Itaewon sashimi bar for yellowtail sushi and beef inari: Midoriya

Midoriya in Itaewon: aged sashimi with my dad

Midoriya in Itaewon is an izakaya (Korean-style pub) I found while looking for a place with good aged sashimi. It was my first meetup with my dad in a long while and I was wondering where to go, when I heard Midoriya even has great inari (fried tofu pocket sushi). Inari at a bar…!? My curiosity kicked in, and I also wanted to stroll Itaewon at night for the first time in ages, so off we went.

In short, both my dad and I were thrilled with the aged sashimi, so here is my honest review of Midoriya.

Midoriya hours and parking

Midoriya is at 19 Itaewon-ro 26-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul (1st floor), and it is open every day from 5:30 PM to 1:30 AM the next day. There is no parking, and the Yongsan-gu Office parking lot is the cheapest option, so I recommend using that.

What is on the Midoriya menu?

Midoriya mainly serves sashimi and yukhoe (Korean beef tartare), with a wide menu that also includes snow crab ramyeon, hot pots, steamed dishes with liquor, stir-fried fish roe, fried food and inari. They run lots of events too, and I spotted some clever menu items.

They mostly serve sashimi and yukhoe, in many varieties. Yellowtail season already…!

Shrimp sashimi, sweet shrimp sashimi, beef sashimi, and in summer even herring sashimi. They had mackerel and sea bass too! Snow crab ramyeon, hot pot, steamed dishes with liquor, stir-fried fish roe and more.

There is fried food and the famous inari too. The spicy seasoned shrimp rice bowl was 50% off, and I wanted to try it, but I was too full to order it.

The drink selection is pretty wide too.

Midoriya atmosphere and outdoor seating

The vibe of Midoriya gives me kind of a Chiang Mai feeling…? There is outdoor seating outside, and inside the lighting makes it a nice place for conversation.

There is outdoor seating, which is perfect for weather like this. Inside, the lighting makes it a good place to talk.

If you go deeper inside the shop, there is a space like this too.

What we ordered at Midoriya and the prices

The two of us ordered Midoriya sushi for one (₩29,000), daebang (large yellowtail) sushi for one (₩35,000), and of course soju.

The basic table setting is simple. It seems the menu pops up when you tap your phone, but it didn't work for me, so I just opened it through the QR code.

The complimentary side dish was great for filling my totally empty stomach. The sashimi is cut to order, so you need to wait a little! The first one out was the daebang for one!

Daebang sushi for one, ₩35,000: portion and taste

The menu says Midoriya's daebang sushi is for one person, so I expected a small portion, but it was bigger than I thought and I went "Oh!" the moment it arrived. The sashimi looked great and came in a variety of cuts. Is that caviar on top? There were plenty of radish sprouts, plus sesame oil dip and seaweed.

Moist, cut to a good thickness, one piece after another. It isn't properly cold yet, so I figured the flavor would be a bit lacking, but no way, I could really taste the rich, oily daebang! It isn't fully in season yet so it wasn't packed with fat, but each cut had a different texture and richness, so I never got tired of it and enjoyed it to the end.

Midoriya sushi for one, ₩29,000: is the inari really that good?

I originally wanted to order the sashimi set for two, but it was sold out, so I tried the Midoriya sushi for one. (Good thing I did, or I'd have really missed out.)

Three big inari at the bottom, and on top there's cuttlefish, beef sashimi, salmon, sea bream, yellowtail, and even uni (sea urchin)!

Honestly, Midoriya sushi is a must-order if you want both the rice and the sashimi, everything... Every piece of sashimi is fresh and you can taste each one, and the inari is especially delicious. It's a savory inari with beef inside, and it's so big that a woman eating alone along with the sashimi might not finish a whole portion…?

The uni was so good that I almost ordered extra uni…

The beef sashimi is nutty too, so eating it with the cooked beef inari gave a homey, humble kind of flavor burst…(?)

The salmon was of course fresh and chewy. We slowly shared a bottle of soju like this, and then

And a free oden soup

Midoriya gave us a free oden (fish cake) soup, so we ordered one more bottle of soju! And that oden soup was secretly amazing. It had the usual skewered fish cake, an inari pouch stuffed with rice cake, and super soft fish cake, and the broth had just the right savory depth, so good that I wanted to order a full portion.

Midoriya in Itaewon: overall verdict

Midoriya is an aged sashimi spot I visited with my dad, partly to stroll Itaewon at night after so long. I went curious because I'd heard the inari is great even though it's a bar, and both my dad and I were totally satisfied with the high-quality aged sashimi. With yellowtail season already here, the sashimi selection is fresh and varied, and the atmosphere is good too, so it works well for meetups in Itaewon. I recommend it as a genuinely great Itaewon place for delicious aged sashimi with a drink!