Seoul Japanese restaurant in Hapjeong: mulhoe noodle weekday lunch set

When you have a meetup in Hapjeong, you want something clean and good value. Today I visited a tasty sushi place close to both Hapjeong and Hongdae. Sushi you can order as a lunch special, and an izakaya spot for the evening — let me introduce it in detail.

Where is Sushi Sakaba Hapjeong, and what are the hours?

Sushi Sakaba Hapjeong is on the 2nd floor at 38 Dokmak-ro 3-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea. It's open from 11:30am to 10:30pm, with a break time from 2:30pm to 5pm.

Walking from Hapjeong Station and where to park

It's about 300m from Exits 3 and 4 of Hapjeong Station, roughly a 5-minute walk. For parking, you can use the Hapjeong public street parking lot (paid).

Inside the second-floor room: can you eat alone here?

Climb the small staircase to the 2nd floor and a neatly arranged dining room appears, ta-da!

It's tucked into an alley near Hapjeong Station, so the surroundings feel calm rather than busy — I enjoyed window-shopping the nearby restaurants on my way there too.

Sushi Sakaba Hapjeong sources fish from the fish market every dawn and makes all its side dishes by hand as a rule. All live fish go through ikejime and shinkejime, then Tsumoto-style aging, so we prepare sushi with the umami and freshness you'd find at an omakase restaurant.

Walking in, I felt the distinctive clean atmosphere of a Japanese sushi restaurant. Maybe because it was a weekday afternoon, the whole place felt relaxed and comfortable for a meal. I visited at 1:30pm on a weekday, so it felt fairly unhurried.

There's bar seating too, so solo dining doesn't feel awkward here — Sushi Sakaba, a Hapjeong favorite.

Sushi Sakaba Hapjeong menu and prices

You order from the kiosk set up at the table.

The weekday lunch set

• Soba set — ₩13,000
• Mulhoe guksu (cold raw fish noodle soup) — ₩15,000
• Sushi set — ₩14,000
• Sashimi rice bowl — ₩13,000
• Pork loin cutlet set — ₩13,000
• Mulhoe rice bowl — ₩15,000
• Nourishing eel rice bowl (half) — ₩19,000
• [Value Omakase Sushi] Hap-sushi 12pc — ₩24,000
• [No-Margin Omakase Sushi] Jeong-sushi 13pc — ₩28,000
• [Value Sushi] Dong-sushi 10pc — ₩18,000
• [Special Set] VIP sushi 15pc — ₩35,000
• [Gangwon Governor's Herring] Bong-sushi — ₩22,000

Today's menu

• Mukho Port sweet shrimp + ankimo (monkfish liver) — ₩42,000
• Gangwon-do herring sashimi — ₩25,000
• Grilled Chilean sea bass, best of grilled dishes — ₩28,500

Chomami (simple bar snacks)

• Tako wasabi (octopus with wasabi) — ₩10,000
• Brussels sprouts — ₩9,000
• Tomato sashimi — ₩9,000
• Smashed cucumber — ₩9,000

Sashimi menu

• [Five kinds of pairing] Ohap — ₩38,000
• [Fresh from dawn fish market] Assorted aged sashimi mini — ₩38,000
• [Fresh from dawn market] Aged sashimi (small, 2 people) + noodles — ₩50,000
• [Fresh from dawn fish market] Aged sashimi (medium, 3 people) + noodles — ₩69,000
• [Fresh from dawn fish market] Aged sashimi (large, 4 people) + noodles — ₩89,000
• Busan mackerel pickled sashimi — ₩24,000
• Mukho Port sweet shrimp + ankimo (monkfish liver) — ₩42,000

Soups and hot pots

• Spicy seafood tantan hot pot — ₩24,000
• Clam soup — ₩19,000
• Clam sake-steam — ₩20,000
• Spicy Nagasaki champon — ₩25,000
• Kansai-style oden stew — ₩19,000

Fried dishes

• [Best of squid] Fried cuttlefish — ₩29,000
• Jeju silver hairtail tempura — ₩28,000
• Handmade chicken karaage — ₩15,000

What we ordered: mulhoe noodles and 13-piece sushi

Since I could order the lunch special until 2pm on a weekday, I happily placed my order ^^

Mulhoe guksu, 15,000 won

It was hot out, so I wanted something cool and spicy, and ordered the mulhoe guksu.

Just looking at it made me feel cool. It was so appealing and tasty that it reminded me of the mulhoe I always have when I travel to Sokcho. This is a flavor I'd want to come back to on a hot, no-appetite day. The tangy, cool broth together with the fresh raw fish made it really satisfying.

[No-Margin Omakase Sushi] set sushi 13pc, 28,000 won

Just looking at each piece of sushi already felt filling! Next to the served plate was a kind guide to which sushi was which, so I loved being able to taste each one knowing exactly what it was.

The sushi wasn't seasoned too strongly, so with each piece I could still enjoy the texture of the raw fish — delicious sushi.

Final verdict: when is Sushi Sakaba Hapjeong worth it?

The charm of Sushi Sakaba, a Japanese restaurant favorite in Hapjeong, is that you can use it differently for lunch versus dinner. I'd recommend it as a lunch spot on a date between Hongdae and Hapjeong, or as a place for a light drink over Japanese food with friends in the evening.