Yeoksam eel rice bowl that converted an eel hater: Unagiwa

What is hitsumabushi?

Hitsumabushi is a signature eel dish from Nagoya, Japan: grilled eel over rice, which you eat several different ways from one bowl. Usually you start with it as is, then add condiments (scallion, nori, wasabi and so on), and finally pour dashi (broth) over it to eat it like ochazuke (tea-over-rice).

My fiancé loves eel rice bowls! While hunting for a good eel rice bowl place, I stumbled on this hitsumabushi spot. Wait, there was a place this good near my office all along?!

Getting to Unagiwa near Yeoksam Station, and the atmosphere

Unagiwa (우나기와) is on the 2nd floor of a building on Bongeunsa-ro 30-gil, and I got there in 10 minutes on foot after work. It was a Monday, and the sky was so pretty T_T Totally sky blue 🫶🫶

The moment I walked in, the classy interior got the first gasp out of me. Wow.... This is good enough for a date or a blind date. It's quiet too, so it would work for a group dinner, and it's the kind of eel rice bowl place near Yeoksam Station worth booking.

When I arrived there wasn't a single customer, so I even filmed the interior ✌️

Why do I love it so much when a restaurant serves barley-tea-like water instead of plain bottled water these days? Maybe because we're all so used to purifier water, haha. There's also sansho (Japanese pepper) powder on the table, so sprinkle it on to taste.

Unagiwa menu and prices

Hitsumabushi at Unagiwa is ₩38,000, special hitsumabushi is ₩52,000, and mini hitsumabushi is ₩26,000. If you join the receipt review event, they give you matcha pudding.

• Hitsumabushi ₩38,000
• Special hitsumabushi ₩52,000
• Mini hitsumabushi ₩26,000

Besides hitsumabushi there are also unadon (eel rice bowl) and grilled eel, but hitsumabushi is the signature dish, so we ordered two.

What comes with Unagiwa's hitsumabushi

The hitsumabushi at Unagiwa comes with so much eel that it covers all the rice. I gasped several times that day. As you'd expect from a new eel rice bowl place in Yeoksam, the presentation was a total knockout. Is this Korea or Japan?

First of all, the eel covers all the rice, heaps of it.

The moist, well-grilled eel made my mouth water. But here's the catch: I really don't like eel. And yet this changed my taste 💕💕

• Salad
• Chawanmushi (Japanese steamed egg)
• Nori flakes
• Perilla leaves
• Scallions
• Wasabi
• 2 kinds of pickled side dishes
• Bainiku (plum sauce)
• Japanese-style soup

How do you eat hitsumabushi?

There are 4 ways to eat Unagiwa's hitsumabushi. The guide on the table tablet disappears quickly, so it's easier to snap a photo and refer to it. A staff member does come and explain, but I'm a goldfish and forget things fast.

Way 1: Take a quarter and eat it plain

The first way is to divide the eel rice bowl into quarters, put one quarter on your small plate and eat it as is.

Wow... why is there no fishy smell or gamey taste at all..? What eel have I been eating all this time? Is this really eel? How do they grill it to taste like this? I honestly almost didn't plan to eat it, but it was so good that I was already inhaling it from this point.

Way 2: Top it with scallion and wasabi

The second way is to top it with scallion and wasabi. And if the nori flakes and perilla leaves sitting idle next to them look bored(?), put those on too. It's another kind of treat, with the flavor going up a notch.

Way 3: Pour in tea and make ochazuke

The third way is to pour in ocha (tea) and add nori flakes to make ochazuke.

In Korean terms, it's like nutty nurungji (scorched rice)? Like sipping sungnyung (scorched-rice tea)? Then add the nori flakes and the savory umami goes up. My fiancé said this ochazuke way was the best. Honestly everything was good, but making ochazuke was my favorite too.

Way 4: Top it with bainiku

The last way is to top it with bainiku (a special plum sauce). They said it might taste a bit strong, but by my standards, since I eat very salty food, it wasn't that strong.

The eel rice bowl masterpiece my fiancé made at the end, haha

Even if you hate eel, can you finish Unagiwa's hitsumabushi?

I usually don't like eel, but Unagiwa's hitsumabushi was so good that I cleaned the bowl. I scraped it so clean I'm embarrassed to have said I don't like eel, haha. I made such a show to my fiancé of how I was eating an eel rice bowl I don't like for him, and now I'm mortified.

Complimentary shrimp tempura and the 6-seat table by the kitchen

Unagiwa also gave us shrimp tempura as a complimentary dish. Thin batter, plump shrimp, just plain delicious 💕

I don't know why there's a round 6-person table in front of the kitchen like this, but beyond it you can watch the master preparing the eel in the kitchen, and that wraps up my Yeoksam eel rice bowl mukbang (eating show)!