Magok eel restaurant lunch set with tempura moriawase: Kikukawa

I visited Unagi Yondaime Kikukawa One Grove Branch, an authentic eel rice bowl restaurant with 90 years of history in Japan. It's a Magok eel restaurant serving all kinds of proper eel dishes, from hitsumabushi to sashimi moriawase, plus upscale course menus.

How to walk to Kikukawa One Grove from Magok Station, and where to park

Unagi Yondaime Kikukawa One Grove Branch sits a 5-minute walk from Exit 5 of Magok Station. Parking is available in the One Grove underground lot, free for up to 5 hours depending on how much you spend — good to know.

• 🏠 165 Gonghang-daero, A-dong 1F E101, E102, Gangseo-gu, Seoul, South Korea
• 🚇 347m from Exit 2, Magok Station
• ⏰ Daily 10:30–22:00 (last order 20:50)
• 📍 Group seating, takeout, reservations, Wi-Fi, separate men's/women's restrooms

Seating and atmosphere at Kikukawa One Grove

The space blends natural wood tones with a wood-lattice ceiling for a clean, stylish Japanese dining mood. Tables are spaced generously enough that you never feel cramped.

The deep green window booth seats are peak luxury ✨ The booth shape makes for a cozy, comfortable meal — great for a family outing or a private date. This is a Magok eel restaurant that nails the atmosphere just as much as the food, an eel date spot at One Grove.

The tidy private room feels upscale but still relaxed, not stuffy at all — perfect for business meetings, group gatherings, or a company dinner. A solid choice for eel-based group meals near Magok Station.

Every month there's a business card raffle, and the first-place winner gets a whopping ₩100,000 meal voucher for Kikukawa One Grove — total steal! Make sure to bring a business card. There's also a cute keyring for those who write a Naver review. And there's a bento menu if you want something simple, worth checking out.

What is on the Kikukawa menu?

The menu ranges broadly from single unaju dishes to hitsumabushi (eel rice bowl), sashimi sets, tempura sets, and unadon. Beyond the à la carte options there's also sashimi moriawase, tuna moriawase, and seasonal sashimi. Dinner sets and kaiseki courses are available too.

What we ordered: hitsumabushi lunch set 39,900 won + tempura 25,000 won

Here's what we ordered: the hitsumabushi lunch set + umaki 2p for ₩39,900, and a tempura moriawase for ₩25,000. Since it's an open kitchen, we watched the cooking happen live, haha. Grilled quickly to preserve the eel's natural flavor, it came out crisp and fragrant on the outside, tender and juicy inside.

The prepped eel is carefully grilled while dipped in Unagi Yondaime Kikukawa's own secret grilling sauce. The deep, rich sauce built up over long preparation, combined with the thick meat and the fragrant eel fat, hits you the moment it's plated -!✨

Hitsumabushi (grilled eel rice bowl) at Kikukawa

The golden-grilled eel is overwhelming just to look at -!✨ A plump 300g whole eel, prepared and grilled whole over charcoal in the traditional Nagoya style, flavored with a house eel sauce and laid over rice. It comes with scallion, wasabi, and seaweed toppings, plus dashi, suimono soup, and tsukemono pickles.

The glossy, generously sized eel piled onto the bowl makes your mouth water just from the look of it. I followed the recommended way to enjoy hitsumabushi. Depending on your taste, you can sprinkle a little sansho pepper on top.

The eel in this glossy hitsumabushi from this Magok eel restaurant at One Grove is so generous that even two people would have plenty.

Step 1: Eating the eel plain

First, enjoy it as-is to taste the natural flavor. The meat is plump and chewy, with the seasoning soaked in just the right amount. Every bite of the fatty eel carries the craftsman's touch.

Step 2: Adding wasabi, seaweed and scallion toppings

Place two pieces of eel over the tare-soaked rice, top with wasabi, seaweed, and scallion, and eat in one bite. The sharp wasabi and fragrant scallion bring out the eel's rich umami — impossible not to love.

The suimono (clear soup) is on the light side. If you've added sansho pepper and your mouth feels a bit numb, this soup is there to reset your palate in between bites. Noticing details like this makes you realize how much thought goes into every dish at this eel date spot at One Grove. The tsukemono that came along was crisp and delicious too, a great pairing with the eel.

Step 3: Pouring dashi broth for ochazuke

The hitsumabushi eel at this Magok One Grove restaurant, Kikukawa, ranks among the best I've had. They really know how to cook eel. For the final round, pour in the warm dashi provided, add whatever toppings you like, and eat it soupy. This is the Japanese style called ochazuke, and it's savory and satisfying.

Scoop up a big spoonful of rice soaked in dashi, top with two pieces of eel, add a touch of wasabi, and take a bite -!✨ Light, sharp, and rich with eel flavor all at once — wow, this place really delivers -! ♥ The longer the meal goes, the happier I am watching the eel disappear into my stomach, and the rice keeps going down easily too.

Umaki (eel rolled in omelette)

This is the umaki 2p included in the lunch set. Thick rolled egg with eel tucked inside. The soft, fluffy egg with the rich flavor of the fatty eel is great -! Good to nibble on between bites of hitsumabushi.

What comes in the 25,000 won tempura moriawase

A crispy fried tempura assortment. It includes 2 pieces of fried shrimp, white fish wrapped in perilla leaf, sweet pumpkin, shishito pepper, lotus root, shiitake mushroom, and paprika. Dip it in oroshi tentsuyu with grated radish and ginger.

The crispy batter packed with plump shrimp, dipped in tentsuyu, is fantastic -! Fried thin so the crunch really holds up.

Fried in clean, clear oil, so the color of the tempura is bright and it stays crisp -✨ Inside the perilla leaf tempura is white fish, and the combination of the perilla fragrance with the light fish is a real treat -!

The shiitake, paprika, and lotus root tempura are all so crispy I kept reaching for more, haha. Even though it's fried, it's not the least bit greasy, so before I knew it the whole plate was gone.

The pumpkin, shishito, and eggplant tempura are crisp outside, moist inside, bursting with flavor -!✨ The crunchy batter with a soft, tender inside is the ultimate crisp-outside-tender-inside combo.

Is Kikukawa in Magok worth it?

From the whole-eel-grilled hitsumabushi to the moist umaki and crispy tempura moriawase, everything felt clean and satisfying — atmosphere, taste, and staff friendliness all on point, making the whole meal genuinely enjoyable. I'd recommend this Magok One Grove eel rice bowl restaurant for dates, family meals, or gatherings with friends where you can enjoy tender eel and hitsumabushi.

If you want to properly enjoy a full eel spread at Magok One Grove, how about treating yourself with the hitsumabushi lunch set, packed with a variety of sides, for a solid energy boost?