Hongdae sushi spot with apple-garlic sauce couple set: Yu Iksang Sushi

A 2-night, 3-day trip from Daegu in search of Hongdae sushi

What should we eat today? After wrapping up a busy end-of-month schedule, I came to Seoul for 2 nights and 3 days to see the kids. Since I was in Seoul anyway, I checked out an art museum, ate good food, and wandered around Hongdae at night. Seoul nights are fun in a different way from Daegu, haha.

We came here looking for a sushi spot in Hongdae. Hongdae is basically the street of fashion, so there's so much to see and do, but there are also tons of great places for a food adventure.

We came for the long-tail sushi that's famous near Hongik University Station. My daughter and I visited around early evening, and we'd already made a reservation to make sure there was a table.

Where is Yu Iksang Sushi and when is it open?

• Yu Iksang Sushi
• 18-7 Wausan-ro 23-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul
• Closed every Monday
• Hours: 11:00 AM – 9:00 PM
• No break time, which is great

We came here on purpose looking for a Hongdae sushi spot, so we were pretty excited. Hongdae has tons of options — barbecue, Korean food, raw fish restaurants — but people said you can't skip this sushi place, so we made it our next stop on the Hongik University Station food crawl.

Full by early evening: 3 tables and a bar counter

Since there's no break time, customers keep coming and going all day. When we walked in, it was already full — only two seats left.

The place is small, with just 3 tables and a bar-style counter for solo diners. Whoever arrives first gets the better seat. We sat toward the back, where we could watch the sushi being made and the frying happening in the kitchen.

What comes with the Couple A Set at Yu Iksang Sushi?

We ordered the couple A set. It comes with a nice variety — beef, tuna, halibut, salmon, roll, egg, crab stick, octopus and more — and my daughter and I were so full we couldn't even finish the roll.

There's also an assorted sushi set with shrimp, halibut and more. We ordered the couple set after seeing so many reviews saying you can't come to Yu Iksang Sushi without trying it.

Apple sauce layered with garlic sauce: fusion-style sushi

Unusually, they topped some pieces with apple sauce and added garlic sauce on top, going for a slightly fusion-style sushi. At first I had no idea what that sauce even was and got really curious.

The owner told us it was apple sauce drizzled with garlic sauce. It might not be for everyone, but we really enjoyed it — genuinely a distinctive sushi you can only find in Seoul.

Half a flounder on one piece: Yu Iksang Sushi's long-tail sushi

Ta-da. This is the long-tail sushi everyone talks about at this Hongdae sushi place. Half a whole halibut, made into a single piece. It's genuinely huge. I guess that's why they call it long-tail sushi.

The restaurant was pretty dark so I wish I could've gotten prettier shots, ugh. They also lightly fried a topping and put it on, and it was so crispy — the texture was really great. If you want to try the long-tail sushi in Hongdae, I recommend giving it a shot.

Miso soup, cold soba and free fried shrimp

Miso soup and cold soba also come with the set, and the broth was really clean. It was raining on and off outside, so the humidity was high, but the restaurant was cool inside, and the cold soba was so refreshing. The miso soup was really well made too.

The pieces are so big that just the salmon and halibut long-tail sushi alone were enough to fill us up, haha.

My daughter and I are both light eaters, so eating this couple set, we honestly couldn't finish it all.

On top of that, we also got shrimp tempura as a free service. Nutty and crispy ~~♡♡

This is basically why we came to Hongdae for this. After eating, we planned to go shopping around Hongdae for a few hours, so I was so excited I barely tasted the food going in, haha.

There was also eggplant sushi, and the tuna and beef sushi were genuinely fresh. Also, the amount of rice in each piece is small while the actual ingredient is really large in size. You'll be satisfied.

The table after we finished eating. Customers pour in when they arrive and file out in an orderly way when they leave, haha. We also got the candy they give for leaving a receipt review.

The quiet alley on the Seogyo Elementary School hill

It's right along the hill line by Seogyo Elementary School, so it's pretty quiet. If you're looking for sushi near Hongik University Station, I was satisfied with Yu Iksang Sushi.

After eating, we went around and explored Hongdae too.