Gwanghwamun sushi dinner with 4,000-won whale sake: Choe Uyeong

/ A Gwanghwamun sushi favorite, Choe Uyeong Sushiya Jongno Branch / Premium sushi and sashimi at a reasonable price!🍣

addr 7 Jongno 5-gil, B1 Unit 104, Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea / open Daily 11:00 - 21:30 / park 2 hours free parking

Where is Choe Uyeong Sushiya Jongno Branch, and is there parking?

Choe Uyeong Sushiya Jongno Branch is a sushi restaurant in the basement at 7 Jongno 5-gil, between Jongak Station and Gwanghwamun Station. Both stations are about a 5-minute walk, so it's easy to reach from either side.

I visited for dinner recently while out in Gwanghwamun for an outing!

It's located between Jongak and Gwanghwamun stations, both about a 5-minute walk away, making it convenient from any direction. Since there are so many offices around, it's also famous as a lunch spot for office workers :-) There's 2 hours of free parking too, so it's easy to come by car.

Bar seats for solo diners and the mood inside Choe Uyeong Sushiya

Inside, Choe Uyeong Sushiya Jongno Branch has both bar seats and 4-person tables. The overall clean atmosphere made it comfortable whether eating alone or with friends and coworkers.

The interior was bigger than I expected, with a clean overall feel. There are bar seats for comfortable solo dining as well as 4-person tables, so it works well whether you're eating alone or coming with friends or coworkers.

Sushi set prices at Choe Uyeong Sushiya Jongno Branch

The sushi sets at Choe Uyeong Sushiya Jongno Branch are: assorted sushi 12pcs for ₩13,000, special sushi 15pcs for ₩19,000, premium sushi 16pcs for ₩27,000, and deluxe sushi 17pcs for ₩33,000. Orders are placed via a tablet at the table, and you can also add individual sushi pieces one at a time.

You order through the tablet ordering system set up at each table. There's a good variety of sushi set menus, and I found you can also add individual pieces of whatever sushi you want! Besides sushi, they also have sashimi, kaisendon (seafood rice bowl), and sides like tempura and udon, plus a pretty wide selection of alcohol.

So the sushi sets are

• Assorted sushi 12pcs ₩13,000
• Special sushi 15pcs ₩19,000
• Premium sushi 16pcs ₩27,000
• Deluxe sushi 17pcs ₩33,000

That's how they're organized. You can check exactly what's included in each sushi set from the menu photos, so it's worth checking before you order haha.

There were two of us, so we ordered 🍣 the premium sushi (₩27,000) x 2, and also got whale sake and fried tofu udon to go with the sushi.

What side dishes come with the sushi?

Before the sushi arrived, the basic side dishes were fried tofu broth, soy sauce and wasabi, and pickled radish and ginger!

Usually the broth that comes as a basic side dish at sushi restaurants is pretty plain, but here it was loaded with fried tofu and scallions, so it tasted even better =3

What's in the 27,000-won premium sushi set, and how did it taste?

The ₩27,000 premium sushi came out as a 17-piece set. It includes flounder fin (engawa), steamed abalone, flounder, salmon, red seabream, bluefin tuna, cuttlefish, red shrimp, egg, seasonal sushi, tuna belly, sea urchin gunkan, sea cucumber intestine gunkan, negitoro, scallop, freshwater eel, and crab.

The premium sushi I ordered — ₩27,000 — is a 17-piece set with flounder fin (engawa), steamed abalone, flounder, salmon, red seabream, bluefin tuna, cuttlefish, red shrimp, egg, seasonal sushi, tuna belly, sea urchin gunkan, sea cucumber intestine gunkan, negitoro, scallop, freshwater eel, and crab.

Each piece really had a generous slice of fish on top, so just a few pieces were enough to fill me up. And it wasn't just the size — the freshness was so good too that I was happy the whole time eating it... 🤍 The taste and quantity made the ₩27,000 price feel like real value, and since I love sushi, if this place were near my house I think I'd come really often.

The sea urchin gunkan that I love so much had zero fishy taste, just fresh ocean flavor ㅠㅠ it was so good I wanted to stack them up and keep eating.

Add-ons by the piece: salmon sushi and cuttlefish ankimo

Besides the sets, Choe Uyeong Sushiya lets you add individual pieces of sushi, so we added salmon sushi and cuttlefish ankimo. Both were delicious, but I'd especially recommend trying the cuttlefish ankimo.

Whale sake for 4,000 won and fried tofu udon for 5,000 won

Whale sake — ₩4,000. Since the sushi was so good, I naturally started craving sake, so I ordered one bottle to go with it lightly. It was my first time trying whale sake, and it had a clean, light taste that even sake beginners could enjoy! It paired cleanly with the sushi, so I'd recommend it if you want a light drink alongside your meal 🍶

Fried tofu udon — ₩5,000. The fried tofu udon had fried tofu, scallions, and imitation crab in it, but the surprising highlight here was actually the imitation crab! It was shredded into thin pieces, and its soft texture worked really well with the udon. And on top of that, at ₩5,000 the portion was genuinely large, so I'd recommend it as a good-value side dish.

Verdict: is Choe Uyeong Sushiya good value for sushi near Gwanghwamun?

Choe Uyeong Sushiya Jongno Branch was satisfying across the board — taste, portion, and quality. The clean interior with bar seating makes it great for solo dining, and it's also perfect for an office worker's lunch.

I ate at Choe Uyeong Sushiya Jongno Branch feeling really satisfied overall with the taste, portion, and quality! The clean space with bar seating makes it great for solo dining, and it's also just right for an office lunch. The sushi sets are especially well put together for the price, so if you're looking for a good-value sushi spot between Jongno and Gwanghwamun, how about giving Choe Uyeong Sushiya Jongno Branch a try 💌