Anniversary opening-run kaisendon at Makise Hapjeong, Mapo

It was our first wedding anniversary! 🎈 We wanted to go eat something good, so we thought — how about kaisendon (seafood rice bowl), our memory food? We were originally going to go somewhere else but it turned out to be closed, so we looked for something near home and found this newly opened place with good reviews, so we decided to visit!

Makise Hapjeong location and hours

• 🔴 Address: 44 Poeun-ro 2na-gil, B01, basement floor, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea
• 🟠 Hours: Daily 11:30am–9:00pm (*Closed Mondays)
• 🟡 Naver Reservations available

I highly recommend this as a date spot in Hapjeong — this Seoul kaisendon restaurant really has that Japanese atmosphere, and they prepare the sashimi super thick and fresh so you can eat really well here. It's a genuine kaisendon must-visit! ❤️

Looking around Makise Hapjeong's interior and menu

Turns out Makise is in the same building as Crazy Katz! I'd been to Crazy Katz before and it was just... eh... hahahahahaha. Don't bother waiting for Crazy Katz, come to Makise instead — I mean this recommendation from the bottom of my heart lol.

Makise also takes Naver reservations, so I timed my visit to opening and ended up being the very first customer. Inside there are both counter seats and table seats, so you can sit wherever's comfortable — we went with a table seat.

You order using the tablet on the table!

Kaisendon is Makise's main event so you absolutely have to try it ❤️ They had a set menu, so we got the A set plus today's sushi + uni + tuna sashimi, and on top of that we also ordered the crab cream croquette ✅

Food review at Makise Hapjeong

Nutty pickled radish side dish & jangguk (soup). The soup felt more like a rich soybean-paste-based broth than the light, mild miso soup you usually get at Japanese places. Personally I loved that it was saltier and had more of that soybean-paste aroma — so good!

And the kaisendon arrived fast ❤️ Look at that color... ✨✨✨✨

The types of sashimi on the kaisendon

Makise's kaisendon comes topped with quite a variety of sashimi — salmon, soy-marinated shrimp, tuna, mackerel, uni, and more, almost 10 kinds — perfect for eating together with the rice.

The extra sashimi we ordered ❤️ Honestly, the kaisendon already has so many kinds of sashimi on it that you probably don't even need to add more! But it's so delicious that I still highly recommend adding it on 👍

We were about to really dig in when the staff brought me a hair tie to tie my hair up..❤️ Isn't that so kind!! These little touches of service are what get me ✨

You can really tell just by looking that Makise's sashimi is all thick-cut and totally fresh, right??? Not a hint of fishiness — it just melts in your mouth.

You can eat it like this, sashimi laid on top of rice like sushi,

or good wrapped in seaweed too — either way it's all delicious. It really melts in your mouth, and even our princess, who's a picky eater, kept going wow~ wow~ hahaha.

Cheese katsu and crab cream croquette

The set menu comes with cheese katsu, and we also additionally ordered the crab cream croquette!

The crab cream croquette was insane... completely soft, nutty, and creamy — a croquette even kids could easily eat! When it starts to feel a bit rich, a bite of pickled radish cleans your palate so you can keep going strong ❤️

The cheese katsu was also so soft, clearly packed with mozzarella cheese inside! We dipped it in honey, and the honey + katsu combo was surprisingly amazing!! So sweet and just the best combo ever ❤️

The complimentary grilled salmon head

And then the owner gave us... a grilled salmon head, on the house!!!!! You know how much I love this!!!!!! I can't believe they gave us this precious thing for free!!!!!!

The meat was soft, warm, and absolutely delicious.. They even kindly tipped us off to make sure we ate the cheek meat too hahahahahahahahaha Well of course!!! I'm eating it!!!!!

Wow, we really ordered a lot.. but seriously every single thing was so good that we cleaned every plate.. My boyfriend was totally satisfied with today's meal too ❤️ From now on, whenever I want kaisendon, I'm coming back to Makise in Hapjeong!!!!! If you ever find yourself in Hapjeong, I genuinely, highly recommend it — you have to go 🍀🍀