Jongno sushi restaurant, a 20-min walk from Deoksugung: Choe Uyeong

Last weekend my husband and I visited the Lee Dae-won exhibition at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Deoksugung, and afterward stopped by Choe Uyeong Sushiya Jongno Branch, a sushi restaurant near Jongak Station. It's about a 20-minute walk from Deoksugung, which made for a nice stroll on a good-weather day. This is a review of everything we tried: the top-grade kaisendon piled high with thick cuts of raw fish, the premium 17-piece sushi set, and the mixed tempura with its memorable sweet rice cake and sweet potato.

From the Deoksugung exhibition to Jongak: a half-day Gwanghwamun route

Last weekend my husband and I went to see the Lee Dae-won exhibition currently on at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Deoksugung. The title, 'Nothing Makes You Sad,' seemed to promise a kind of warm comfort, so I was curious about it. The weather was great too, so we wandered around Deoksugung and enjoyed a leisurely weekend outing.

After the exhibition we naturally started looking for somewhere to eat nearby. Since the weather was so nice, we decided to walk a bit rather than eat right around Deoksugung. That's how we found Choe Uyeong Sushiya Jongno Branch, a sushi restaurant near Jongak Station. It was about a 20-minute walk from Deoksugung and close to Kyobo Book Centre in Gwanghwamun, making it easy to browse the bookstore after the meal. Combining the exhibition, lunch, and the bookstore made for a pretty full half-day Gwanghwamun date.

Basic store info

• 📍 Address: 7 Jongno 5-gil, B1, Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea (235m from Jongak Station Exit 1)
• ⏰ Hours: Daily 11:00–21:30 / break time 15:00–17:00 / last order 21:00
• 🚗 2 hours free parking
• ✔ Takeout/delivery available
• ✔ Group bookings possible
• ✔ Corkage available (₩3,000 per bottle)

Basement floor of Tower8: finding the place

Choe Uyeong Sushiya Jongno Branch is located on the basement floor of Tower8 near Jongak. Once inside the building, you can easily take the elevator down to the restaurant. Even on a weekend, the basement of the office building was kept very clean. Here's a look inside :)

Interior and seating

The interior is done mostly in white and wood tones, softened with warm lighting and plants — much cleaner and more comfortable than your typical casual sushi spot.

What stood out especially was the variety of seating. There were open tables for groups, tables with high partitions, and bar-style seating where you sit in a row. The partitioned seats weren't fully enclosed rooms, but you barely noticed other tables while eating, which gave a subtly private feel.

The bar-style seats each had an ordering tablet, so dining alone looked totally comfortable there. For office workers around Jongak or Gwanghwamun, it seemed like a good option for a solo lunch spot near Jongak, or for a light solo drink with sushi after work.

At the entrance there was a large screen for takeout orders. You could order and pick up your food without having to speak to staff, which looked pretty convenient.

The menu and what we ordered

Here's the menu at Choe Uyeong Sushiya Jongno Branch. It covers everything from sashimi to sushi sets, individual sushi pieces, kaisendon (seafood rice bowl), and tempura.

Ordering was done through the tablet at the table. We ordered three things in total.

• Mixed tempura ₩13,000
• Top-grade kaisendon ₩25,000
• Premium sushi set, 17 pieces ₩33,000

It was a pretty generous amount for two people, but ordering just the sushi and kaisendon felt like it wasn't quite enough, so we added the mixed tempura too.

Premium sushi set, 17 pieces, ₩33,000 — what's in it?

The first thing that caught my eye was the premium sushi set, arriving on a long plate filled edge to edge. The name sounded quite grand, so I was curious what was inside — and sure enough it included ingredients I'd normally order individually, like sea urchin roe, abalone, scallop, and bluefin tuna.

From red shrimp topped with sea urchin roe, to scallop, abalone, ankimo (monkfish liver) on squid, tamagoyaki (grilled egg), eel, sea urchin roe, negitoro gunkan, salmon, red seabream, bluefin tuna, and flounder fin sushi — a single plate let us taste many different kinds.

What I especially liked was that similar pieces never repeated, so it was fun picking through the whole plate. The fish on top of the sushi had a visible sheen and went down cleanly with no fishy smell. It wasn't sliced too thin either, so you could really feel the softness and elasticity of each fish.

The eel had a rich, sweet flavor that stood out, and the white fish had a light yet chewy texture, so each ingredient clearly had its own charm.

We got to try a wide range of premium ingredients, including the soft squid topped with ankimo that my husband loves, along with abalone and red shrimp piled generously with sea urchin roe. The sea urchin roe in particular was smooth and nutty with no fishiness or bitterness — very satisfying.

Top-grade kaisendon, ₩25,000 — thickness of the fish and the seasoning of the rice

The second dish was the top-grade kaisendon, and both my husband and I were impressed by how it looked. Salmon, tuna, shrimp, white fish, sea urchin roe, negitoro, eel, and seaweed were all layered on top of the bowl.

The rice underneath was barely visible under such a generous pile of raw fish — it looked delicious the moment it landed on the table.

With kaisendon, even if the variety is good, it can be a bit disappointing if the fish is thin or small. Here, each piece of fish was quite thick, so it had real presence when you took a bite.

Personally, what impressed me most about the top-grade kaisendon was the rice. The seasoning wasn't too sweet or too sour, but it also wasn't bland like plain rice — it had just the right weight to pair well with the raw fish.

With sushi or kaisendon, the seasoning and texture of the rice matter just as much as the freshness of the fish. At Choe Uyeong Sushiya Jongno Branch, the rice never overpowered the fish, so together they were well balanced — you could tell they put just as much care into the rice as the fish.

It was also delicious to wrap a bit of rice, negitoro, and raw fish in the seaweed like a small hand roll.

Mixed tempura, ₩13,000 — the real kick was the sweet rice cake tempura

The mixed tempura we had between the sushi and kaisendon was also a hit. Shrimp, sweet potato, sweet rice cake, and more all came together on one plate. Rather than a thick, heavy batter, it was closer to light Japanese-style tempura with a delicately puffed coating.

The outside was audibly crispy, but the ingredients inside still had moisture, so nothing was dry or tough. The batter wasn't overly oily either, so it wasn't heavy even eaten alongside the sushi.

The real kick of the mixed tempura that day was the sweet rice cake tempura (chapssal mochi). The outside was crispy, but biting in revealed a chewy, stretchy interior — such a fun texture. It's not common to see sweet rice cake in a sushi restaurant's mixed tempura, so it left a strong impression.

If you order sushi, kaisendon, and mixed tempura like we did, it's a pretty generous amount for two people. If you don't usually eat much, ordering just the two main dishes should be plenty.

Final thoughts

We visited Choe Uyeong Sushiya Jongno Branch after seeing the Lee Dae-won exhibition at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Deoksugung. We initially went looking for a sushi restaurant near Jongak that was easy to reach after the exhibition, but after eating there, it was the food itself, more than the location, that stuck with us. The premium sushi set had 17 pieces for ₩33,000, packed with a variety of well-loved ingredients. The top-grade kaisendon wasn't just generous in variety and portion — the balance between the fish and rice was satisfying too.

Overall, it felt more like a bright, clean dining space than a lively izakaya, so it should work well for a date, a workday lunch, or anyone looking for a solo dining spot near Jongak. It's not right next to Deoksugung, but on a nice day, a 20-minute walk followed by a meal here and a stop at Kyobo Book Centre in Gwanghwamun makes for a great outing.

Recommended for

• Anyone looking for a clean sushi restaurant near Jongak Station
• Anyone who wants a variety of fresh sushi at a reasonable price
• Anyone looking for a meal spot after a Gwanghwamun date
• Anyone looking for a comfortable place for solo dining or a solo drink near Jongak

A spot that completes a weekend Gwanghwamun date route — from the Deoksugung exhibition, to sushi near Jongak, to Kyobo Book Centre