Rolling extra-long fish over rice, bite by bite: Yu Iksang Sushi

I was craving sushi, so I went to Yu Iksang Sushi in Hongdae.

Extra-long fish sushi — how long is it, really?

What made me curious about this place in the first place was the sushi with the extra-long fish. As the name suggests, the fish hangs long off the sushi, so I wondered just how long it would actually be — and once I got my plate, it stood out even more than I expected. Especially the flounder and salmon. Instead of the usual sushi where the fish sits neatly on top of the rice, the fish here trails way out past the rice, so it felt different from the very first look!

What comes in the Couple A Plus set

This time I ordered the Couple A Plus menu. I thought it would just be sushi, but it came with soba, soup, cabbage salad, and fried shrimp too! While waiting for the sushi I had some soba and a piece of fried shrimp, and with the sides included it turned out to be a more filling meal than I expected. Our table had a bit of blue lighting shining on it, so most of my photos ended up looking like they had a blue filter on them, haha.

After a short wait the main sushi set arrived. With so many different kinds of sushi on the plate all at once, I honestly didn't know what to eat first, haha.

The lineup was flounder x4, salmon x2, tuna x4, grilled roll x2, garlic mackerel aburi x2, garlic shrimp aburi x4, tamago aburi x2, beef x2, baby octopus aburi x2, and scallop aburi x2. With such a wide variety, it was fun picking through them one by one.

Rolling the long fish over the rice for one bite

Still, what I was most curious about from the start was the flounder and salmon — the extra-long sushi itself...!!

I tried the flounder first, and the fish was so much bigger than I expected that I wondered if I should just eat it in one go. But since I like eating fish and rice together, I rolled the long fish over the rice and took one big bite. And it actually worked out great! Once it was all in my mouth, it felt like the fish filled every corner.

With regular sushi, the rice and fish usually come in a balanced ratio in one bite, but here, since the fish is long and thick, it definitely felt like I was eating a lot more fish. Even while chewing, the fish had a real presence. The flounder had a clean flavor with that signature chewy texture, and I really liked it.

Flounder vs. salmon: same long sushi, different feel

I also tried the salmon, and I liked it too. Where the flounder was clean and light, the salmon was soft and rich, so even though both were the same style of long sushi, the experience was different.

Salmon is already one of my favorite kinds of sushi, so getting a mouthful of that long fish made it taste even better. Eating it this way made me realize that the 'extra-long sushi' isn't just an unusual shape for the sake of it — because the fish hangs so long, the actual amount of fish you get in one bite is just different!

If you're like me and prefer sushi with more fish piled on than rice, I think this style would really suit you.

From aburi to tamago and beef — fun to pick through

The Couple A Plus set didn't stop at just flounder and salmon — it also included tuna, several kinds of aburi (torched) sushi, tamago, beef, baby octopus, and scallop, so I picked through the other pieces in between too.

Going from raw sushi to a torched piece gave a completely different feel each time, and there were even non-fish sushi like tamago and beef, so there ended up being a surprising variety to work through. Sharing pieces between the two of us and going 'wait, what's this one?' was part of the fun too. Before I knew it, we had eaten almost everything — and then, at the end, we got a surprise we hadn't expected.

A surprise eggplant sushi on the house

The owner gave us eggplant sushi on the house. It was my first time trying eggplant sushi, so I was curious how it would taste — and it turned out to be really good too. The eggplant was soft and paired well with the sushi rice. Even though I was already pretty full from all the other sushi, it was so good that I finished it off cleanly.

Small gestures like this might seem minor, but receiving one right at the end of a meal really does put you in a good mood. That day, not only was the food delicious, but the owner was kind too. I felt comfortable throughout the whole meal, and having the eggplant sushi added at the end made me walk out feeling even better than I already did.

Looking back on my visit to Yu Iksang Sushi, what stays with me most is that first long piece of fish I saw. At first I thought, wow, that's really long — but once I rolled it over the rice and took a bite, the way it filled my mouth felt surprisingly good. The flounder and salmon especially gave that generous, fish-forward feeling that I really liked. There was plenty of variety in the other sushi too, so I got to try a bit of everything, and with the soba and fried shrimp on top, it was more than enough for a full meal. And with the eggplant sushi on the house at the end, that meal stuck in my memory as an especially good one :)

If you're craving sushi in Hongdae and want something a little different from the usual, Yu Iksang Sushi with its extra-long sushi could be a fun choice. If I go back, I'd start again with the flounder and salmon I enjoyed so much this time. At first I was just curious because it looked unusual, but after actually eating it, the fish was thick enough that getting a full mouthful in one bite was genuinely fun. Delicious sushi, a surprise eggplant sushi on the house, and a kind owner on top of it all — that was Yu Iksang Sushi, the Hongdae sushi spot that left me walking out in a good mood.