Gangnam eel rice bowl restaurant: ₩23,000 eggplant bowl at Yangsando

I've eaten eel rice bowls at quite a few places, but Yangsando Yeoksam (양산도 역삼점) stood out: everything from the presentation to the flavor was neat and tidy, and the price is in the ₩20,000 range, which made me happy. Let me introduce this Gangnam Station eel rice bowl spot :)

Where is Yangsando Yeoksam, and where can you park?

Yangsando Yeoksam is between Gangnam Station and Yeoksam Station. Cars can use the building's parking tower for a flat ₩5,000, and the nearby Pureunsol Library public lot is ₩300 per 5 minutes or ₩3,600 per hour.

I walked from Exit 1 of Gangnam Station: go straight, turn right at the Gukkiwon-ipgu intersection, keep going until you pass Tous Les Jours, then turn left and you'll spot it.

How long is the weekday dinner wait at Yangsando Yeoksam?

When I visited on a weekday evening it was full, so I waited about 10 minutes. There's a Catchtable waiting kiosk and waiting chairs out front, so you can register and sit while you wait.

The exterior has a clean white sign that catches your eye. Food comes out fast and turnover is good, so I recommend trying even if there's a wait!

It seems to have made Catchtable's Gangnam waiting Top 100 too. As someone who has come back a second time, I agree it's worth the wait!

Yangsando Yeoksam seating and reservation times

Inside there are 4-person tables, a group table and a bar table, so it's a good atmosphere for eating alone too. The interior was clean and cozy.

For lunch you can reserve at 11:00, 11:30, 13:30 and 14:00, outside peak time, and from 5 p.m. reservations run in 30-minute slots, so booking before you go seems like a good idea!

Yangsando Yeoksam menu and review event

The main dish at Yangsando Yeoksam is hitsumabushi, a Nagoya-style freshwater eel rice bowl, and there are one-eel, one-and-a-half-eel and two-eel options, so you can order as much as you like. There's also a menu called teishoku, where the eel comes separately as a side dish instead of over rice, so you can choose to taste.

Besides that there are eggplant eel rice bowl, sake-don and butadon (pork rice bowl), and the side menu is quite varied too! They sell soft drinks, soju, bottled beer and sake, and corkage is free, so it could be a good spot for gatherings or company dinners.

If you write a Naver receipt review, you can choose salmon yubu chobap (tofu pouch sushi) or a drink, so keep that in mind :)

Yangsando hitsumabushi for ₩27,000: what comes in the set?

The hitsumabushi at Yangsando Yeoksam is ₩27,000, and the one-person tray comes with the eel rice bowl, soup, steamed egg, salad, soba and assorted side dishes. It's served so neatly that you feel treated from the presentation alone, and I was happy with the substantial lineup.

When you lift the lid, the eel is generously and neatly arranged. What I'm happiest about at Yangsando is that many eel bowl places charge ₩30,000–40,000 for this, but here you can eat it in the ₩20,000 range, so the value is really good.

How to eat hitsumabushi

Hitsumabushi is famously divided into four portions and eaten four different ways!

• First, enjoy it as it is
• Second, top it with seaweed, green onion and wasabi
• Third, eat it as ochazuke (rice with tea broth)
• Fourth, eat it the way you liked best

For me the last way was the tastiest ☺️

The salad was good for whetting the appetite before the meal and for refreshing the palate mid-meal.

Sipping the soup now and then warms you up inside.

The steamed egg and soba were really good too, so there was nothing I wanted to leave behind. The little bowls are cute as well 🙂

Yangsando eggplant eel rice bowl for ₩23,000: how much eel?

The eggplant eel rice bowl at Yangsando Yeoksam is ₩23,000, with regular and large sizes, and I ordered the regular. The soup, steamed egg, soba and side dishes were the same as with the hitsumabushi, and butter came extra.

I'd only had the hitsumabushi before, so this was my first time with the eggplant eel bowl, and it looked like plenty of eel and tasty eggplant.

Since it's an eggplant eel bowl I thought the eel would be skimpy, but look how generously it's packed with eel! And you get the eggplant too, which makes it even better ☺️

The eel sauce here is good, so I had high hopes for the eggplant, and sure enough it was delicious, and not overdone but clean, which I liked even more. From now on I'll be torn between the hitsumabushi and the eggplant eel bowl!

The eggplant eel bowl also comes with butter on the side, and if you mix it in partway through, you get a different kind of richness!

Plum tea for dessert: final verdict on Yangsando Yeoksam

After the meal, Yangsando Yeoksam serves plum tea (maesil-cha) as dessert, so you can freshen your mouth! You feel looked after right to the end 👍🏻

I like the neat one-person tray presentation, the clean flavor that matches it, and even the final dessert. I think it's a perfect place!