Gangnam Japanese eel restaurant: election-day hitsumabushi, Chisot

Chisot Yeoksam Main Branch: hours and location

Chisot Yeoksam Main Branch (치솟 역삼본점) is at 59 Bongeunsa-ro 30-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, on the 1st floor. It's open 11:00-21:30 with a break from 15:00 to 17:00. It's closed on Sundays, and this week Saturday 6/6 is closed too, they said. You can also reserve through Naver.

Why I picked hitsumabushi on a hot day

I'd already done early voting, so on election day itself I went to Chisot Yeoksam Main Branch for hitsumabushi (Nagoya-style eel rice). I'd been craving eel lately, but with the weather getting hot I didn't want to grill it myself in front of a fire. I wanted eel that comes out fully grilled, so I could just enjoy the rice bowl, and hitsumabushi fit.

Chisot Yeoksam Main Branch is an eel rice bowl restaurant in Gangnam, Seoul, where you can try authentic Nagoya-style hitsumabushi. It's very close to Yeoksam Station, near GS Arts Center, and it's a favorite of Yeoksam office workers, so it's very popular at weekday lunch and dinner.

How are Chisot's prices for an office lunch near Yeoksam Station?

The lunch special is an unagi bento (from ₩16,000), good value, and there are rice bowls like sake-don and chashu-don (from ₩14,000), so it's an easy price for a lunch. If you're tired of rice, soup, stew and stir-fry every day, a Chisot lunch that isn't the eel bowl could be a good alternative.

Two individual set trays, almost too pretty to eat

At Chisot Yeoksam Main Branch, two sets arrived on neat individual trays, and the shape and placement were tidy and elegant. The sides like ginger, chopped scallion and seaweed seem to have been arranged with color and shape in mind too. It was such a harmonious spread that I thought, "Too pretty to eat!"

The bento was packed with unagi (eel). Perhaps for looks, the tail end was cut off, and it was mostly the prettiest, plumpest body pieces, piled on so generously that you couldn't see the rice underneath.

Soup and chawanmushi

The set at Chisot Yeoksam Main Branch starts lightly with soup and chawanmushi (steamed egg custard). The miso soup came out piping hot, which I loved, and the chawanmushi, where softness is everything, had a texture that was nearly perfectly cooked. It was even softer than ordinary soft tofu.

Chisot's eel and sauce, never at odds

The eel at Chisot Yeoksam Main Branch is carefully grilled over charcoal in authentic Nagoya style. The thinly brushed sauce clings to the eel, so sauce and eel don't go separate ways; they merge into one flavor. How can it be so harmonious?

Three ways to eat hitsumabushi

At Chisot Yeoksam Main Branch, a hitsumabushi hotspot in Yeoksam, a card on the table suggests ways to eat the eel bowl. Just enjoy it whichever way suits you.

• First: eel and rice only
• Second: lightly mixed with scallion, wasabi and seaweed flakes
• Third: as ochazuke (rice with tea or broth poured over)

Ah... is my palate just undiscerning? Honestly, it was delicious however I ate it. Tender, harmoniously grilled eel and rice that the seasoning doesn't sit apart from. When the basics of a dish are this solid, isn't it natural that every variation tastes good?

Chisot Yeoksam Main Branch: lunch waits and dinner dates

It was a clear, blue-sky midday, and the time I spent over eel rice at Chisot Yeoksam Main Branch was fun enough that I'll remember it for quite a while.

This is a restaurant for Yeoksam office workers, and on days you're craving Japanese rice bowls like the eel bowl, it's not just a recommendation, it's a must visit. The place isn't big, so there may be a wait or a crowd at lunchtime, but that's the fate of Yeoksam office workers anyway, so for a delicious meal, do give it a visit.

It should also be a fine dinner date spot. After the noisy daytime passes, authentic Japanese food with a glass of sake should set a lovely mood. The end!