Mapo Korean restaurant Lunch C for a friend’s celebration: Usu

We visited Usu, a great Hanwoo restaurant in Gongdeok, to celebrate some good news my friend had at work. We made the most of lunch and enjoyed the Lunch C Course very, very, very satisfactorily 🤍

Private rooms directly connected to Gongdeok Station

I found Usu while looking for a private-room restaurant near Gongdeok Station, and it was wonderfully accessible because it is connected to the subway station, too. Look immediately to the left from Exit 2 and you will see stairs going underground; take them down and Usu is right there, haha.

• B2, Lotte Castle President, 467 Gongdeok-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul
• Parking available: free for 3 hours / no vehicle limit
• Daily 11:00–22:00, break time 15:00–17:00
• Open year-round

We booked Usu, this Gongdeok Hanwoo favorite, in advance. There are lots of offices nearby and group tables too, so I thought it would be a fantastic spot for a team lunch. The server gave us a warm welcome when we arrived :)

I do not love a noisy atmosphere, so I tend to prefer private-room restaurants like this. Every seat at Usu is in a room, making it so comfortable to talk with your party.

Of course, we were shown to a room. The weather had become much cooler over the previous few days, but the sun was blazing and it was hot during the day we visited. Each room has its own air-conditioning, so it was wonderfully cool and fresh—I was happy before we had even started on the Hanwoo ><,,,!

Why we chose the Lunch C Course

We chose the Lunch C Course. Let me say this first: I will absolutely, absolutely, absolutely come back!!!!!!!! The Lunch C Course was quite reasonably priced, with such a great lineup for the money—and the flavor, need I even say it? My friend and I kept gasping as we ate, so I was hugely satisfied and saved it to my list of places to revisit,,, ✨

Usu is even better because corkage is free. We skipped alcohol since this was lunch, but next time I definitely want wine with it. The wine list details sweetness, acidity, and body, which made it easy to use as a guide.

Ta-da—✨ The server first showed us the ingredients to be used that day in a display box. Are these visuals insane or what? And the colors were so pretty? From this point, tears were streaming... from my mouth.

Ah, it is already delicious.

From the first Lunch C dish to the bite-size plates

1. U, Gye Jinjuk

The first course was U, Gye Jinjuk, a deeply simmered porridge made with beef and chicken. It was a rich porridge made from Hanwoo bone and chicken broths, with scorched rice, scallion crust, shiitake, asparagus, and white wood ear mushroom as garnishes. One bite in, its deep, rich flavor made me think, ah, this is it—everything here is going to be good. Its savory yet refined flavor did a wonderful job as an appetizer.

They told us to eat the porridge with the wide spoon on the outside, so I did—and I loved that they had considered the spoon so carefully even for one porridge dish. And the water, haha, was barley tea: completely my taste!! I drink only bottled water at home all the time, so I love barley tea. These little details really won me over 🖤

2. Three bite-size dishes

The second course was three bite-size dishes. They were such high-quality, delicious bites that it was such, such a shame each ended in one mouthful (and they can be ordered separately... ✨).

1) Bulgogi sandwich, 2) scallop and clam, 3) sweet shrimp and crispy seaweed. We were told to begin with the bulgogi sandwich and go counterclockwise :)

The bulgogi sandwich—brioche, Hanwoo bulgogi, mushroom duxelles, and truffle cream cheese—was ridiculously good,,,, I could eat ten of these alone. The Hanwoo bulgogi gained mushroom depth, then the truffle aroma bloomed out. It was a bite that nailed both flavor and fragrance. I especially loved it because I love truffle!

The scallop and clam—brick pastry, seared scallop, avruga, clam cream sauce, apple, onion, and gamtae seaweed powder—was a bite with a clam cream sauce that was totally my thing. It was a little like clam chowder, while the brick pastry added crispness for a satisfying bite. I could eat about ten of these too,,,

The sweet shrimp and crispy seaweed—grilled seaweed brushed with pollack roe, fried abalone-gut rice, sweet shrimp, and yuzu sauce—had ingredients that were simply made for me, and the flavor was even more mine,,,,,,,,,, The nutty, lightly salty abalone-gut rice went so well with the sweet shrimp, and the crispy seaweed gave it texture and balance. Eating it last, I understood why they had given us that order. So insanely good I think I could just keep eating it,,

3. Shiitake shrimp and zucchini

The third course was so beautiful. The shiitake shrimp featured shrimp and grade-A shiitake, while the zucchini side had zucchini, tofu, aged kimchi, and golden enoki mushrooms, with peanut tofu sauce and chamnamul herb oil. I loved that you could feel the care taken with the plating, right down to each bowl.

For this shiitake shrimp and zucchini dish, you mix in the chamnamul oil and eat it with the sauce. As a self-proclaimed shiitake-mushroom obsessive and shiitake inspector, shiitake is my favorite mushroom—and yes, it really was proper grade-A shiitake. Its size, texture, and aroma could not possibly be anything less than A-grade. Can shiitake be this springy and bouncy? Yes.

The peanut tofu sauce was what both my friend and I considered the key touch. It was nutty with the faintest sweetness, and so delicious. Even after finishing the shiitake shrimp and zucchini, we scraped up every last bit of sauce.

4. Abalone five-color gardenia noodles

The garnishes were shredded radish with black sesame, bracken, shiitake, seasoned chamnamul, perilla leaf, and abalone; the sauces were gamtae dressing, mustard-garlic sauce, and basil oil; and the noodles were gardenia noodles. This fourth-course abalone five-color gardenia noodle dish made my friend say she wished they sold it separately in front of her office. She said she could eat it every day, hahaha. Agreed...

It felt like a noodle dish that refreshed the palate before the Hanwoo. As we mixed it, the fragrant perilla-leaf aroma rose up and spread even more deeply in the mouth, making it fragrant, clean, and so lovely. The mustard-garlic sauce gave the faintest little sharp kick, which was another key touch. It was tangy and nutty, with chewy abalone too ✨ Just as my friend said, it felt like a dish I could eat every day.

Personal-grill Hanwoo and sea bream pot-rice set

Finally~~~ While we ate the gardenia noodles before the main Hanwoo grill and set meal arrived, they portioned out the sea bream pot rice. This was its beautiful appearance before that....... I will say it later, but this pot rice was truly insane... This is what I could eat every day... You can tell how delicious every single thing was, right? But this pot rice was the real deal.

5. Main Hanwoo grill & set meal

1++ sirloin and a Hanwoo seaweed-soup set. They portioned the pot rice and set it beautifully with the Hanwoo grill and brazier. Such a neat main spread! Each person gets an individual brazier, which was great because we could cook to our own preference. Everyone has very personal opinions on beef doneness,,,

I carefully placed each precious piece of Hanwoo and vegetables on the grill. I love grilled vegetables, so being able to have them alongside the beef exactly as I liked made me very happy. I like my meat lightly cooked and vegetables well done! With a personal brazier, I could grill however I wanted, which was so nice ><

I cooked it only lightly and had a first bite with salt. Done, done, this is it. As expected of a Gongdeok Hanwoo favorite, the beef was insanely good. It was tender, then became more savory the more I chewed—this is the place, everyone.

I had it with wasabi too, and with rice. Does the wasabi not look like a heart? That is how I feel about Usu.

Even the side dishes were all delicious, so it was fun trying different combinations. You know when you are full but keep eating because it is so good, right? That flavor that will not let you put down your spoon,,

As I mentioned briefly above, the pot rice was truly delicious. It had a hint of the sea, a hint of meat, and a deep nutty-salty flavor coming from rice? I want it again........ The seaweed soup was delicious too, but sipping it with the pot rice made me unable to tell whether I was in heaven or at a Hanwoo restaurant.

The pieces of sea bream were generous, and the fish itself was well grilled—crisp outside and tender inside, haha. The earlier courses had all been so delicious, and when the Hanwoo grill and set meal were also amazing, I was full but my happiness level was ready to burst through the sky.

We finished the set meal with vegetables browned beautifully to our liking 💛 Throughout the meal, the server not only brought each dish but explained everything so well and checked our pace, which made the whole experience comfortable >< So, so kind.

Finishing with corn ice cream

6. Dessert

Corn ice cream, corn cream cheese, apricot, corn crumble, sponge cake, and green-tangerine cream sauce. The end simply has to be dessert~

The corn ice cream was that one I used to eat from convenience stores,, but wow, it could be this elegant? This sherbet-like corn ice cream had an intensely real corn flavor, nutty and sweet, that made me want more, hahaha.

I ate it with the sponge cake, and the cake’s soft, fluffy texture went so well with the cool, slightly icy texture of the ice cream. The green-tangerine cream sauce added freshness, making it just right as a final dessert. I already love sweet desserts, and this was one I wanted to scrape completely clean, haha.

My friend and I enjoyed the Lunch C Course perfectly during lunch, and we were so curious how much more perfect dinner would be that we decided to come back together. I was so happy to spend such a lovely time in Usu’s private space, fitting for a Gongdeok Hanwoo dining restaurant 🤍 It has made my revisit list, so I will be back.