Hongdae bar with butter highballs and skewer hot pot: Kushino Kitchen

Today's story is about a great-vibe izakaya in Hongdae! I'd been here once before and remembered loving it, so while I was back in Hongdae I decided to revisit — this is Hongdae's 'Kushino Kitchen'!

Where Kushino Kitchen is and when it opens

• 📍 Location: 218-1 Dongyo-ro, B1, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea (Kushino Kitchen)
• 🕐 Hours: Daily 16:00–21:30
• 🚗 Parking: Not available

The entrance and how to find it from Hongik University Station

Once you go inside and head down the stairs to the basement, the Japanese izakaya atmosphere really hits you! From the entrance it already felt like I was on a trip to Japan, so I was into the vibe right from the start haha.

Inside Kushino Kitchen: tables divided by partitions

The tables inside are divided into booths, so each one feels somewhat separated from the next table! It's more private than you'd expect, which makes it great for talking over drinks haha.

We had booked ahead, so we were seated right away :)

Kushino Kitchen menu and what we ordered

The menu had everything from nabe (hot pot) to the once-trendy flounder salted gimbap (seaweed rice roll), plus various skewers and gara-age (Japanese fried chicken). We ordered the signature 'kushino nabe' and 'lemon cream gara-age' :) And since we were at an izakaya, highballs were a must, so we got two — watermelon highball and butter highball!

The complimentary starter

The starter snack was something like shrimp chips — nice to nibble on while waiting for the food haha. While waiting I looked around the space, and since it's an open kitchen, you could see the cooking happening right in front of you! Best of all, they kept doing a little fire show throughout lol.

How do the watermelon and butter highballs taste?

The highballs came out first! The watermelon highball tastes exactly like its name — sweet watermelon lol. It had a bit of that ttaengmoban (frozen watermelon juice) feel too, so it was sweet and refreshing to drink haha. The butter highball had a subtle butter aroma and was sweet overall, more like a smooth beverage than a strong drink haha.

Lemon cream karaage, a combination I tried for the first time

After a short wait, the 'lemon cream gara-age' arrived. When I think of lemon cream, I'd only really had cream shrimp before, so I was curious what lemon cream with gara-age would taste like!

The batter was fried crisp and delicious, and adding the lemon cream sauce turned out to be a surprisingly good combo! The lemon wasn't so strong that it turned sour — it was just refreshingly tangy and creamy at once, which I loved! Take a crunchy bite of gara-age then a sip of the tangy highball — that combo works so well too lol 🤭

Kushino nabe: pasta noodles and five kinds of skewers

And finally, the 'kushino nabe' arrived! It's packed with various skewers and ingredients in a tomato-based broth, and the center is loaded with mussels too!

And the highlight of this dish is the pasta noodles! With tomato sauce and skewers all in one, it feels like eating a super hearty tomato pasta haha. The tomato sauce clung to the noodles so well it really tasted like eating pasta — so good haha.

The skewers included five types: sausage, rice cake, cherry tomato, heart, and chicken! With the umami from the mussels added in, the tomato-based broth tasted even better than I expected!

Is Kushino Kitchen worth a return visit?

I came back to Kushino Kitchen because I remembered loving it from my last visit! It was delicious again this time, and the kushino nabe especially tasted just like before, which made me happy haha. Most of all, it was a great spot to relax and chat in that Japanese atmosphere as a second round :) I think I'll come back for kushino nabe once the weather gets a bit colder haha. If you're looking for a great-vibe izakaya in Hongdae, I'd say 'Kushino Kitchen' is worth a visit 🐹💛