Weekday dinner: 26-piece aburi sushi with white sauce, Yu Iksang Sushi

I've always loved sushi, and when the craving suddenly hit me again, I went looking for a good spot and landed on Yu Iksang Sushi, a well-known sushi restaurant in Hongdae. The quality looked seriously good from what I could find, so I rushed right over. Perfect timing too, since I was starving....

Fully booked even on a weekday evening, mostly counter seating

I came on a weekday evening and there were only 2 seats left — everything else was full. Lucky timing on my part, but it seems like waits can happen during peak hours.

There were plenty of couples on dates and families eating together. With so many guests around, I could only snap interior photos once things cleared out near the end.

The inside is pretty compact but genuinely feels like a real sushi spot in Japan. Seating is mostly counter (dachi) seats where you can relax and enjoy the meal, with about 2 regular tables as well.

What's on the menu?

Once I sat down and looked over the menu, there were quite a lot of sushi-related options — the signature couple sets, single-type sushi, sashimi, and rolls too. Everything looked delicious, so after some deliberation I went with the Couple A-Plus set, which lets you enjoy a bit of everything in a generous spread. The Couple A-Plus I ordered comes to 26 pieces total, letting you taste a wide variety of sushi all at once.

There's also a range of value set menus.

There's single-type sushi, half-and-half sushi, and more, so you can order exactly to your taste.

The 26-piece Couple A-Plus lineup

What I ordered came out to: 4 pieces flounder, 2 salmon, 4 tuna, 2 grilled rolls, 2 garlic mackerel aburi, 4 garlic shrimp aburi, 2 tamago aburi, 2 beef, 2 baby octopus aburi, and 2 scallop aburi. That's... an insane amount. It really is a hefty, generous spread.

• Couple A-Plus ₩56,000
• Total ₩56,000

The appetizers that come standard

While I was working through the appetizers they'd brought out ahead of time, the sushi arrived.

The cabbage salad that comes standard! Soft and fresh, and really tasty. The dressing is sweet and nutty.

Jangguk (savory broth) and cold soba

The warm, savory jangguk and the refreshingly sweet cold soba are perfect for waking up your appetite. The cold soba in particular was really delicious.

Shrimp tempura

They also gave us shrimp tempura, freshly fried so it was warm and super crispy — genuinely delicious. It's tasty enough to eat plain too, and not greasy at all,,

So how does the homemade white sauce aburi sushi taste?

Couple A-Plus, ₩56,000. The portion was even bigger than I expected!

Looking closely at the sushi, the aburi pieces are loaded with homemade white sauce, topped with crunchy tempura bits on top of that. Overall it's a pretty rich, thick style of sushi, and it hit my exact taste.

They apparently make the sauce on the aburi sushi in-house, and it really was smooth, nutty, and subtly sweet — delicious. There were also little bits of cheese mixed into the sauce, chewy and adding real depth of flavor. So good.

The tempura crumbs on top stayed crispy all the way to the end of the meal, even while clinging to the thick sauce, which I loved. And overall the rice portion wasn't excessive, with the toppings and fish on top being much more generous — very satisfying.

A shrimp-and-cream-sauce combo that just can't fail....

Each piece was so good I lost track of time eating.

That roll on the left was huge too. There was cabbage and something else inside, but I was too busy eating to fully register it...

That tamago (egg) sushi was so fluffy and moist, really tasty. The photo on the right shows the cheese bits inside the sauce — that's the real kicker. Anyway, all the aburi sushi was so creamy and soft that I'd highly recommend it if you're into creamy, thick textures like me.

The raw sushi has long tails

The raw sushi pieces were all fresh and soft-textured too, with a great melting feel in the mouth. The flounder and salmon sushi in particular had incredibly long tails. The tails were so long and the pieces so large that they barely fit in one bite — striking both visually and in texture.

Perfect for refreshing your palate in between bites of the rich aburi sushi.

My favorite by far was the salmon... it was genuinely huge, big enough for a full mouthful, which I loved.

So fresh it melted right away! Topped with flying fish roe, onion, and sauce.

Partway through, they gave us a complimentary fried eggplant sushi on the house — it was soft enough to melt in your mouth and had wonderful umami.

The portion was genuinely huge, but somehow we cleared it all. Getting to properly enjoy that thick sauce combo I love alongside fresh sushi was so satisfying.

To sum up

Yu Iksang Sushi, a well-known sushi restaurant in Hongdae! I tried the generous 26-piece Couple A-Plus, packed with flounder, salmon, tuna, and various aburi sushi — perfect for two people to eat until stuffed. The portion was huge, each piece of fish generous, and the quality was great. The aburi sushi sauce in particular, sweet, nutty, and creamy, hit my exact taste. Highly recommend if you're looking for a good sushi restaurant in Hongdae!