Gangnam eel restaurant for a first hitsumabushi date: Unagiwa

I’d been craving hitsumabushi for ages. I like grilled eel too, of course, but I’m especially fond of hitsumabushi, an eel rice bowl that you enjoy in several ways, changing it up a little each time. My girlfriend had never had it before, so hitsumabushi it was for our Yeoksam dinner date!

For someone’s first hitsumabushi, you can’t just go anywhere, right? I looked up good eel rice bowl spots in Yeoksam and ended up at Unagiwa.

Unagiwa basics and valet parking

• Name: Unagiwa
• Address: 2F, 71 Bongeunsa-ro 30-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea (서울 강남구 봉은사로30길 71 2층)
• Location: Near Exit 7 of Yeoksam Station
• Hours: Weekdays 11:00–21:00
• Break time: 15:00–17:00
• Last order: 20:00
• Parking: Valet available / ₩5,000
• Visit: Dinner date

If you’re driving, it’s good to know where the parking is beforehand. The valet isn’t right in front of the restaurant—you have to go into the alley behind it. The first time, you might spend a moment looking around out front, but go around the back and you’ll find the valet area. It cost ₩5,000. In Yeoksam, parking can make choosing a restaurant tricky, so valet service alone felt pretty convenient for a date.

How do you eat hitsumabushi for the first time?

Hitsumabushi is an eel rice bowl famous in Nagoya, Japan. Rather than eating it the same way from start to finish like a regular eel bowl, the point is to divide one bowl into several portions and enjoy each one differently.

First, try the eel and rice exactly as they are, without adding anything. For the second portion, add toppings such as scallions and wasabi. For the third, pour over the tea or broth and eat it like ochazuke (rice in green tea).

That’s why even first-timers get the fun of realizing, “Oh, it’s the same eel bowl, but it tastes so different this way.”

Since it was my girlfriend’s first hitsumabushi too, we tried each way in order.

The first bite: eel and rice as they are

To start, we ate the eel and rice exactly as they were, without adding anything.

If you pile on all sorts of things from the start, you won’t know what the eel itself tastes like, so I think this is the best way to take the first bite. Then we added scallions and wasabi. Ah, in the end, this was definitely my favorite combination.

Since eel is an oily fish, it can start to feel a little rich as you keep eating it, but the wasabi really cleaned up the flavor. With scallions too, the eel’s flavor was still fully there while my mouth felt much fresher. After a bite or two, I immediately thought, “This is it for me.”

What was the ochazuke like?

The third way was ochazuke. You pour the tea served with the meal over the eel and rice you saved.

Pouring tea over an eel rice bowl might feel a little unfamiliar if it’s your first time. But that’s one of the fun parts of eating hitsumabushi. With everything softened and moist, it felt completely different from the eel bowl we’d had earlier.

My girlfriend found it a little fascinating at first, but she really enjoyed the fact that one bowl could be eaten in so many ways. And the last of the eel? I went back to scallions and wasabi. Haha. I tried all three, but the scallion-plus-wasabi combination was still the tastiest to me. So I finished the rest generously topped with both wasabi and scallions.

Why it worked for a dinner date

There are so many dinner-date restaurant options in Yeoksam, but choosing a menu is surprisingly difficult, isn’t it?

We have meat too often, but something too light can feel a little disappointing. In those moments, hitsumabushi seems like a really good choice. Each person gets a neat full setting, so it’s easy to eat, and trying the eel in different ways gives you something to talk about too. I think it would be especially fun with someone who has never tried hitsumabushi.

It was my girlfriend’s first time, so we took our time: trying it plain, adding wasabi, and making ochazuke. Rather than a loud drinking atmosphere, it was the kind of meal that was good for the two of us to sit down over dinner and talk.

If you’re considering an eel rice bowl in Yeoksam

I visited because I’d been thinking about hitsumabushi for a while, and I was satisfied; my girlfriend, trying it for the first time, had fun with it too. I think hitsumabushi’s biggest appeal is that it isn’t just one eel bowl—you can change the flavor according to your preference as you eat.

My preference was clearly scallions and wasabi! Still, if it’s your first visit, I recommend trying all three ways at least once and finding your own favorite. If you’re looking for a good eel rice bowl in Yeoksam or considering a dinner-date menu that’s a little different from usual, Unagiwa was a good choice. It’s good not only for eel lovers, but also for going with someone who has never had hitsumabushi before. If you’re stuck deciding on a Yeoksam restaurant and find yourself craving eel, it’s worth a visit.