Changwon izakaya: yolk-dipped tsukune, tendon oden soup, Yakitori Gong

A Changwon Unicity go-to, an Urban Bricks go-to: Yakitori Gong.

• Hours: 6 PM – midnight (last order)
• Located on the 3rd floor of Urban Bricks, parking available (3 hours free)
• Corkage available (paid)
• Zero Pay accepted

I went to Yakitori Gong, a Changwon Unicity go-to spot, for their signature negima and tsukune skewers, sujigomtang (beef tendon oden soup), and a Kirin draft beer. It was genuinely delicious — I thought, okay, this really is an Urban Bricks go-to spot, haha.

What's the difference between yakitori and izakaya?

I wondered what the difference was between an izakaya and yakitori, so I looked it up. Yakitori means 'grilled chicken' in Japanese — chicken skewered and grilled, then seasoned with a soy-based sauce or salt, the Japanese style of skewer grilling. It's similar to the 'dak-kkochi' we're familiar with in Korea, but apparently in Japan there's a culture of enjoying many different cuts of chicken broken down into individual skewers!

Yakitori Gong menu and prices

Yakitori Gong's main skewers range from kawa (chicken skin) at ₩3,200 up to tsukune (chicken meatball) at ₩5,200, and single skewers have a minimum order of 2pcs. There are also set menus split into 2–3 person and 4–5 person options.

This month's menu

• Yakitori 4 kinds: tenderloin, skin, heart, king oyster mushroom ₩8,900
• Yakitori 3 kinds: scallop, shrimp, pork belly ₩11,900
• Yakitori 6 kinds: scallion chicken thigh, tenderloin, pork neck, cartilage, heart, tsukune ₩19,900

2–3 person set menu

• Yakitori 3 kinds (scallion chicken thigh, chicken skin, heart) + mentaiko scallop cream pasta ₩27,000
• Yakitori 3 kinds (scallion chicken thigh, chicken skin, heart) + chicken jeongol (hot pot) ₩29,000
• Yakitori 3 kinds (scallion chicken thigh, chicken skin, heart) + chilled whelk mul-hoe ₩33,000
• Yakitori 3 kinds (scallion chicken thigh, chicken skin, heart) + suji oden-tang ₩37,000

4–5 person set menu

• Yakitori 6 kinds + gara-age + chicken jeongol + jip-koba ₩75,000

Main skewer menu

• Kawa (chicken skin) ₩3,200
• Hatsu (chicken heart) ₩3,500
• Sasami (chicken tenderloin) ₩3,500
• Nankotsu (chicken cartilage) ₩3,600
• Yakiton (pork belly) ₩3,900
• Shrimp ₩3,900
• Negima (chicken thigh + scallion) ₩4,100
• Seseri (chicken neck meat) ₩4,100
• Scallop ₩4,100
• Tsukune (chicken meatball) ₩5,200

For single skewers the minimum order is 2pcs!

Vegetable skewers, meals, soups & sides

• Vegetable skewers - King oyster mushroom 1pc ₩3,500 / corn 1pc ₩4,000 / ginkgo nuts 3pcs ₩4,500
• Meals - Tonkotsu ramen ₩9,000 / yakitori rice bowl ₩15,000 / mentaiko scallop cream pasta ₩19,000
• Soups - Chicken jeongol ₩20,000 / suji oden-tang ₩28,000
• Sides - Mentaiko gyoza ₩9,500, shiba-no shioyaki (salt-grilled mackerel) ₩10,000, ☆patbingsu (shaved ice, with main menu order) ₩12,000, charcoal-grilled pollock roe ₩14,500, gara-age (boneless fried chicken) ₩14,900, dried snacks (monkfish jerky, dried fish, peanuts) ₩16,500 (add peanuts ₩2,000), jip-koba (spicy stir-fried chicken) ₩22,000, chilled whelk mul-hoe (limited quantity) ₩25,000

Drinks

• Beer, soju ₩5,000
• Soft drinks ₩2,000
• Ilpum Jinro (with tonic) ₩33,000
• Draft beer, Kirin Ichiban ₩9,000

There's a wide range of drinks, from sake to shot glasses and highballs, so check out the photo of the drinks menu! They had Suntory Jim Beam, of course, and even Hibiki.

Origin — Chicken: domestic, Rice: domestic, Eel: domestic, Mackerel: Norway, Beef: US·Australia, Pork: Belgium·Netherlands.

The atmosphere and complimentary snacks

There were quite a lot of guests inside so I couldn't take interior photos, but there were plenty of 4-person tables! There were groups of 4 and 6, maybe on a company dinner. Yakitori Gong really seems to have already become a well-known izakaya at Urban Bricks in Changwon. After ordering, they brought out roasted peanuts and cabbage as a starter snack.

I had the cabbage and tomato snack along with the Kirin draft beer that came out first, and wow, draft really does taste different, doesn't it? I already liked Kirin draft, but the one at Yakitori Gong was genuinely delicious! Draft beer spots are rare too, so it was great being able to drink good Kirin draft at Urban Bricks. Cold, delicious Kirin draft for under 10,000 won!

Yakitori Gong's Suji Oden-tang, ₩28,000

Yakitori Gong - Suji Oden-tang

After ordering and waiting a bit, the suji oden-tang came out first. It arrived packed into a huge hot pot on a gas burner. There were round fish cakes, square fish cakes, and various kinds of fish cakes with different colors and textures, so I was excited to try them. They also loaded it up with scallions and glass noodles, and let it simmer a bit longer on the burner until the noodles cooked through.

Changwon Unicity go-to spot Yakitori Gong's suji oden-tang had a wide variety of fish cake types! And they weren't the cheap kind of fish cake — they were plump, satisfying to chew, and generously loaded in. With scallion, glass noodles, fish cake, and tendon all packed in generously, I wondered, is this really the right amount for this price? It would make a perfectly good meal too!

There was also something like a tofu pouch filled with ground meat mixed in, and that was really good too. The meat inside was seasoned, so it was savory and salty with a nice chewy bite — a real treat after fishing out the fish cakes for a while!

There was also a generous amount of suji (beef tendon), soft and chewy with a nice texture, and the oden broth was refreshing and spicy enough that the drinks just kept going down smoothly. Suji is the tendon part of the beef, right? I always have it in pho, but this was my first time having suji in an oden soup, and it was delicious!

Tsukune and negima skewers, grilled over charcoal

Yakitori Gong - Tsukune, Negima skewers

I took a photo of the negima (chicken thigh + scallion) and tsukune (chicken meatball) cooking away on the grill. Since they're grilled right over charcoal, I was excited about how good the smoky flavor would be. Once the order goes in they prepare and grill it fresh, so it took a little while, but I waited while eating the oden soup first.

The two types of skewers came out perfectly grilled! Tsukune skewers and negima. At a yakitori place there are always so many skewer options that it's hard to decide what to order, which is why they have set menus with popular skewers grouped into 3, 4, or 5 kinds — great for someone indecisive like me. But this time I specifically wanted tsukune and negima, so I ordered them individually, and once they arrived I thought, wow, this is so satisfying.

I popped the egg yolk and dipped the well-grilled tsukune into it, and honestly, the tsukune was so good. A savory, well-seasoned chicken meatball skewer with the richness of egg yolk added on top — the perfect drinking snack. I was a little sad I only had one draft beer that day, haha.

What exactly is a tsukune skewer?

Since tsukune is a Japanese word, a lot of people don't really know what it means, right? Simply put, a tsukune skewer is a chicken meatball skewer. Tsukune (つくね) comes from a Japanese word meaning to 'knead, mince, or form by hand' — referring to the method of shaping ground meat or fish into a ball by hand — and it refers to food made by binding minced meat or fish together. The most common form is chicken meatballs made from ground chicken, but depending on the ingredients it can also be made with pork, beef, shrimp, or fish! I'd always seen tsukune on izakaya and yakitori menus but never really knew what it was, and now I finally know for sure!