Jongak Station sushi with uni and house-made soy sauce: Choe Uyeong

It had been a while since I'd had sushi, so I went out for some after a long gap! I was hanging around Jongno that day and looked up sushi restaurants near Jongak Station, and ended up at Choe Uyeong Sushiya Jongno Branch.

Where is Choe Uyeong Sushiya Jongno Branch, and how do you find the entrance?

Choe Uyeong Sushiya Jongno Branch is on B1 at 7 Jongno 5-gil, reachable through the basement of Tower 8. It's close to Jongak Station, so it looked convenient for office workers nearby or anyone out for the day! You could tell from outside that it was a sushi specialty restaurant, with menu items posted from mixed sushi to fried tofu udon to kaisendon (raw fish rice bowl) haha, I was already looking forward to it.

It's also a decent spot to grab a meal after hanging out around Jongak Station or Gwanghwamun, so if you're looking for good Jongno sushi restaurants, this one is worth bookmarking!

There was also a takeout kiosk at the entrance haha. When you're not in the mood to sit down, getting sushi to go is such a nice option~

Partitioned tables that work for solo diners

Inside, each table has partitions, so you can eat fairly independently. There's also bar seating, so some people were dining alone, and it looked comfortable for two people as well!

Menu and prices: soju 4,000 won, corkage 3,000 won

You order via a kiosk, and the menu is genuinely varied. There's sashimi, rice bowls, and sushi, with sushi itself coming in several price tiers.

What caught my eye was that soju is 4,000 won! With prices these days, you don't often find soju that cheap, haha ,, I want to come back sometime and order a bunch of things to drink with. Corkage is also just 3,000 won! If you're looking for a Jongak restaurant that allows corkage, I'd recommend this place.

Since we decided to go all out that day, we ordered the 33,000-won premium sushi set, the 25,000-won top-grade kaisendon, and the 6,000-won shrimp tempura udon. I had some expectations for the premium sushi set just based on the name, and honestly, it lived up to it lol.

While waiting for the sushi, we started with the warm soup. It was a little chilly that day, so the hot broth really hit the spot. I love fried tofu, and it was in there, so that made me happy haha.

Once everything arrived, the table was properly loaded. With sushi, kaisendon, and udon all together, the portion size was pretty substantial haha.

Top-grade kaisendon, 25,000 won: uni, crab meat and abalone

The kaisendon was visually stunning right off the bat. Various types of sashimi including tuna and salmon, plus uni (sea urchin), crab meat, abalone, and egg, were piled generously into one bowl~ Rather than mixing everything together, I combined the rice with one piece of fish at a time, and that turned out to be the way to go, haha. Even though it's the same rice, the flavor kept changing depending on what topping I added, so it never got boring until the last bite!

With such a variety of ingredients, even ordering just the kaisendon alone gave you the fun of picking and choosing. Seaweed sheets also came with it, so you could wrap things up however you liked!

Premium sushi set, 33,000 won: uni, tuna, engawa and abalone

But what I personally loved most that day was the premium sushi set. True to its name, it was packed with good ingredients, and each piece didn't feel like a random slice of fish plopped on rice — you could tell real thought went into each combination!! ㅠㅅㅠ I was genuinely moved...

This is truly a top-tier Jongno sushi restaurant!

Uni can sometimes be a letdown when it's not fresh, but the uni here had zero misses and was truly delicious! No fishy taste at all, just full ocean flavor and a nutty richness — it was really impressive!!

The tuna was also a great cut — you can see the marbling of fat just from the photo, hehe. It melted so smoothly in the mouth that it stood out as one of the most memorable pieces in the premium sushi set, haha.

The abalone was great too. Abalone can turn chewy and tough if it's not cooked right, but this one wasn't tough at all — it had exactly the right texture! Topped with a little ginger, it was really delicious.

Above all, the premium sushi set wasn't a case where only one or two pieces were good and the rest were plain — every single piece felt carefully put together. Getting a set with uni, a good cut of tuna, engawa (fatty flounder fin), and abalone for 33,000 won felt like genuinely great value to me~ Plenty of sushi places charge over 10,000 won for just two pieces of uni sushi, so this felt like real value, haha.

How big is the 6,000-won shrimp tempura udon?

Since it was a bit chilly that day, I wanted something hot and soupy, so we also ordered the shrimp tempura udon. It's 6,000 won, but it came out in a bowl the size of a serving platter — I was genuinely surprised at the portion lol.

There was plenty of udon noodles, plus fish cake and other toppings, so it was more than enough for two people to share as a side dish lol. Having a bit of hot broth between bites of sushi made for a great combination~

Choe Uyeong Seafood's house-made soy sauce on every table

One thing I quietly loved here was the soy sauce. Each table has its own house-made soy sauce from Choe Uyeong Seafood, and even dipped lightly, the soy sauce itself was delicious! It was a deep, rich soy sauce that paired really well with the sushi.

After finishing the meal, my first thought was that for this price and this quality, it's worth coming back. The premium sushi set in particular had great ingredients, but what made it satisfying was how much care went into how each piece was put together, hehe~

There's the kaisendon for enjoying several types of sashimi at once, and a wide range from light sushi to sashimi to udon, so it also looked like a good spot to visit with a group.

I have a lot of meetups around Jongak and Gwanghwamun, so I think I'll come back here again next time I'm craving sushi in the area haha. If you're searching for sushi near Jongak Station, a Jongno sushi restaurant, or a Gwanghwamun sushi restaurant with good ingredients for the price, I'd really recommend Choe Uyeong Sushiya Jongno Branch!