Mapo private-room Korean grill restaurant lunch course: Usu

I visited Usu (우수) in Gongdeok with a friend for weekday lunch and had the Lunch C Course. It is known as a restaurant for sanggyeonrye, the formal meeting between the two families before marriage, and every seat was in a private room. This was not a sanggyeonrye visit; I came with a friend to see what the course and food were like.

Where is Usu, and how does parking work?

Usu is at 201, B2, Lotte Castle President Shopping Arcade, 109 Mapo-daero, Mapo-gu, Seoul. Parking had to be in B3, and at the time of my visit, I was told there was three hours of parking support with no limit on the number of vehicles.

The route on a first visit was a little confusing. It was hard to find if I entered on the hotel-building side; to reach the parking lot, I had to go around the building.

After taking the escalator down to B2, I saw the Usu banner. In addition to the courses, there was also a weekday lunch yukhoe bibimbap set.

Are there private rooms and group seats for sanggyeonrye?

The atmosphere felt formal from the entrance. With every seat in a private room and group seating available, it seemed worth considering for a sanggyeonrye or family gathering. Corkage was listed as free.

They also had Jim Beam highballs and Suntory highballs.

What does the weekday Lunch C Course start with?

I had the Lunch C Course. A course menu was provided, starting with porridge and continuing through bite-sized dishes and vegetable and seafood courses.

The first dish, “U, Gye Jin-juk,” was a porridge made by richly simmering Korean beef bone stock and chicken. It included scorched rice, shiitake mushrooms, asparagus, white wood ear mushrooms, and more, with a deep savory flavor. As an opening dish, I also thought it would pair well with drinks.

How did the three bite-sized dishes taste?

The plates and presentation of the bite-sized dishes caught my eye, and a staff member explained the order in which to eat them. Each small dish included several ingredients, which made tasting them one by one enjoyable.

• The bulgogi sandwich had Korean beef bulgogi, mushroom duxelles, and truffle cream cheese on brioche. The bread, meat, and mushrooms worked well together.
• The scallop and clam dish paired a grilled scallop with aburaga, clam cream sauce, apple, onion, and gamtae powder. The flavors came together well, and the presentation was memorable.
• The sweet shrimp and gimbugak dish combined fried abalone-gut rice, sweet shrimp, and yuzu sauce with roasted seaweed spread with pollock roe. It felt the most familiar of the three, and I liked the sweet shrimp with the yuzu sauce.

What were the shiitake shrimp and five-color gardenia noodles like?

The shiitake shrimp and zucchini dish had tofu, aged kimchi, and golden enoki mushrooms inside zucchini, while the grilled shiitake mushroom was filled with shrimp. It came with peanut tofu sauce and oak oil, giving it a smooth, nutty flavor unlike the milk cream I usually have. I felt it would also suit a meal with older family members.

The abalone five-color gardenia noodles were topped with shredded radish in black sesame, bracken fern, shiitake mushrooms, seasoned chamnamul, perilla leaves, and abalone. Gamtae dressing and mustard-garlic sauce balanced the savory and sweet flavors.

How is the Korean beef sirloin served, and was the meal filling?

I grilled the Korean beef sirloin myself on a small individual brazier. I liked being able to cook the 1++ grade Korean beef sirloin to my preferred doneness.

The pot rice was generously topped with grilled fish and scallions. They showed us the pot rice before dividing it into portions.

The meal continued with a Korean beef and seaweed soup set, and extra side dishes were available on request. The meat was 80 g, but after the earlier bite-sized dishes and noodles, the overall amount was quite substantial even by my standard as an adult man. I left a little of the pot rice.

What was the final dessert?

The last course was corn ice cream shaped like corn. It came with apricot, green tangerine cream sauce, corn crumble, sponge cake, coconut chips, and dill. The ice cream was smooth and deeply flavored, and I was satisfied with the added crunch of the corn crumble.

The Lunch C Course I had with my friend varied in ingredients and textures from dish to dish, and the pot rice made it a generous meal. With all-private-room seating and group seating, it seemed worth considering for those looking for a sanggyeonrye venue in Gongdeok. If visiting for the first time, it would be best to check the route into the parking lot in advance.