Mapo sushi restaurant with paced service: Danya at Seoul Garden Hotel

I was craving some delicious sushi omakase, so I went to Danya at Seoul Garden Hotel. Maybe because it is an omakase restaurant inside a hotel, but the atmosphere felt incredibly luxurious from the start ✨

Location and reservations at Danya at Seoul Garden Hotel

Seoul Garden Hotel is a 3-minute walk from Exit 3 of Mapo Station and a 7-minute walk from Exits 8 and 9 of Gongdeok Station. Danya, the Japanese restaurant where you can have sushi omakase, is on basement level 1!

When you enter Seoul Garden Hotel, you can see the elevators straight ahead, plus a standing sign, so it is not hard to find haha. Just head down to B1. The chef was the runner-up in a nationwide Japanese cuisine competition!!

Since it is inside a hotel, the entrance itself already felt so upscale haha. I came for sushi omakase, but I was excited from the moment I saw the entrance lol

What was dining at the counter like?

Danya, the Japanese restaurant at Seoul Garden Hotel, has tables for groups as well as counter seating. It is strictly reservation-only, so I visited after making a reservation, and we ate at the counter haha.

There were about three parties of two visiting, you know? They seated us with space between each party, so it was comfortable even at the counter. Maybe because it is in a hotel, but the staff were genuinely kind, and the service quality just felt different!! The pot held cool roasted corn tea haha.

Danya omakase course options

Danya’s omakase courses are divided into lunch, dinner, premium, and VIP. You can choose your course when reserving! (No mandatory alcohol order.)

Dinner sushi omakase lineup and drinks

• Dinner sushi omakase, ₩85,000 per person: 3 appetizers – steamed abalone – sashimi – 10 pieces of sushi – a signature dish – meal – dessert
• Yuzu sour, ₩13,000
• Terra Non-Alcohol, ₩7,000

My companion had the yuzu sour and said the yuzu aroma was lovely, while I had the Terra Non-Alcohol. Wow, a non-alcoholic beer can taste this good!? I had some Cass or something before and did not love it, but I think I will be drinking Terra Non-Alcohol from now on lol

We had a 6 p.m. reservation and entered 10 minutes early, so I photographed them in the middle of getting ready haha. The courses come out one by one, from the appetizers to dessert! This dinner sushi omakase was so substantial, so I will introduce it in as much detail as possible~

Three appetizers and steamed abalone

These were the first dishes to arrive. From the left, there was steamed egg, tomato, and fig with cream cheese. The yellow part of the steamed egg was egg yolk, and it was fluffy, with the rich flavor of yolk turned all the way up haha. The tomato was super sweet, and perhaps because figs were in season, they were incredibly sweet too and went so well with the cream cheese.

Abalone is something you cannot leave out of omakase!! The sauce for the steamed abalone was crab sauce, not geu-woo sauce, so the savory umami was even more insane. The abalone was tender, and I scraped up every last bit of sauce lol.

Five kinds of sashimi and 10 pieces of sushi

Here are the five kinds of sashimi: flounder, sea bass, horse mackerel, croaker, and red sea bream. Dipped in a little soy sauce and wasabi, they tasted so fresh and delicious ㅜㅜ

Before the sushi course began, they brought us clear soup first. It even had blue crab in it, making it taste even more refreshing, and of course the umami was no joke haha.

The 10 pieces of sushi, in photo order, were flounder, sea bass, croaker, red sea bream, striped jack, bluefin tuna, salmon, gamtae (seaweed) negitoro, scallop, and futomaki (thick sushi roll). The sushi rice was already seasoned, so you can simply eat it without dipping it in soy sauce!

The first five were the same fish as the five sashimi, but they tasted so, so much better as sushi. The zest on top of the scallop was fragrant and made it even tastier. The fish was high quality and the rice was light and fluffy, and every combination was delicious—I was happy with every bite ㅜㅜ

Signature dish, meal, and dessert

They told me what the fish in the bisque sauce was, but I do not know what it was ㅜㅜ The bisque sauce was delicious, so whatever it was, I just put it right in my mouth haha.

For the meal, we had a small tendon (tempura rice bowl) and udon. The tempura on top of the tendon was eel, and the seasoning was just right! The udon had noodles more like kalguksu (knife-cut noodle soup) than typical udon noodles, with a strong katsuobushi (dried bonito) flavor.

Once you have finished the meal, they serve green tea, and you can choose iced or hot. Even the dessert was seriously crazy good ㅜㅜ It was cheesecake topped with figs. The intensely rich cream-cheese flavor made my eyes go wide—I honestly wanted to eat a whole pan of it.

Course service paced for each party

What I liked most at Danya at Seoul Garden Hotel was that they served food according to each party’s dining pace! Usually, when several parties eat together at a counter, you sometimes end up waiting for the next course, right?

My companion and I were among the fastest eaters compared with the other parties lol, but they kept bringing food according to each party’s pace!! So we could eat comfortably on our own without having to wait for anyone else haha. Thanks to that, our party finished first, and the whole meal took about 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Final thoughts on Danya dinner in Mapo

If you want delicious sushi omakase somewhere with a lovely atmosphere, I think the lunch course would be amazing value for money!! The quality was clearly different from most inexpensive sushi omakase places, so I highly recommend Danya at Seoul Garden Hotel if you are looking for great sushi omakase in Mapo haha. I had such a happy time!!