Mapo restaurant for perilla-leaf raw beef wraps: Usijang Hoegwan

There are plenty of good places to eat near Mapo Station, with so many office workers around. This time, I came across a slightly unusual pairing: raw beef sashimi and clam beef gukbap. Usijang Hoegwan (우시장회관) in Mapo is a very walkable three minutes from Exit 3 of Mapo Station, or 10 minutes from Exit 9 of Gongdeok Station.

Usijang Hoegwan in a Dohwa-dong alley

You will find Usijang Hoegwan after leaving Mapo Station and heading into the Dohwa-dong alleys. Even the name feels somehow comforting. Rather than a flashy, formal beef restaurant, it has the friendly feel of a place where you pop in casually for gukbap, then end up ordering meat and drinks too.

Since Mapo and Gongdeok are packed with offices, it is a great fit for a quick drink after work or a Mapo Station company dinner. Another plus is the wide choice of dishes, from gukbap right through to meat.

We chose the perilla-leaf yukhoesimi spread (₩55,000) and clam beef gukbap! I do not usually go out of my way for yukhoe (Korean beef tartare) or raw beef sashimi, but this is the house signature, so I was looking forward to it.

How I ate the perilla-leaf raw beef spread

The basic side dishes arrived right away. The kimchi was nicely fermented, while the kkakdugi (cubed radish kimchi) had such a crisp texture and refreshing taste that I kept reaching for it. There were also salty, spicy pickled chili peppers, which freshened up the palate alongside the meat.

A large tray arrived loaded with appetizing raw beef sashimi, yukhoe, and an assortment of sides. There was sesame oil sauce, gochujang (Korean chili paste), herring roe, salted hairtail innards, dried radish strips, pickled gungchae stems, chilies, garlic, and more to eat alongside it. Rice comes with the set too, so you can top the raw beef sashimi and wrap it with whichever ingredients you like.

They use kkuritsal, a cut from the cow's foreleg, for the raw beef sashimi here. Because it is a hard-working area, it is relatively lean and known for its beefy flavor and chew. The slices came large and wide.

First, I tried it without piling on too many extras. It was clean-tasting, with a subtle nutty beef aroma that emerged as I chewed. Unlike the rich nuttiness of fatty beef, it went down very neatly.

The raw beef sashimi wrap the owner showed me

At first, I paused to wonder what exactly I should put together, but the owner demonstrated it herself. Lay out a perilla leaf, add raw beef sashimi and herring roe, then dried radish strips, salted hairtail innards, gochujang, radish sprouts, and wasabi! That is how you make one properly loaded wrap.

Then, at the end, give it a good dip in the deeply flavored sesame oil! They said it is pressed at a mill, and the aroma really is intense. The moment it goes into your mouth, salty, spicy, and nutty flavors all arrive at once, while the mild raw beef sashimi keeps everything grounded. What could have been a little plain turns into something completely different with all those ingredients. The yukhoe was chewy yet tender too.

After the raw beef sashimi arrived and I had a wrap fragrant with sesame oil... we ended up ordering beer. Having a drink with food like this after work feels like it would melt away the day's fatigue.

Beef gukbap piled high with clams

The gukbap that appeared a little later was no less impressive. It was Usijang Hoegwan's signature clam beef gukbap, with a generous heap of clams on top of an otherwise classic beef gukbap.

The deep, substantial flavor typical of beef gukbap was joined by the cool, clean taste of the clams. The broth was rich, but its finish was surprisingly clean. The rice was already mixed in, so all I had to do was scoop up hot spoonfuls right away.

Where gukbap and a beef restaurant meet

Perhaps because it is in Mapo, I spotted international diners that day too. But what was fun was the owner: when foreign guests came in, she naturally greeted them in English or Chinese. She explained the menu and traded jokes while cheerfully serving them, which made the whole restaurant feel even livelier.

In a word, Usijang Hoegwan is a place that playfully combines the strengths of a gukbap restaurant and a beef restaurant.

• If you are looking for a restaurant near Mapo Station
• If you want hot gukbap and beef together
• If you want raw beef sashimi and a drink after work
• If you need an easy company-dinner spot for a group
• If you are looking for a slightly different Mapo Station beef restaurant

It is worth a visit. If you are wondering what to eat around Mapo Station today, how about Usijang Hoegwan, where you can have gukbap, beef, and raw beef sashimi all in one meal? It was a fun Dohwa-dong Mapo Station spot for a filling meal and a drink.