Gongdeok, Seoul private-room Korean beef lunch with corn dessert: Usu

Why I chose Usu Gongdeok for my mom's birthday meal

Usu Gongdeok is a Korean beef course restaurant near Gongdeok Station where every single table is a private room, so I took my mom there for her birthday to make it a little special. It's also a place a lot of people check out when scouting restaurants in Seoul for meeting the in-laws, but it turned out to be just as good for the two of us to sit quietly and talk. We had the Lunch C course!

• Location: B2, Lotte Castle President, 467 Gongdeok-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea
• Transit: Right in front of Gongdeok Station Exit 2
• Parking: Large lot, free for 3 hours, no limit on cars
• Open every day / all seating is private rooms / group tables available
• Corkage-free

The first thing I noticed walking in was that the atmosphere was way nicer than I expected. Since every seat at Usu Gongdeok is a private room, we didn't have to worry about other tables at all and could talk freely just the two of us. Catching up with my mom over a slow course meal like that made me feel like I'd picked the right spot for her birthday.

Is it easy to bring your parents here?

Usu Gongdeok is right in front of Gongdeok Station Exit 2, so it's very easy to get to, and with 3 hours of free parking it was convenient bringing my mom along. That's probably why it suits occasions that call for a quiet space — a restaurant in Seoul for meeting the in-laws, a parent's birthday, an anniversary. The menu we ordered was the Lunch C course!

Price and structure of the Usu Lunch C course

The Lunch C course at Usu Gongdeok is 79,000 won per person, with 80g of 1++ Korean beef sirloin as the main. It starts with roasted barley tea, and then the course properly began. Before the course started, the staff brought out and beautifully presented all the ingredients that would be used.

My mom and I were both like 'wow~~' looking at it all, haha. Being shown the ingredients before the course even started made us feel really well taken care of!

First course: beef and chicken porridge (Woo,Gye Jinjuk)

The very first dish in the Lunch C course was Woo,Gye Jinjuk, a porridge made with Korean beef bone broth and chicken stock. It came topped with nurungji (crispy scorched rice), a scallion crust, shiitake mushroom, asparagus, and white wood ear mushroom — the first dish alone felt like a lot of care went into it.

Starting with a warm porridge was easy on the stomach and gradually woke up my appetite, haha. It suited the opening of the course really well.

Three bite-sized dishes: scallop and clam, bulgogi sandwich, lobster taco

Next came three bite-sized dishes! Each one was so pretty I spent a while just taking photos before eating. The scallop and clam bite had a seared scallop on brick pastry, paired with a clam cream sauce, apple, and onion.

The crunchy pastry with the soft scallop meant even in one bite you got a range of textures. The bulgogi sandwich had Korean beef bulgogi, duxelles of button mushroom, truffle cream cheese, and apple pickle tucked into a brioche bun — eating familiar bulgogi this way made it feel like a completely different dish.

Because they were bite-sized, they never felt heavy, and it was fun tasting a new one each time through the course. Then there was the lobster taco — sous-vide lobster in a tortilla made with squid ink and black sesame!

It also had tomato, onion, and a smoky gochujang mayo sauce, which gave it a slightly Korean touch too — fun. These little bite dishes arriving one after another are really part of the joy of eating a course, haha.

Shiitake shrimp and zucchini

Next came the shiitake shrimp and zucchini dish, made with top-grade shiitake mushroom, shrimp, zucchini, tofu, aged kimchi, and golden enoki mushroom.

With peanut tofu sauce and chamnamul (aromatic herb) oil on the side too, the combination of ingredients was quite varied. It used a lot of Korean ingredients but still felt totally different from home-style Korean cooking.

Abalone gardenia noodles

The abalone gardenia noodles came out too. Yellow gardenia noodles topped with julienned black sesame radish, fernbrake, shiitake mushroom, seasoned chamnamul, perilla leaf, and abalone — the colors alone were gorgeous.

It's eaten with laver dressing and a mustard-garlic sauce, so it had a totally different mood from the earlier dishes. Courses can start to feel repetitive if the flavors are too similar, but each dish here felt distinct, so I kept enjoying it until the end.

Main: 1++ Korean beef sirloin 80g and sea bream pot rice

Before the main came out, they showed us the finished pot rice. It was sea bream pot rice, so it wasn't greasy at all and tasted great — they cook it, show it to you, then portion it out for you.

And then, the main we'd been waiting for! 80g of 1++ Korean beef sirloin was prepared, and we got to grill it ourselves over the charcoal brazier.

There's even a display case where you can see the raw meat, so if you're a Korean beef lover, your eyes will probably go straight there, haha. Since the main was Korean beef after all, my mom and I both ate it happily. We came for a course meal but still felt like we got a proper meat course too, which was nice.

Korean beef seaweed soup set, extra welcome on a birthday

Along with the beef, you get a Korean beef seaweed soup set and a seasonal fish pot rice. Since it happened to be my mom's birthday, having seaweed soup come out felt especially fitting, haha. Even though we'd already eaten so many dishes, having rice and seaweed soup at the end made it feel like a proper full meal.

If you're looking for a Seoul restaurant to meet the in-laws with your parents present, having this kind of Korean-style set on the menu seems like a good point in its favor.

A birthday meal made easier to talk through thanks to the private room

What I liked most about Usu Gongdeok was, above all, that it was a private room. Eating delicious food matters, but on a day like this, time spent talking with my mom matters just as much. Not having to worry about nearby tables and being able to talk comfortably throughout the whole course made it a great fit for a birthday or family meal.

Told them it was her birthday, and they brought lettering and a Polaroid

And what I remember most from that day wasn't just the food, haha. When I mentioned it was my mom's birthday, they prepared lettering for us and even took a Polaroid photo. It might not seem like a big deal, but having a photo like that ends up being what you remember most later.

The Lunch C course dessert is corn

The final dessert of the Lunch C course was made up of corn ice cream, corn cream cheese, apricot, corn crumble, sponge cake, and green tangerine cream sauce. You know how you say you're full but dessert still finds room… Finishing on corn's sweet, nutty flavor made the very end of the course just as enjoyable.

Is Usu Gongdeok good for meeting the in-laws or a parent's birthday?

Looking back at the Polaroid I took with my mom, I felt like coming to Usu Gongdeok was really the right call, haha. Getting to eat well and take home a photo too made it a great way to celebrate my mom's birthday. With every seat being a private room and group seating available, I can see why people looking for a restaurant in Seoul to meet the in-laws come to a place like this.

Since it's corkage-free, if you have a wine you want to bring to mark the occasion, that could work well too.

Usu Gongdeok, which I got to visit thanks to my mom's birthday — more than anything, getting to eat good food, talk a lot with my mom, and even take home a photo made it a memorable day for me too. If you're looking for a restaurant in Seoul to meet the in-laws, a private room restaurant in Gongdeok, or somewhere a little special for a parent's birthday or anniversary, it's worth checking out. I came away with one more good memory with my mom :)