Anniversary Korean beef course in Gongdeok with sparkling wine: Usu

Today we visited Usu (우수), a Gongdeok restaurant serving Korean beef (hanwoo) courses, for our special anniversary! I'm going to review the Dinner B course, haha. The luxurious ingredients look so tempting just at a glance~

Where is Usu in Gongdeok, and what about parking and corkage?

Usu is in Basement 2 of the Lotte Castle President arcade, right in front of Exit 2 of Gongdeok Station, so it's easy to reach by public transport, and parking in the building is free for 3 hours with no limit on the number of cars. It's a great spot in Gongdeok for gatherings, company dinners and even meeting the in-laws, haha. I also love that corkage is free at such a fancy restaurant~

• Address: 109 Mapo-daero, Mapo-gu, Seoul, Lotte Castle President arcade, B2, Unit 201
• Hours: daily 11:00–22:00
• Break time: 15:00–17:00
• Parking: 3 hours free in the building

Are the seats at Usu private rooms?

Every seat at Usu is a private room, so you can eat privately and comfortably. It's great for gatherings or company dinners, and I think it would be especially good for meeting the in-laws! I liked the clean atmosphere of the room.

Usu's menu and the start of Dinner B

Usu serves premium beef both à la carte and as courses. The à la carte items look good too, but the courses are so well put together that I'd suggest trying one! Drinks include soju, beer, wine, champagne and more. We went for the Dinner B course~

First, the server brought the ingredients we'd be using today to show us, and there was even smoke coming out of the showcase box, which was such a treat~

There were all kinds of ingredients. Truffle and caviar have to be added separately, and the beef cut is striploin by default, but you can change it.

Sparkling wine as an anniversary service

If you tell Usu it's an anniversary before you visit, they give you sparkling wine as a service, haha. We told them ahead of time too. Now, on to the courses.

First dish of Dinner B: Ugye jinjuk (beef and chicken porridge)

The first dish of Dinner B was ugye jinjuk, a deeply simmered, savory porridge made with beef and chicken, topped with finely chopped toppings.

One bite and the rich porridge spreads through your mouth, with the crunch of nurungji (scorched rice) and a green onion crust, the aroma and texture of shiitake and white wood ear mushrooms, and asparagus adding a fresh note, so you get far more variety than with porridge alone.

How were the three bite-sized dishes?

After the porridge came three bite-sized dishes, and as you'd expect from a place serving fine-dining courses, every one of them looked really tempting and pretty, haha.

Bulgogi sandwich

First, the bulgogi sandwich: Korean beef bulgogi and a button mushroom duxelles sit on nutty brioche, so the sweet-salty bulgogi and the deep mushroom aroma come through, and truffle cream cheese adds even more flavor. Such a delicious bite, haha.

Sweet shrimp gimbugak

This one I loved. On a crispy gimbugak (seaweed cracker) sits rice seasoned with abalone innards, plus rich sweet shrimp. The combination itself was great, and the pollock roe sauce spread in the middle was the kicker. It's delicious on its own, and it felt like it brought all those distinctive ingredients together as one.

Scallop and clam cold dish

And then there was a cold roll made with scallop and clam. The sweetness of the scallop and clam came through well, and the tangy, fresh sauce whetted my appetite and made me look forward to the next course.

Shiitake shrimp and zucchini roll

The next dish was shiitake shrimp and a zucchini roll. The sweetness and savory depth of the shrimp and shiitake really came through, and the bouncy texture was delicious too.

The zucchini roll has tofu and golden enoki mushrooms inside, so it was soft and clean-tasting, and the sauce was a peanut tofu sauce topped with chamnamul (pimpinella) oil, which made it very nutty yet fragrant.

Beef tartare with seaweed, fun to roll and eat

The yukhoe gamtae (beef tartare with seaweed) has gamtae (a fine seaweed) topped with nutty rice mixed with aioli sauce and fried nurungji, and on top of that, very rich, clean-tasting beef tartare. It's fun because you roll it all up and eat it, haha.

I wondered whether so many ingredients would go well together...! Then I mixed it up and took a bite, and it was like it said, "Bet you never thought of eating it mixed like this?" with an intense flavor, haha.

Tilefish and neungi broth, only in the dinner course

The tilefish (okdom) is a dish that appears only in Usu's dinner course, and Kkumi, who came with me, enjoyed it so much~ Nicely grilled tilefish sits on nurungji made from rice cooked with barley and chamnamul, with mullet roe and a neungi mushroom broth added, which made a dish with wonderful flavor.

The staff poured the broth over it and told us to mash it up and eat it, haha.

First, the richness of the tilefish was incredible, and I still remember its soft flesh, haha. Take a bite of the fragrant rice ball with the deep neungi broth poured over it, and you feel a depth that seems to restore and strengthen your body.

Tteokgalbi and abalone five-color gardenia noodles

Another dish served at dinner was tteokgalbi (grilled short rib patty). The patty itself was so moist and delicious, and sauces like celery purée and shiitake duxelles, plus white balsamic and basil oil, added fragrance, so even though tteokgalbi is a familiar dish, I could enjoy a gourmet experience with many different flavors.

The last of these dishes was abalone five-color gardenia noodles: five kinds of namul (seasoned vegetables), gardenia noodles, and softly cooked abalone on top, with a gamtae dressing and a mustard garlic sauce that really boosted the savory depth. I enjoyed it a lot.

Main course: Korean beef grill set, striploin on a personal grill

The final main of Dinner B was the hanwoo gui bansang (Korean beef grill set), haha.

The mustard leaf kimchi, myeongi namul (wild garlic greens) and jeotgal (salted seafood) in the set tasted good, and the seaweed soup had a lot of beef in it and a deep, rich flavor, so I thought it would feel amazing to eat on your birthday, haha. For grilling, they prepared striploin and simple vegetable garnishes~

They bring you a personal grill, and you cook the meat to your taste~ I grilled mine to about medium and took a bite, and the juiciness and flavor in my mouth were really good.

It went wonderfully with the side dishes too, and if you put rice into the seaweed soup and eat it, you finish the meal feeling full and satisfied, haha.

Dessert: melon sorbet with an anniversary candle and Polaroid

For dessert there was a chamoe (Korean melon) sorbet, and since it was our anniversary, they even gave us a candle, I'm so touched ㅠㅠㅠㅠ

They even blew out the candle with us and took a Polaroid photo, so we had a really atmospheric anniversary~

The melon sorbet was refreshing, and with melon cheese and coconut chips beside it, the nuttiness and freshness of the cheese and the crunch of the coconut chips made it a great finish!

Would I recommend Usu's Dinner B for an anniversary?

At Usu in Gongdeok, the staff were friendly overall, the server's clean explanations were great, and I loved the variety and flavor of the courses, which let us taste gourmet cooking with so many different ingredients, haha. Since it's all private rooms, I think it's great for private gatherings, company dinners and meeting the in-laws, so I recommend visiting Usu in Gongdeok~