Cheongdam Japanese restaurant for grilled butterfish: Tokyo Saikabo

Today's review comes from your ever-hungry Gangddol, and yes, it's another tasty one! ✨ Tokyo Saikabo Cheongdam is a Cheongdam favorite with a seriously upscale atmosphere and properly refined Japanese dishes.

Tokyo Saikabo Cheongdam hours, parking and reservations

Tokyo Saikabo Cheongdam is open Monday to Saturday, 11:30–22:00, and closed every Sunday. The address is 9 Dosan-daero 101-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Reservations are possible, corkage is charged, and paid parking is available.

• Hours: Mon–Sat 11:30–22:00 (closed every Sunday)
• Location: 9 Dosan-daero 101-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
• Details: corkage fee, reservations available
• Parking: paid parking available

It stands out from the outside already. It's a Japanese restaurant on the ground floor of a pretty building in Cheongdam with a lovely vibe.

Look at how many Blue Ribbons there are! Heading in with high expectations.

Inside Tokyo Saikabo Cheongdam: can you eat in private?

The inside of Tokyo Saikabo Cheongdam is quite spacious, and a screen is lowered at the side of each table so you can eat in privacy. It felt like the space was split into about three areas, and the whole interior was dim and luxurious.

With the screens lowered at the side of each table, we could eat privately. A great space for chatting comfortably while you eat.

There are also counter seats (dachi-seok), so it's a good place for a casual solo meal or drink. The tables come in various types and the interior itself is classy, so I was happy with the space!

Tokyo Saikabo Cheongdam menu

Tokyo Saikabo Cheongdam offers a wide range of Japanese dishes, from meals to drinking snacks, and the eel rice bowl is said to be quite famous. Here's what the menu looks like.

Tokyo Saikabo is a Japanese restaurant, so it has a wide variety of Japanese food. There are loads of options, from meals to drinking snacks. Still, I'd heard the eel rice bowl is the famous one here! It's truly the real Japanese-style eel bowl.

What side dishes come with the meal?

The basic set at Tokyo Saikabo Cheongdam includes Japanese-style steamed egg, small side dishes and a soup. Everything was neat and clean, and I liked it.

Eel rice bowl (₩28,000): how does it taste?

The eel rice bowl at Tokyo Saikabo Cheongdam costs ₩28,000 and comes with generously cut eel, Japanese-style rolled omelet and vinegared rice. The look and smell of the eel alone made my eyes go wide.

The eel is crazy tender and melts in your mouth. The original eel sauce is sweet yet rich in umami, and the flesh is so soft that it really does melt! The rice is lightly seasoned with vinegar, which I liked. Top it with ginger and that's the real kicker.

This Japanese rolled omelet is so good too. If you like sweet things like me, you'll love it for sure. If you have rice left over, you can make egg sushi with it haha

Chirashi-don (₩20,000): what kind of raw fish rice bowl is it?

The chirashi-don at Tokyo Saikabo Cheongdam costs ₩20,000 and is a Japanese-style raw fish rice bowl made with various seafood cut into pieces and a soy sauce base. In Korea we season with spicy gochujang sauce (chojang), but Japan is definitely soy-sauce based!

You get to eat lots of different seafood at once, and the finely cut pieces give it a unique, nice texture. The fried tofu (yubu) added flavor and made it extra special! The Japanese-style raw fish bowl is really appealing.

Seaweed comes with it too, so do wrap it up and eat! It feels a bit like eating futomaki.

Yuan-grilled butterfish (₩30,000), great with drinks

The yuan-grilled butterfish (mero) at Tokyo Saikabo Cheongdam costs ₩30,000: butterfish marinated in a yuzu soy sauce and grilled. It uses the fattiest part of the oily mero, so the umami is legendary.

See how moist and fatty the flesh is? It seemed a notch richer than tuna or salmon. A perfect dish with drinks! The yuzu flavor was really subtle, so it was a clean, easy grilled fish.

It comes with lemon and what seems to be Japanese pickles? These were great for freshening up the mouth too!

Is there dessert?

At the end, Tokyo Saikabo Cheongdam serves monaka ice cream and yokan (sweet bean jelly) as a free dessert. The plating is pretty and it feels like being treated as a guest. The monaka ice cream is a total work of art~~

Verdict: Tokyo Saikabo Cheongdam, for meals or drinks

[Purely my personal opinion] Overall, the menu quality is high, the food tastes great and the atmosphere was good too at this Cheongdam favorite, Tokyo Saikabo! It's good for drinks and good for a meal, so I recommend it if you're ever visiting Cheongdam!