Busan Japanese restaurant with eel served three ways: Shunsaikubo

I'd been craving a proper hitsumabushi eel rice bowl in Hwamyeong-dong, so I headed to Shunsaikubo Hwamyeong (슌사이쿠보 화명). I love eel, so I'm always on the lookout for good eel rice bowl spots, and when I heard this place served Nagoya-style hitsumabushi, I got curious and went to check it out. Let me introduce it right away.

Parking and the room at Shunsaikubo Hwamyeong in Hwamyeong-dong

Shunsaikubo is located in Hwamyeong-dong, and there's a public parking lot nearby, so parking wasn't much of a hassle even if you drive. You can feel it's a Blue Ribbon-recognized spot from the entrance! They mentioned that if the wait goes over 45 minutes, they'll serve a half portion of grilled eel on the house.

Walking in, the first thing I noticed was the clean, calm atmosphere overall. It has that tidy, orderly feel typical of Japanese restaurants, but still stays neat. The tables are spaced generously apart, so it feels private enough for a nice meal, and the whole place is kept very clean. It's a great spot for a family meal or a date.

Shunsaikubo Hwamyeong menu and prices

• Hitsumabushi (half): ₩27,500
• Hitsumabushi (whole): ₩39,000
• Raw salmon rice bowl: ₩17,500

Shunsaikubo's signature dish is hitsumabushi. It's a Japanese-style eel rice bowl, and the fun is in eating one bowl of eel rice several different ways.

How do you eat hitsumabushi in three steps?

First you eat the eel and rice as is, then you add toppings, and finally you pour warm broth over it and eat it like ochazuke. It's one dish, but the flavor changes depending on how you eat it, which turned out to be more fun than I expected. There's a whole and half portion, so you can pick based on how hungry you are, and besides eel there are other rice bowl options, so there's something for different tastes.

Broth soup, a simple salad, and the mixed tempura that came standard. Even the tempura was crispy and delicious.

What the half-portion hitsumabushi tastes like

The hitsumabushi arrived with steamed egg, side dishes, and toppings — a really tidy single-serving spread.

The hitsumabushi looked amazing!

We ordered the half portion. The eel had a gorgeous glossy sheen. There's a bottle of hitsumabushi sauce on the table, so if you want more seasoning on your rice, you can adjust it yourself.

Finally digging into the hitsumabushi I'd been looking forward to, the first thing I noticed was how tender the eel was. It was moist but grilled just right, pairing well with the rice, and the sweet-savory sauce suited the eel nicely.

There was no fishy taste typical of eel, so I could eat it without any hesitation, and I didn't notice any bones either.

At first I ate just the eel and rice together to taste the eel on its own, and it was plenty delicious. Adding toppings like scallion or wasabi made the flavor a bit cleaner and cut through the richness of the eel. Pouring the broth over at the end let the warm liquid soak into the rice and eel, finishing things off warm with a totally different flavor from the plain eel rice bowl. The portion was heartier than expected, so it worked well as a full meal. Guys with a big appetite might want to go for the whole portion.

To finish, cold Japanese-style green tea pudding! I'm not usually a pudding person, but served cold it tasted even better, and I finished the whole thing.

Is Shunsaikubo Hwamyeong worth a visit?

If you're looking for a good hitsumabushi eel rice bowl spot in Hwamyeong-dong, give Shunsaikubo Hwamyeong a try. The staff were friendly, the atmosphere was nice, and the eel was tender with sauce that wasn't overpowering — overall a clean, satisfying meal.