Seolleung sushi birthday party: engawa encore and egg nigiri, Sakai

What's today's occasion!??

It was the birthday of Sumin, my former coworker and one of my truest friends...!!

A few days earlier I asked her, and it turned out she had no plans at all for her birthday!!? Last year her birthday practically evaporated because she was stuck working late, so I thought — not this time! I'll throw you a totally fun birthday party!!! — and started scheming up a special date course.

As I kept asking her all sorts of questions, it came out that she'd never once been to an omakase... Me, a pig who lives and breathes eating... hearing that genuinely tugged at my heart.

That won't do. On your birthday, I'm going to stuff you full of fancy food until you die happy... hah;;

With that resolve, I searched for restaurants good for going to right after work and found that Sakai, a famous sushi spot near Seolleung, had really good reviews... and even took reservations!!!!!! This is the place!!!!!! So off we went, and here's today's write-up.

My robot-like friend Sumin was genuinely moved to tears, and I ended up just as happy — here begins my honest review of our visit to Sakai, the famous sushi spot near Seolleung!!

How to walk from Seolleung Station to Sakai, plus hours

Sushi Sakai sits on the ground floor of this glass-fronted building, about a 6-minute walk from Exit 2 of Seolleung Station!! It felt shorter than that, probably because we were walking fast! Inside they'd thoughtfully set up lockers for storing bags haha.

• Daily 17:00–01:00 (closed first Tuesday of each month)
• No parking support (use nearby public lots)
• Reservations available by phone
• Free potato salad with a Naver review!

Sakai was already full at our 6:30 reservation: seating and atmosphere

Since it was her birthday, we agreed to meet early — clock out and meet at 6:30! We were actually supposed to meet at 5:30, but... evil companies dumping work on you at the last minute meant a full day's work after all...^^ Couldn't get out early, this darn company... but that's exactly why you need places like this to blow off steam, right...

By the time we arrived with our reservation, the place was already fully booked, reserved seats and all!! Clearly this Seolleung spot lives up to its reputation.

The bar seats 8, and there are three 2-person tables and three 4-person tables! It felt private and had a great atmosphere, which is probably why reservations fill up so fast.

While we waited a bit for Sumin, more and more guests kept coming in... irasshaimase everywhere... I could see the sushi other tables had ordered, and it all looked so delicious... drool.

Our reserved table came set with these cute little dishes and tableware!

Being a well-known omakase spot, Sakai also carries a wide range of drinks, and true to that, they had all sorts of adorable, pretty glasses lined up!!! I especially coveted that gorgeous multicolored sake glass...

Sakai's menu and Post-it ordering: what does each piece cost?

This is Sakai's regular menu!!! If you look closely, there are Post-it notes stuck on the board — those are the seasonal specials!! Since they're a proper omakase spot bringing in fresh, quality fish daily, the menu shifts slightly each day depending on what's available!! So we were told to check the full menu board overall, but to order sushi specifically based on the Post-its lol.

These are today's orderable sushi options!! The owner personally writes each one out by hand on Post-its and brings them over — and he had such a kind, cute vibe lol.

If you look closely, everything's already listed on the menu board, so you just pick your sushi by price tier — ₩3,400 / ₩4,500 / ₩6,100 and so on!! For items like mantis shrimp that aren't on the board but came in special that day, the owner explained them separately when handing over the Post-it. Haha, today's mantis shrimp was so good it was worth the ₩12,000 per piece!

The owner actually knelt down to meet our eye level and explained every question we had about the menu one by one... he was so, so kind.

Here's what we ordered!! (unit prices per piece)

• Egg sushi ₩2,900
• Salmon, seared salmon ₩3,400
• Sea bream ₩3,400
• Akami (tuna) ₩4,500
• Mackerel ₩4,500
• Engawa ₩4,500
• Futomaki ₩6,100
• Sweet shrimp ₩4,500
• Suntory draft beer ₩10,000

The free potato salad from Sakai's Naver review perk

A little while after ordering the sushi, out came the potato salad!! I'd already had my eye on it on the menu — but the owner mentioned they were running a free-item event for writing a review!! Eyes lighting up, I wrote a heartfelt review on the spot... and thanks to that, scored a savory, umami-rich salad!!

What really impressed me was the texture and balance — thin slices of cucumber running through the potato salad added a crisp, refreshing bite, and small bits of bacon brought in a meaty, salty depth that tied everything together beautifully. Honestly, ordering the beer first was a genius move because this turned into the perfect beer snack... This is a side dish good enough that I'd order it again even after the review event ends!

Of course omakase calls for draft beer~ so we ordered a Suntory draft!! Sumin doesn't usually drink much, but since it was her birthday — a special day — we said let's enjoy it together, and got a nice cold draft!! It was filled right to the brim, so I sipped the creamy foam off the top first!!

Then, cheers!!! One long gulp — first the smooth, creamy foam going down softly, then the cold, crisp bitterness of the beer spreading through — ahh!!!!!!

Maybe it was the heat, but it tasted even better than usual. And honestly, Sakai's interior is just so pretty... I took a bunch of photos with the potato salad and beer and kept getting perfectly framed shots. I don't even use Instagram... but moments like this make me get why people do.

While we were munching on beer and potato salad, the main event — today's sushi — arrived shortly after!!! Neat, beautiful pieces came out to us, looking so appetizing and glossy and lovely. I love omakase sushi so much, it had been a while...

It all looked so delicious I wanted to dive right in, but I made myself take photos first, feasting with my eyes lol. The potato salad's already noticeably smaller from all my snacking, but I still got one full shot of the spread!

One more commemorative shot of today's guest of honor, Sumin! Pat myself on the back for bringing her to Sakai for her very first omakase. There are so many reviews saying this famous Seolleung sushi spot delivers on both price and taste, so I booked without a second thought lol. Sumin's excited face was just too cute, and it made me determined to keep dragging her to more good places in the future haha.

Tasting Sakai's sushi piece by piece, in order

Now for the real sushi review!! The owner told us to start with the white fish, so that's what we did haha.

Sea bream nigiri, 3,400 won

First up: sea bream! That clean flavor unique to white fish!! It felt well-aged, with just the right chewiness, and the thick cut filled my mouth completely... A perfect opener to whet the appetite.

Engawa nigiri, 4,500 won

Second was the classic staple, engawa (flounder fin)!! I was originally going to order flounder, but the savory richness of the fin is my absolute favorite, so after some thought I went with engawa! I really do love flounder fin... ♡ With every bite, the springy texture brought out more and more of that rich, fatty savoriness, and it paired so well with the rice that I was almost sad it was only our second piece — genuinely one of the most memorable, delicious bites of the night!!

Roll sushi, 6,100 won for 2 pieces

Next, one order of futomaki that we split between us. Everything else was priced per piece, but futomaki was 2 pieces for ₩6,100? Couldn't resist that~ ordered it right away. It came topped with seared mackerel and packed full of fillings!!

Curious what it would taste like, I took a bite — first came a slightly cooked mackerel flavor with a soft texture and savory richness, then the more I chewed, the more the inner fillings came through, finishing with a sweet note!! I finally understood why futomaki is served as a closing dish... I ate it way too fast.

Salmon nigiri, 3,400 won

Next, the crowd-pleaser everyone knows: salmon sushi!! True to a fatty red fish, rich and oily all the way through!! That signature salmon melt-in-your-mouth quality was, of course, good — tasty, but not quite the shock factor that engawa had, haha.

Mackerel nigiri, 4,500 won

Mackerel made a comeback lol. Earlier it was mackerel futomaki, but since not many places do mackerel well, I ordered it straight up too!! It seemed like just the surface had been lightly torched, so the top had that soft, seared quality while going deeper down, the raw fish's springy chew came through. That signature soft, savory mackerel flavor filled my mouth, and I chewed slowly to really savor it >_<

Akami tuna nigiri, 4,500 won

Next, one of my absolute favorites: akami (tuna). Coming to a sushi place and not ordering akami should be illegal... I saved it eagerly for my finale spot lol. One big bite in, and that signature tuna melt was pure art... The slices were cut thick, so there was still a satisfying chew alongside that richness — such a shame it melts away in your mouth so quickly.

The lettering cake surprise: the chef and the next table joined in

After finishing our first round of orders, while Sumin stepped away to the bathroom for a moment, I set up the surprise cake I'd prepared!! I'd gotten a cute lettering cake, and when she came back and saw it, she asked what on earth it was and got so, so touched lol.

My usually robot-like friend Sumin gasped and marveled over and over again, which was so satisfying to see, and when we sang happy birthday, even the chef and the guests at the next table joined in — she looked flustered but so happy about it lol.

Her first-ever Seoul omakase and a successful surprise event!!!! ✌️

Round two at Sakai: sweet shrimp and an engawa encore

Debating what to order for round two, I wanted something that would just melt in my mouth, so I went with sweet shrimp! Each piece had three shrimp packed in, so with one bite you got a full, intense hit of sweet shrimp flavor!!

Cheap sweet shrimp tends to have that bitter, raw-shrimp aftertaste, but this is Sakai, a famous Seolleung sushi spot after all.... no bitterness at all, just proper sweet-shrimp sweetness melting away in your mouth, and they served it with a raw egg yolk sauce that maximized the richness and umami!!! I scraped that yolk clean lol.

As I mentioned earlier, that flounder fin was no ordinary engawa... its texture and umami were insane, so I crowned it tonight's official encore sushi!! Ordered one more piece to round out the perfect course lol. Seriously, huge recommend on the engawa...

Finishing with egg nigiri, 2,900 won

The last highlight was, of course, the classic egg sushi~! Someone once told me that to judge an omakase spot's real skill, you need to try their egg sushi... and the quality of that determines the tier the place belongs to.

So, how was Sakai's egg sushi...? Well... simply put... it was art... ah.

Sumin's eyes went wide as she ate it too, and it was so cute lol. After all this, we were fuller than expected and completely satisfied!

Sumin isn't one for big reactions, but she kept saying it was delicious the whole meal — it was that good, so I've added it to my go-to list!! Sakai, the famous Seolleung sushi spot, is memorable not just for the taste but for the owner's service that just puts you in a good mood!! A great place to gift someone on a special occasion — a 1000% would-revisit, great-value Seoul omakase spot — this was my honest, heartfelt review of Sakai!

A great-value omakase spot where the price, the taste, and the service were all genuinely satisfying. There's a reason so many reviews call it a sushi spot of a lifetime.