two — the thickness is the first thing you notice

We ordered sashimi for two. When the plate arrived, conversation at the table paused for a second. Shaved radish on ice, sashimi layered on top, and so many kinds you can't count them at a glance.

Salmon, tuna, abalone, scallop, sweet shrimp were visible, with three or four kinds of white fish mixed in between. There was also a piece of blue-backed fish — couldn't tell if it was horse mackerel or chub mackerel.

What caught the eye before the fish itself was the thickness. This isn't a plate padded out with thin slices to make it look like more. Pick up one piece and you feel the weight on your chopsticks. Even a light dip in soy sauce doesn't drown out the fish flavor.

Abalone comes on seaweed, guts and all

The abalone is meant to be eaten on a piece of seaweed. They give you the innards along with it — bitter, which cuts through the lingering sweetness from the alcohol. We'd never had this combination before. When something like this shows up at a group dinner, the conversation takes a detour right there.

Put the sashimi and the Hwayo side by side and the pairing works. The 41 percent alcohol rinses the oiliness of the fish so your palate resets for the next piece. Soju doesn't quite do this.

Uni pasta — I argued against it, and I was wrong

I wasn't sure pasta made sense at an izakaya. Someone else picked it and I argued against it. Turns out I was wrong.

Lift the noodles and the sauce trails behind like a thread. It's a cream sauce, but light, tinted green. A whole sea urchin roe is placed on top, with grated cheese dusted over it like snow.

Mixing the sea urchin roe into the noodles seems to be the standard way to eat it, but I'd recommend trying the first bite as-is. There's no fishy taste at all — sweetness comes first. Once you mix it in, the whole sauce turns oceanic. The noodles are cooked a touch past al dente, which suits a pasta meant as a drinking side dish better than something too firm.

If there's one drawback, it's the portion. Split four ways, it's gone in about two chopstick-fulls each.

How many people can it handle? The verdict

It was good for four people sitting and talking for two or three hours. On the flip side, it's not built for a crowd of ten or more passing shots around — the table just isn't sized for it. If you're looking for a Jamsil group dinner spot, count your headcount first.

Once sashimi and pasta and a bottle of Hwayo are all on the tab, the per-person cost isn't exactly light. But if one person in the group actually knows drinks, that person ends up satisfied — and a group dinner's success usually comes down to that one person.

If you've searched for a Jamsil group dinner spot a few times and keep landing on the same place, it might be worth changing direction once. Look toward izakayas in Jamsil and the options change. The address is 6-7 Baekjegobun-ro 11-gil, Songpa-gu, Seoul, 1st floor.