Gongdeok pre-concert lunch with seasonal fish pot rice: Usu

A pretty high-end hanjeongsik (Korean course meal) restaurant in the basement of the Gongdeok Lotte Castle complex. I ate a full spread here before heading to a BIGBANG concert. I ate so well that I had the stamina to last through the whole show haha.

What kind of restaurant is Usu near Gongdeok Station?

Usu is a private-room hanjeongsik restaurant on B2 of the Lotte Castle President complex, right in front of Gongdeok Station. It's open daily 11:00–22:00, with last order 15:00–17:00. Parking in the complex lot is free for the first 3 hours regardless of how many cars you bring, and corkage is free too. They've also got Wi-Fi, group dining, reservations, wine pairing with a dedicated sommelier, high chairs, separate men's and women's restrooms, birthday perks, wheelchair-accessible seating, and a disabled parking spot.

Every table is a private room, both 4-person and 8-person, and they're clean. I immediately got why this place is known for first meetings between families..! All the tables are rooms and spacious, so it's easy to stash coats, umbrellas, bags, whatever.

The water was barley tea. Felt like the kind of place elders would like.

Usu Gongdeok menu and course prices

Usu Gongdeok has 3 lunch courses and 3 dinner courses, plus separate wine/drinks and à la carte dishes. The origin of ingredients was also posted right on the menu.

Lunch course

Dinner course, wine and drinks, à la carte

Origin of ingredients

There are 3 lunch and 3 dinner course options each. The courses span a range of price points, and dishes can also be ordered à la carte, so it's easy to mix and match. If you're going with a group, ordering a mid-tier course and adding dishes on top seems like a good move too.

Eating the Lunch C course at Usu

Before the meal starts, they show you the ingredients for today's menu and explain them..

🍚 Beef and chicken porridge 🍚

A warm porridge made with beef and chicken stock simmered rich, with nurungji (scorched rice), scallions, shiitake mushroom, asparagus, and enoki mushroom. Nice way to settle your stomach before the real meal begins.

🌮 Three bite-sized dishes 🌮

Three dishes come out, and they tell you the order to eat them in.

• 1️⃣ Bulgogi Sandwich — brioche with hanwoo (Korean beef) bulgogi, mushroom duxelles, and truffle cream cheese, a light one-bite brunch kind of dish!
• 2️⃣ Scallop and Clam — brick pastry, seared scallop, aburaga (fried tofu), clam cream sauce, apple, onion, and gamtae (seaweed) powder. Interesting texture, kind of crumbled and melted away.
• 3️⃣ Sweet Shrimp Gim Bugak — grilled seaweed with pollock roe, fried abalone offal sauce, sweet shrimp, and yuja sauce. The sweet shrimp was plump and chewy.

Fun to try in a variety of bite-sized portions, and the plating was so pretty. My favorite of the three was the bulgogi sandwich. Kids would like this one too haha.

🦐 Shiitake shrimp with oak oil and zucchini 🦐

Shrimp, top-grade shiitake mushroom, tofu, aged kimchi, golden enoki mushroom, and more. The peanut tofu sauce and oak oil were unfamiliar to me but really nutty and delicious!!! 😲 The peanut sauce could be a bit heavy on its own, but that green oak oil adds a fresh brightness. Completely new flavor for me and I loved it.

🐟 Seasonal fish pot rice 🐟

I forget what the seasonal fish was that day... they show it to you while explaining, then take it back. Later it comes out already deboned and mixed into a nice one-bowl serving. No fumbling with debone-then-mix — zero hassle.

🦪 Abalone five-color gardenia noodles 🦪

This was my favorite dish of the day!! Pretty strong mustard flavor, but really fresh and savory.

🐂 Main: 1++ sirloin table set 🐂

You get a table set of double-plus sirloin and hanwoo seaweed soup. All the side dishes were good, and the color on that meat was insane.

After sampling a variety of small dishes earlier, having hanwoo sirloin come out as the main made it feel like a proper full meal.

That glossy sheen.. crazy, genuinely so tender and melts right into nothing.

There's meat in the seaweed soup too, and fish in the rice — plenty of protein~~

🍧 Dessert 🍧

Corn ice cream, corn cream cheese, apricot, corn crumble, sponge cake, and a green citron cream sauce. Personally the sponge cake was fine, but the ice cream was really good! There was some kind of apricot jam underneath, sweet and a nice light palate cleanser.

Is Usu worth it? Final verdict

• 🔸 A clean hanjeongsik spot right by Gongdeok Station, practically a stone's throw away.
• 🔸 3 lunch and 3 dinner course options each, so you can pick a price point that works for you.
• 🔸 Every dish has its own distinct character but is still broadly crowd-pleasing, and served in a way that's easy to eat comfortably — great for meals with elders too!

A Gongdeok spot well suited for meals with elders, client dinners, or first meetings between families.