Magok Nagoya-style hitsumabushi shared two ways: Una Magok

I wanted to share a review of Una Magok, a great spot for a slightly special meal in Magok 🤍🫧 This time I went to a hitsumabushi specialty restaurant, a way of enjoying eel that's a bit different from your usual grilled eel or eel rice bowl ✨

The place I visited this time was Una Magok, which focuses on hitsumabushi, an eel dish made in the traditional style of Nagoya, Japan. Beyond the flavor of the eel itself, there's the special tare sauce that comes with it, and the fun of eating hitsumabushi in three different ways — if you like eel, this is a Magok restaurant worth visiting at least once.

Where Una Magok is, opening hours and parking

• 📍 Address: 105-7 Magok-jungang-ro, K-Square Magok Tower 2, 1st floor Una, Gangseo-gu, Seoul, South Korea
• ⏰ Hours: 11:20-22:00 / break time 15:00-17:00, last order 21:00
• 🅿️ Parking: K-Square building basement lot (1.5 hours free parking)
• 📝 Group seating available, takeout, delivery, reservations, high chair, waiting area, separate men's/women's restrooms, wheelchair-accessible entrance, disabled parking, corkage (fee) available

Inside Una Magok: seating and atmosphere

📍 It's close to Magongnaru Station in Magok, so it's easy to reach on foot. The vibe isn't too loud or casual — it felt like a good spot for a calm conversation over a meal 🛋️ Good for anyone searching Magok LG Arts Center restaurants / Magok One Grove Mall restaurants / Magok Seoul Botanic Park restaurants.

From the entrance, the space felt clean and calm, letting you focus on the eel dishes — a comfortable place for lunch, business meetings, dates, wedding invitation gatherings, or family meals 🤍

Since Magok is packed with companies and research facilities, this space also suited office workers and business customers looking for a classy meal 👏🏻✨

When you sit down, water, cups, and napkins are already set, and you order through a tablet 🧾🫧

Una Magok menu and prices

What we ordered: two hitsumabushi sets

• Hitsumabushi ₩42,000
• [Pollock Roe Set] Hitsumabushi Small ₩42,000

How much eel comes in small, regular and special

They use 0.5 eel for small, 1 eel for regular, and 1.5 eels for large :)

How to eat hitsumabushi three ways

Each table has a guide for how to best enjoy hitsumabushi, meromabushi, and torimabushi, so it's worth checking that as you eat - 🫧

The hitsumabushi at Una Magok isn't meant to be eaten just one way — it's a Nagoya-style eel dish enjoyed in three ways.

First, you enjoy it as is, tasting the eel's natural flavor and the depth of the tare sauce. Then, you add various toppings for a new layer of flavor and a different harmony.

Finally, you pour warm broth over it, blending the eel, rice, and sauce in the traditional Japanese finishing style — so within one bowl, you get to experience several different eel dishes' worth of charm.

Banchan and free refills at Una Magok

The basic banchan (side dishes) were konjac, cucumber, sweet potato, and eryngii mushroom salad. Even the banchan looked pretty and were seasoned just right — the konjac was springy and chewy, and the sweet potato was sweet and soft, so I kept reaching for more. So good 🤍🫧 If you run out, refills are available — broth, ocha water, perilla leaves, seaweed flakes, wasabi, sweet potato, konjac, cucumber, eryngii mushroom salad, and tori furikake can all be refilled. You could also order extra rice or a half portion of rice :) ✨

Hitsumabushi is a signature eel dish from Nagoya, Japan — unlike a regular eel rice bowl where you mix everything together at once, you portion out the eel rice from the bowl multiple times and enjoy each portion a different way 🍚🍴

How does the hitsumabushi taste?

When I opened the lid, the first thing I noticed was the rich, savory smell unique to eel. The eel was piled generously on top of the rice, so just looking at it made my mouth water 🤤🫧 The surface of the eel was glossy with tare sauce, and just from the look of it you could tell it would be salty-sweet and full of flavor.

The first bite I took was a piece of eel with rice together — the surface of the eel was lightly grilled and chewy 🤤, while the inside was moist and soft, pairing really well with the rice 👏🏻✨ I especially liked that the sauce wasn't overly sweet or salty, but instead brought out the eel's own flavor 🤍

The rich, savory fattiness of the eel combined with the sweet-salty tare sauce was so good, and it was a generous, satisfying spread 🍱🫧

Regular hitsumabushi vs the small pollock roe set

Compared to eating hitsumabushi alone, adding pollock roe brought out a saltier, more savory umami flavor. The distinctive saltiness of the pollock roe paired well with the eel's sweet tare sauce, giving it a different kind of appeal from eating the eel on its own 🤤

The regular hitsumabushi is delicious on its own, but personally I get tired of eating just one thing, so alternating a bite of eel, a bite of pollock roe, and a bite of both together made for an interesting combination — I enjoyed it all the way to the last bite 🤍🫧

If you're visiting with one other person, ordering one of each and sharing bites of both sounds like a great idea.

Last, I added warm broth. The rich eel flavor blended with the broth and became much softer and cleaner-tasting. If the beginning was all about the eel's savoriness and the tare sauce's richness, the finish — thanks to the warm broth — was a much more comfortable, clean way to end the meal 🍱👏🏻✨

Green tea ice cream after the meal

After the meal, if you request matcha ice cream through the tablet, it comes out. Sweet and soft — I finished with this dessert really happily 🍨🫧

Verdict on Una Magok

What I liked most about eating hitsumabushi at Una Magok was getting to enjoy one dish in several different ways — and it was so delicious. At first, eating just the eel and rice, I could taste the eel's natural savoriness and the tare sauce's flavor; in the middle, adding pollock roe or toppings brought out a salty, rich umami; and at the end, pouring broth over it made for a soft finish — so I never got tired of it, and enjoyed every last bite 🍱🤍🫧

Above all, the eel wasn't dry or tough at all — it was tender to chew, so I could easily enjoy the eel's distinctive savoriness 👏🏻✨ The sweet-salty umami was naturally soaked into the eel, so eating it with rice kept me reaching for more 🤍 If you're looking for something a bit different, I'd recommend the hitsumabushi at Una Magok.

Who Una Magok suits best

• Anyone who wants to try a different kind of eel dish than the usual grilled eel
• Anyone curious about authentic Nagoya-style hitsumabushi
• Anyone who likes enjoying one dish in multiple ways
• Anyone looking for a clean, nice-vibe restaurant for a date in Magok
• Anyone looking for a hearty but clean meal with family
• Anyone searching for a good eel rice bowl restaurant in Magok

Current event at Una Magok

🧾 Apparently, if you leave a review on Naver or Google, you instantly get Una ginseng wine and a chance at a lottery ticket worth up to ₩500 million - ✨

✅ For reservations of wedding invitation gatherings of 4 or more, they say they provide 1 free bottle of champagne (advance reservation required). It's meant to make a meaningful occasion with your loved ones even more special for future grooms and brides 🥂🍾 Spend an unforgettable time with refined dishes in a clean, sophisticated space :)