Balsan Station Japanese restaurant, thick-cut kaisendon: Ilpum Magok

Today I'm bringing you a review of Ilpum, a kaisendon spot in Magok! Before visiting I looked it up and found it's actually pretty famous around Magok for its kaisendon. I heard it's a spot Lee Young-ja recommended, so my expectations went up, and the sashimi turned out super thick and fresh — I loved it! Definitely recommend this place if you love raw fish..🤍

Where is Ilpum Magok and is there parking?

Ilpum Magok is close to Balsan Station, inside the Leaders Tower building. You can also park underground in the same building (Leaders Tower), free for up to 2 hours!

The atmosphere and seating at Ilpum Magok

Ilpum Magok is a clean Japanese restaurant with mostly 4-person seating plus bar seats. Right from the entrance, the walls are covered in celebrity signatures—

Inside, most of the seating was for groups of four. There's also bar-style seating where you sit side by side! Overall it has a clean, calm Japanese-restaurant feel, good for a relaxed meal. On the day I visited, I saw a lot of families with older members too!

What's on the menu at Ilpum Magok?

Ilpum Magok's signature dish is kaisendon, but they also have Japanese-style rice bowls like unagidon, ilpumdong, salmon sakedon, plus sushi. This time I tried the kaisendon and the chicken karaage don!

At Ilpum, besides the signature kaisendon, there are also Japanese-style rice bowls like unagidon, ilpumdong, salmon sakedon, and a whole range of sushi too!

They even have ankimo (monkfish liver) dishes, which are apparently trendy right now? (I wouldn't really know!)

What comes with the main dish?

When you order a main at Ilpum Magok, it comes with chawanmushi, cold udon topped with tempura, and a dessert at the end. It felt like a proper full-course meal, which I loved.

Before the main arrived, this chawanmushi came out — super jiggly and moist and soft in texture, with shrimp inside too.

How's the chicken karaage don?

Ilpum Magok's chicken karaage don is a rice bowl topped with seasoned karaage, mayo, and a generous pile of green onion. And then the chicken karaage don arrived. The bowl was piled high with freshly fried karaage.

The karaage was seasoned, with plenty of mayo and green onion on top — the karaage was crispy outside and moist inside, which went really well with the rice.

Even after eating some, the bowl still looked full of karaage ...💛🍗

Ilpum Magok's kaisendon — how thick is the sashimi and what's in it?

Ilpum Magok's kaisendon comes with several kinds of thick sashimi plus raw shrimp, crab meat, and ankimo, all in one bowl. And then the kaisendon arrived. Whoa!!! It looked so vibrant and pretty. This is definitely going to taste amazing.

Several kinds of sashimi were piled generously in one bowl, and each piece of sashimi was really thick. The size and thickness meant each bite was packed with fish, which I loved. You could tell the sashimi was fresh too..🫢

If you're a seafood lover, you'd probably die for this ㅜㅜ I thought the shrimp in the middle was just for decoration, but it turned out to be actual raw shrimp.

First time trying ankimo and crab meat

On one side there was also crab meat and ankimo, so it was fun mixing them into the rice bit by bit! This was my first time trying ankimo, and it had a really rich, nutty flavor.

How to eat it with wasabi and seaweed

Whew...... I've been craving sashimi lately, and putting a good dab of wasabi on the rice with the sashimi was so, so good ㅜㅜ

And wrapping it in the seaweed that comes with it gives a different kind of flavor 🤍 Since you can mix so many combinations, it doesn't get boring, and you can finish the whole bowl easily.

Cold udon with tempura served midway through the meal

Ilpum Magok serves a cold udon topped with tempura partway through the meal, and the tempura differed depending on what you ordered. With the kaisendon, they topped the udon with karaage.

But? With the karaage don order, they topped it with fried shrimp instead! Such a nice touch...... The cold udon itself felt like it cleared your palate in the middle of the main bowl, which I liked.

Dessert: mango puree milk pudding

The final dessert at Ilpum Magok was a milk pudding topped with mango puree! The pudding was jiggly yet soft, and the mango puree on top was sweet and tangy, making it a great way to finish the meal.

It's not like the meal just ends after the kaisendon — it goes from chawanmushi all the way to a final dessert, so for the price of one dish, the whole meal felt pretty substantial.

What should you order at Ilpum Magok?

At Ilpum Magok, I most recommend the kaisendon with its fresh, thick sashimi. Trying everything, I could really see why this Magok spot is known for its kaisendon! The chicken karaage don was tasty too, of course, but the sashimi was so fresh and delicious that I really recommend going for the kaisendon!

If you're looking for a kaisendon restaurant in Magok with fresh seafood piled on top, or a Japanese restaurant where you can enjoy a fuller course from main to dessert, I really recommend this place!