Gyeongju yakitori restaurant with chicken skin skewers: Yakitori Sogi

What kind of place is Yakitori Sogi?

Yakitori Sogi is a chicken skewer course restaurant inside Hwangnam Market on Hwangridan-gil in Gyeongju. Unlike a typical skewer joint where you order individual sticks one at a time, here you work through multiple chicken parts in order as part of a set course. If you're looking for a good-atmosphere dinner spot on Hwangridan-gil, let me introduce Yakitori Sogi.

Yakitori Sogi

Let me introduce a genuinely, genuinely delicious spot on Hwangridan-gil that my friends and I all raved about unanimously. It's a course-specialty restaurant focused on chicken skewers — the food was great, but the atmosphere was so good I kept gasping the whole time! It's tucked inside Hwangnam Market so it was a little confusing to find, but once you locate the 'Hwangnam Market North A' gate, it's easy :)

Counter seats and booking Yakitori Sogi on Catch Table

Yakitori Sogi is run by the main chef and one other staff member, and they explained the menu in detail along the way, which added a lot of satisfaction to the meal. It's also an open-kitchen setup, so watching the cooking was part of the fun.

The simple objects and furniture were nice enough that I wanted to bring them home. The bar table at the counter seats also had soft indirect lighting that really set the mood.

Since we'd booked ahead through Catch Table, we were led to the best-atmosphere seat! Feeling like it was reserved just for us made it even better — not that I'll admit that too loudly haha.

Ordering was done via a QR code.

What is in the Yakitori Sogi course?

Yakitori Sogi's course comes in two main versions. Course B includes a sous vide breast salad, cheese tofu, four types of yakitori, tsukune, and tomato marinade, among others. Course A adds six more types of yakitori, grilled vegetables, chicken karaage, chicken gomtang (chicken soup), and perilla sherbet on top of that.

They first brought out the table setting and sukidashi (small starter side dish) — even the chopsticks had a band printed with the restaurant name, a nice touch of detail (this kind of thing gets me every time). The sukidashi was a simple pickle, seemingly made with cheongyang chili and finely chopped yeolmu (young radish greens), just enough to perk up the appetite without overpowering the main dishes.

Sous vide chicken breast salad and cheese tofu

They brought out a salad topped with sous vide chicken breast and cheese tofu first. Because the breast was sous vide, it stayed soft and moist with none of the usual dryness, and the cheese tofu had a savory/sweet/mild balance that kids would love. Adults might find the sweetness a bit much on its own, but paired with the wasabi on top, it turns into a completely different, interesting flavor :)

Ah... right, can't skip this. Nama biru kudasai 🍻 (the draft beer is Kirin Ichiban)

Chicken yakitori, cut by cut, in order

Chicken tenderloin and heart skewers

The first item served at Yakitori Sogi was the chicken tenderloin. The pale, tender meat melted with barely any chewing needed once you bit into it.

The second item was the heart skewer, which they said tastes even better with shichimi (Japanese seven-spice) sprinkled on, so I enjoyed the first bite plain and added shichimi from the second bite on. Both had distinctive flavors, and while they looked a bit tough visually, they were completely tender with no chewiness at all.

Chicken karaage, thigh and wing skewers

Chicken karaage (Japanese-style fried chicken) served with potato salad. This was the most filling item on the menu, and the crispy, savory flavor was outstanding.

A skewer of grilled chicken thigh meat with green onion. They served wasabi on top of the thigh meat, and it seemed to be brushed with teriyaki sauce — the sweetness and sharp kick together were addictive >.<

Grilled chicken wing — this one still had the bone in on the back side, and I was genuinely amazed at the skill and care it took to bone it out into a skewer like this. The taste? No need to even say haha.

Chicken skin skewer with sansho and grilled shiitake

Next up was the chicken skin skewer and grilled shiitake mushroom.

If I had to name my favorite skewer, it would definitely be the chicken skin skewer! The umami-packed chicken skin in a sweet sauce was crispy and chewy at the same time, seriously addictive. They recommended adding a bit of sansho pepper, and after trying it — wow, haha. It turns into a completely different flavor, and honestly it was such a clever combination! The grilled shiitake mushroom with garlic sauce was also great, the mushroom's aroma and depth making it a pleasure to eat :)

Grilled inner thigh and grilled gizzard skewers

Grilled inner thigh muscle (left) / grilled gizzard (right)

The inner thigh muscle had a flavor similar to tenderloin but subtly different, and the gizzard — often called 'chicken dungjib' (gizzard) in Korean — was chewy in the best possible way, so delicious.

Tsukune with a poached egg

They also served tsukune (chicken meatball skewers), and dipping them in the poached egg doubled the flavor. The meatballs themselves were packed with juice, so every bite kept filling my mouth with flavor.

Chicken gomtang with grilled rice and a perilla sherbet finish

The meal course at Yakitori Sogi is chicken gomtang (chicken soup) with grilled rice. Honestly, I was already full just from the skewers, so I was a little surprised when they said there was still a meal to come (that's how generous the portions were!). It would've been a shame to skip this one. It was a beautifully made, clear chicken gomtang, seasoned lightly without heavy salt, so it came across clean yet substantial at the same time. If they'd just served the rice as-is, the grains would scatter and turn the soup starchy and bland, but because the rice was grilled into a round shape, it stayed intact without breaking down into starch, keeping the soup clean and light.

As a final palate cleanser, they served tomato marinade and perilla sherbet, and both left my mouth so refreshed I gave a double thumbs-up haha. The perilla sherbet in particular was something I'd never encountered anywhere else before — eating it, I kept thinking 'wow... can perilla leaves really do this?' It was so clean and genuinely satisfying.

Every single dish here was made with such care that I felt truly pampered the whole meal through — a Hwangridan-gil spot I was genuinely happy with, 'Yakitori Sogi.' If you're looking for something a bit different from the usual meat restaurants or Korean diners on Hwangridan-gil for dinner, I'd recommend 'Yakitori Sogi,' where you can enjoy a wide range of chicken parts as a full course.