Gongdeok hanwoo restaurant with truffle bulgogi sandwich: Usu

Hi, this is your food blogger! I wanted a slightly special meal to celebrate my birthday, so I visited Usu, a course-dining restaurant near Gongdeok that I'd been wanting to try for ages — always saying "next time, next time" until this great opportunity finally came along. Every single seat here is a private room, so it was quiet and cozy, perfect for an intimate meal haha.

Where is Usu in Gongdeok, and is there parking?

Usu is right in front of Gongdeok Station, so it was super easy to find, and there's an underground parking lot too, so no worries about parking even if you drive. They offer 3 hours of free parking with no limit on the number of cars. The Usu store itself is on basement level 2!

Inside Usu: private rooms for two

The interior of Usu felt genuinely upscale and refined. I heard a lot of people actually come here for family gatherings or important meals, and looking at the vibe, it would suit a Korean in-law meeting restaurant in Seoul really well too. This private atmosphere is the best.

Usu's menu and what comes in the Dinner B course (90g)

We had the Dinner B course that day. There's a lunch course and a dinner course, and within the courses you can also choose the gram weight of the hanwoo (Korean beef) served in the chef's-choice portion. We booked the B course at 90g for two people.

Before the course started, they showed us the ingredients being used that day — everything from hanwoo to seafood to vegetables — so we could see the actual ingredients firsthand and start the meal looking forward to what dishes were coming.

The moment the lid opened, smoke swept out and I was basically mesmerized listening to the explanation. It felt like its own kind of performance, which made it feel extra special haha.

Since we booked for a birthday, they prepared birthday sparkling wine and two glasses of grape juice. Having grape juice ready too, for people who don't drink, made it easy to get into the birthday mood together.

First course: ugyejinjuk, hanwoo and chicken rice porridge

The first dish was ugyejinjuk. It's a rice porridge made with a rich broth simmered from hanwoo bone stock and chicken, topped with nurungji (crispy scorched rice), scallion crust, and shiitake mushroom. The smooth porridge was layered with the deep, savory flavor of the broth, and the added ingredients gave it texture too — a great dish to kick off the real course.

Three bite-sized dishes, including the truffle bulgogi sandwich

Next came three bite-sized dishes. I was genuinely surprised by how pretty the plating was. And it felt like the timing of the courses was paced to match how fast we were eating? It never felt rushed, and we also never sat waiting too long after finishing — the pacing was really good!

The first was a bulgogi sandwich made with brioche, hanwoo bulgogi, and truffle cream cheese. The truffle scent that hit me the moment I took a bite still sticks in my memory. The combination worked really well in one bite. Adding the truffle flavor made it feel quite different from a regular bulgogi sandwich.

The second was scallop and clam — brick pastry with grilled scallop and a clam cream sauce, plus apple, onion, and gamtae (seaweed) powder. The crunchy pastry contrasted nicely with the tender scallop, and the apple and onion added a subtle sweetness that cleanly balanced the seafood flavor.

The third was sweet shrimp gim bugak (crispy seaweed) — grilled sweet shrimp topped with pollack roe, paired with yuzu sauce. The crunchy gim bugak, sweet shrimp, and the bright citrus scent of yuzu made this one stand out most among the three bites. Even someone who doesn't usually enjoy raw shrimp ate this one happily.

Shiitake mushroom with shrimp and zucchini

I really enjoyed this one too — shrimp with top-grade shiitake mushroom, zucchini, aged kimchi, and golden enoki mushroom, paired with a peanut tofu sauce. The shiitake aroma and the clean taste of the shrimp got a refreshing lift from the aged kimchi here and there, and the nutty peanut tofu sauce tied the whole thing together smoothly. That tofu sauce was seriously delicious — I basically scraped the plate clean.

Midway through, my partner ordered a highball! Apparently it had quite a strong alcohol taste haha. It seemed to pair really well with the course, and I wanted one too, but couldn't join in since I was driving. Oh, and by the way, this Gongdeok restaurant Usu is corkage-free!! If you have a favorite drink, feel free to bring it along and pair it with the meal.

Yukhoe gamtae: beef tartare with seaweed

This is a dish to look forward to if you love hanwoo. I love yukhoe (beef tartare) too, so I was really looking forward to this one. It's yukhoe paired with a house-made aioli sauce, fried nurungji, pickled Chinese artichoke, and a cured egg. The savory sauce added to the tender yukhoe, and the fried nurungji gave it a crunchy texture, making it feel much more layered than eating yukhoe on its own. I'm not usually a fan of gamtae, but here its aroma paired really well with the savory richness of the hanwoo.

Tilefish course

The tilefish served as part of the dinner course also came out. It's tilefish paired with barley and chamnamul (aster) rice, mullet roe, and a neungi mushroom broth. Tasting the broth on its own felt unfamiliar — rich and salty — but once combined with the cleanly grilled tilefish, the fragrant neungi broth brought out a real savory depth, and eating fish with rice together gave it a distinctly Korean-food feel. This is a combination that anyone looking for a great traditional Korean restaurant in Seoul would enjoy.

1++ hanwoo tteokgalbi (grilled beef patty)

Next was 1++ hanwoo tteokgalbi (grilled short rib patty)!! The moment this dish arrived, the smell was... wow. My partner and I locked eyes, both in wide-eyed mode haha. It's paired with crushed pistachio, celeriac purée, and fried shiitake mushroom, with white balsamic sauce and basil oil. The tteokgalbi itself was tender with a deep hanwoo flavor, and the nutty pistachio and basil oil aroma worked really well together. It kept what could easily be a heavy dish tasting clean.

Abalone with five-color gardenia noodles

This dish caught my eye visually right away — abalone five-color gardenia noodles. It's built on abalone and gardenia-dyed noodles, topped with garnishes like black sesame julienned radish, bracken fern, and shiitake mushroom, served with gamtae dressing and a mustard-garlic sauce. It felt a bit like eating a cold pasta, and while I didn't expect much, the umami was better than I thought, the sauce was tasty, and it went really well with the noodles — I ended up loving this one.

Main event: hanwoo grilled at the table with a bansang side dish set

The 1++ hanwoo sirloin came out to be grilled on a personal tabletop grill. Being able to grill it to your own preferred doneness meant I could enjoy it slowly, watching the meat as it cooked. After all the varied dishes before it, this felt like the moment we finally got to properly taste the hanwoo!! The flow of the course, building to this highlight, was great.

Along with the grilled hanwoo, a hanwoo seaweed soup bansang set also came out, which paired nicely with the beef. Visiting on my birthday, this made it feel even more like a proper birthday meal — the kind of thing that just naturally boosts the mood haha.

Birthday dessert and jasmine tea at Usu

The basic dessert was made up of corn ice cream, corn crumble cheese, apricot, corn cream ball, sponge cake, and green tangerine cream sauce. From the description alone it sounded like it might just look like a scoop of ice cream, but what arrived was a complete surprise.

I've always liked corn desserts, so the subtly sweet corn ice cream paired with the refreshing green tangerine and apricot felt unique and delicious haha. Completely my taste.

Since we visited to celebrate a birthday, they also prepared a separate birthday dessert just for the occasion. Between the sparkling wine, grape juice, and now dessert, they really helped us feel a proper birthday dinner atmosphere!!!

Lastly, they prepared a nice jasmine tea to finish with, which made the whole dessert course even more satisfying. The dessert spread was so pretty I took a ton of photos hahaha. And to finish, that jasmine tea was perfect for cleansing the palate!

Which occasions suit Usu in Gongdeok?

Overall, Usu used not just hanwoo but seafood like abalone, tilefish, sweet shrimp, and scallop, plus a variety of vegetables, in nearly every dish — so even as a Korean-style course, the menu never felt monotonous. There's a reason it's counted among the go-to restaurants near Gongdeok.

Above all, being able to dine in a private room is a huge advantage, which makes it well suited not just for anniversaries but also meals with parents, family gatherings, or occasions like a Korean in-law meeting where conversation matters. In actual reviews, it's often mentioned as a spot for in-law meetings or family meals in Seoul!!

If you want to enjoy a course meal in a quiet space on a special day like a birthday, this Gongdeok restaurant Usu is well worth checking out. With its location near Gongdeok Station and private rooms, it suits not just people looking for good food near Gongdeok but also anyone searching for a Korean in-law meeting restaurant in Seoul for a special occasion. Enjoying the Dinner B course for my birthday at Usu near Gongdeok, with its variety of Korean dishes and hanwoo grill all in one sitting, made for a memorable evening.