Hanwoo beef omakase in Nampo-dong, Busan: the A course at Usiya

Hanwoo (Korean beef) omakase you can enjoy cut by cut in all its variety 🐂. Usiya Nampo-jeom is a Nampo-dong beef restaurant with a cozy yet upscale vibe and friendly service that puts you in a good mood.

I don't eat beef all that often, but sometimes you just want good beef, and sometimes you want to eat somewhere with a nice atmosphere. This day was exactly that 😊 If you're looking for a nice-atmosphere beef restaurant in Nampo-dong, this is a place where you can enjoy hanwoo in a course format, so I thought it deserved a mention as a Nampo-dong beef spot! Being able to taste small portions of many different cuts made it a great Busan hanwoo omakase for a day when you want to really properly enjoy hanwoo 😋

Where is Usiya Nampo, and how do parking and reservations work?

Usiya Nampo-jeom is on the 1st floor of 8 Gwangbok-ro 6beon-gil, Jung-gu, Busan, South Korea, and there's no parking or parking support at the restaurant. Nampo-dong and Jagalchi don't have many commercial parking lots. It's more convenient to take public transit, or if you're driving, I'd recommend a nearby lot or the Jagalchi Market public parking lot like we used 🚗

Coming from the crosswalk across from the Seo-gu District Office main entrance, go past the GS25 convenience store and head left uphill — from the food stall street near Jagalchi public parking, just follow the arrow direction to the end of the block!

Amid a row of old-school eateries, there's one spot with a warm glow spilling out — that's today's destination, Usiya Nampo-jeom. It's already well known as a Busan hanwoo restaurant, so walk-ins may face a wait — I'd recommend reserving ahead. We booked through Catch Table, but Naver Reservation also works.

Inside Usiya Nampo: atmosphere and seating

Walking in, the first thing you see is the counter seating. It wraps around the kitchen, which makes it a great spot for couples to sit side by side on a date.

The 4-person tables are also partitioned off, so you can eat privately — great for small gatherings or family meals.

There's a coat rack by the entrance for counter-seat guests, and wall hooks at the tables, so you can hang up your bags or coats there.

Usiya Nampo menu and prices

The mains at Usiya Nampo-jeom are two courses: the A Course at ₩79,000 and the B Course at ₩59,000. À la carte orders are also possible depending on your taste!

• A Course ₩79,000 – beef tartare, ox tongue, 5 cuts of meat, oxtail, sukiyaki, hotpot rice + aged kimchi stew, dessert
• B Course ₩59,000 – ox tongue, 3 cuts of meat, oxtail, meal + aged kimchi stew, dessert
• Tenderloin ₩32,000
• Chuck flap tail ₩35,000
• Sirloin ₩32,000
• Flat iron ₩30,000
• Brisket point ₩28,000
• Short rib finger meat ₩30,000
• Skirt steak ₩32,000
• Ox tongue ₩34,000
• Oxtail ₩25,000
• Hanwoo beef tartare ₩20,000

The 79,000-won A course: table setting and side dishes

Since we had a reservation, the table was already set up when we arrived. They gave us toddler tableware and utensils — we always bring our kid's own spoon and chopsticks with us! Ready to eat!

These are the side dishes to eat alongside the beef — the white dried gourd strips had a really unique texture and flavor. The chive salad wasn't made with regular chives but with yeongyang chives (a thinner, milder variety), so there was none of that typical raw-chive bite, just a nice fresh crunch. Once you try yeongyang chives, it's hard to go back to regular ones 😆

What order does the A course follow?

They brought out everything included in the A Course and walked us through the sequence and which cuts were which. Today's order was: beef tartare (appetizer) → ox tongue → 5 cuts of meat → grilled oxtail → sukiyaki → hotpot rice + aged kimchi stew → dessert.

The mix of not-too-dark red tender cuts and vivid red fatty cuts with their marbling was already a feast for the eyes before it even hit the grill.

Appetizer: yuksasimi (raw beef sashimi)

First up, the appetizer — beef tartare. You get 2 pieces per person, already seasoned, so you can eat it right away. I'm not sure which cut it was, but the texture was shockingly soft. People often describe tenderness as 'melting away' — this actually melts, haha. It's hard to even imagine it as meat texture. If I had to compare it to something, it's like the fibrous texture of mango.

They mince wild garlic chives (myeong-i namul) into the wasabi to mellow out the heat a lot, so you can pile it on without it being too spicy! The perilla leaf pesto was homemade too, with a strong herby aroma that went really well with the beef. Worth mixing and matching different sauces with different cuts.

My first taste of ox tongue

We started with ox tongue — my very first time trying it, ever! The crisp, crunchy texture was a real surprise. I expected it to be soft, but nope 😆 It's different from the crunch of pork jowl — more chewy and crisp at once — a really promising start.

They told us to try the first bite with just salt. Every time the cut changed, they'd suggest the best pairing, so just following along guaranteed 100% satisfaction.

Five grilled hanwoo cuts: grilling order and sauce pairings

There's a specific grilling order for the 5 cuts too: tenderloin → sirloin → skirt steak → flat iron → brisket point. It starts with lean, tender tenderloin and moves toward the fattier sirloin and skirt steak, finishing with the well-marbled flat iron and brisket point!

Watching them grill it right in front of us was honestly half the fun~

Tenderloin

We started with tenderloin! Again, the first bite was with just salt to taste it in its purest form. Since it's low in fat, the beefy aroma really came through, and it was great.

Sirloin

They'd explained the cuts at the start, but re-explained each one again right as it was grilled, and paced everything to match how fast we were eating — really thoughtful 👍

Zucchini cooked in the beef fat — the owner really knows how to eat. The king oyster mushrooms were steam-grilled too, so when you dip them in salt while the juices are still flowing, the flavor is out of this world 😋

Skirt steak

Next was skirt steak, a lean cut with just a bit of fat, which our little one loved the most. I paired mine with baek-kimchi (white, non-spicy kimchi), and personally it was so good!

Something about it was just... cute?

Flat iron

They recommended wasabi for the flat iron. Chatting with them while they grilled, swapping notes about how the meat tasted, made it feel like we were being personally hosted — the flavor was great, but honestly the vibe was even better 💗

I put on both the wild garlic wasabi and the perilla pesto~ That subtly pungent, fragrant pesto matched the fattier flat iron so well. A great pairing again ❣️ Rather than just eating meat, it felt like really properly tasting different cuts of hanwoo one by one — perfect for anyone looking for a Busan hanwoo omakase!

Brisket point, plus a complimentary chuck flap tail

They grilled the brisket point two ways. First, plain, to enjoy its natural flavor, then the chewier part was brushed with their special seasoned soy sauce — the umami from the sauce was excellent~

This one's chuck flap tail — while chatting with the owner, we mentioned our little one loves fattier cuts, and they gave us this as a bonus for the kid 🫢 So, so thankful~ 💗 With that, we'd tried all 5 grilled cuts.

The highlight: seasoned grilled oxtail

Next up, seasoned grilled oxtail! Honestly, this was the one I was most looking forward to~ The oxtail is sliced super thin and again grilled with their special seasoned sauce. The salty-sweet aroma is out of control 🫠

You have to let it cool slightly and pull it apart with your hands to really enjoy it! The sauce is salty and sweet, and the fat and meat are so chewy — this might be the best finishing special item 👍

Time to move on to the final meal course, but our little one had already finished eating first, haha. Worried she'd feel left out while mom and dad kept eating, they brought her dessert early~ Really appreciated how carefully they tracked our kid's state while running the course 🙏

Sukiyaki, hotpot rice and aged kimchi stew

This was actually my first time trying sukiyaki, because I don't like raw egg 😭 The fishy taste of egg had always kept me from even trying it, but today I worked up the courage to dip a piece in — and huh? 😧 It's delicious! Haha, looks like I'll be eating sukiyaki nonstop from now on.

It's exactly 2 servings' worth — definitely not enough for 3 people.

They mentioned that the long-simmered aged kimchi stew could be a bit salty since it's cooked so long, and told us to scoop out small portions and mix it into rice — but it wasn't salty at all for our taste! It's kind of like a kimchi-stew version of ganjang doenjang paste, packed with beef instead of pork, simmered until it falls apart at the seams. It felt less like kimchi stew and more like a spicy canned-tuna style dish.

Is the Usiya Nampo A course worth it?

If you're looking for a nice-atmosphere beef restaurant in Nampo-dong, I'd recommend Usiya Nampo-jeom, where you can enjoy hanwoo cut by cut in all its variety. In a cozy, upscale setting, you get a hanwoo course grilled right in front of you, and above all, the staff were genuinely kind, which kept the mood good throughout the whole meal 😊 A solid Nampo-dong hanwoo spot for dates, family dinners, or special occasions — I'd love to come back and try a different course next time 🥩