Magok hitsumabushi special with tomato tsukemono: Una Magok

I had a reason to eat in the Magok area, and this time I wanted something a bit more properly traditional — Japanese-style grilled eel rice — so I visited Una (UNA), a well-known spot near LG Arts Center in Magok. It's close enough to the venue to make a good pre- or post-show meal, and rather than the usual sweet eel rice bowl, it's a hitsumabushi specialist doing it the Nagoya way, with several ways to eat it — that's what made me curious.

Where Una Magok is, plus hours and parking

Una Magok is on the first floor of K-Square Magok Tower 2, 105-7 Magokjungang-ro, Gangseo-gu, Seoul. It's open daily from 11:20 to 22:00, with a break time from 15:00 to 17:00, and reservations can be made through Naver Reservations. Free parking is available inside the building.

The exterior is quite clean-looking. Just the UNA logo set against a black wood-tone wall, so it stood out even from a distance.

There's a menu board right by the entrance, so you can check the menu and prices before going in.

Inside Una Magok: interior and seating

The inside of Una Magok was calmer and more upscale than I expected — dark wood tones overall, lighting that isn't too harsh, comfortable for a meal. Besides the regular tables, there's also sofa-style seating, so two people can sit with plenty of room.

There's also a separate, spacious table area, which looks good for a family meal or a group visit. If you're looking for a restaurant near LG Arts Center in Magok to eat at before a show, the upscale mood here is a nice bonus.

Ordering the hitsumabushi special and tomato tsukemono

Una is said to be a modern reinterpretation of hitsumabushi, the traditional grilled eel rice bowl from Nagoya, Japan. The menu lets you choose your eel portion — 0.5, 1, or 1.5 servings — and there are other options too, like tori mabushi (chicken) or mero mabushi (Patagonian toothfish). We ordered the hitsumabushi special and the hitsumabushi tomato tsukemono.

After ordering, everything arrived neatly arranged on one tray, and it looked quite generous from the start.

The eel was layered neatly on top of the rice, and you could clearly see the grilled, browned surface. It wasn't the type where the sauce soaks the rice underneath — instead you taste the grilled aroma of the eel alongside the sauce, which I liked, since it wasn't overly sweet from the first bite.

The side dishes that came with it were also tidy overall.

The pickles were good for resetting your palate between bites of eel, and there was plenty of wasabi served separately so you could adjust it to taste.

Small side dishes good for pairing mid-meal were also neatly arranged on the tray, so the spread never felt sparse. The surface of the eel was lightly crisp with a tender interior — even the skin was well grilled, so it should be easy to eat even for people who dislike the usual mushy texture of eel. Taking a big spoonful of rice and eel together, the glossy eel meat mixed with the sauce, and it was the kind of combination that made me stop taking photos and just eat another bite.

How to eat hitsumabushi: which combination tasted best

Hitsumabushi isn't a dish you eat the same way from start to finish.

Personally, the second method suited me best. Eel itself is a fatty food, so after a few bites it can start to feel heavy, but adding perilla leaf and scallion really brought the aroma back to life. Add a bit of wasabi on top and the sweetness gets cut through, making it much cleaner. Mixing in a generous amount of dried seaweed flakes gave a completely different taste from just eel and rice alone.

Finishing with ochazuke and cold tomato tsukemono

And the real fun of hitsumabushi is the ochazuke at the end. You leave a bit of rice and eel, then pour broth over it.

At first I thought pouring broth over eel rice seemed like a waste, but once I tried it, I understood why it's eaten this way.

The eel's sauce naturally dissolves into the broth, turning it into a warm, light, soupy rice.

And at the very end, a tomato tsukemono (pickle) to cleanse the palate! This turned out to be surprisingly good. After eating eel, my mouth still had a slightly greasy feeling left, but finishing with the cool tomato wrapped the meal up perfectly.

Is Una Magok worth pairing with an LG Arts Center show?

There are so many restaurants in Magok these days, but if you like eel and want to enjoy it in a different, proper way, this is a place worth remembering. It's not just a bowl of eel rice — the process of adding toppings and making your own ochazuke made the meal itself pretty fun. Above all, the clean interior mood makes it a safe choice for a date or family meal, and it pairs well with a trip to LG Arts Center.

If you're looking for a Japanese restaurant near LG Arts Center in Magok, or craving traditional Japanese grilled eel rice, hitsumabushi, Una is worth a stop. Personally, the combination with perilla leaf, scallion, and wasabi, plus the final ochazuke, stuck with me more than eating the eel plain.