Ankimo and mochi tempura at Choe Uyeong Sushiya, a Jongno sushi spot

Today I visited Choe Uyeong Sushiya Jongno Branch, a great Jongno restaurant for when you're craving fresh sushi! I ordered the Choesang Sushi and Choesang Kaisendon as the main dishes and also tried ankimo (monkfish liver) and several kinds of tempura. Above all, the seafood was really fresh across the board, and I got to enjoy many types of sushi and seafood in one visit, so let me introduce it!

Basic info for Choe Uyeong Sushiya Jongno Branch

• 📍 Location: 7 Jongno 5-gil, B1 104, Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea (about 235m from Jonggak Station Exit 1)
• ⏰ Hours: Daily 11:00–21:30 / Break time 15:00–17:00 / Last order 21:00
• 🅿️ Parking: 2 hours free parking available
• 📝 Ordered: Choesang Sushi, Choesang Kaisendon, ankimo, sweet potato/scallop/mochi/shrimp tempura
• ✅ Note: Corkage ₩3,000 per bottle

Finding your way from Jonggak Station

Choe Uyeong Sushiya Jongno Branch is in an easy-to-reach spot from Jonggak Station on foot. Head down to the basement floor of the building and you'll find the restaurant, with large menu photos posted near the entrance so you can check the menu before going in.

Interior and seating

The interior overall felt clean and bright. There are tables for groups, and each seat has some separation, making it comfortable to eat with your party. It seemed like a good spot for office workers near Jonggak deciding on lunch, or for stopping by for sushi in the evening.

Ordering by tablet

You order using the tablet set up at the table. You can check menu photos and prices all at once, and the menu is varied, covering sushi, kaisendon (seafood rice bowl), sashimi, tempura, and more.

Soy sauce, ginger, and rakkyo (pickled scallion) are also set out on the table, so you can help yourself as needed!

What we ordered

That day we ordered a wide range: Choesang Sushi and Choesang Kaisendon as the mains, plus ankimo, sweet potato tempura, scallop tempura, mochi tempura, and shrimp tempura!

Choesang Sushi — from uni to eel

The Choesang Sushi came out piled high with many kinds of sushi on one plate — the visual alone was impressive! Uni, tuna, salmon, white fish, shrimp, scallop, eel, and more, all at once — and above all, the seafood was completely fresh across the board!

Instead of one type appearing in bulk, there was an even mix of different flavors and textures, which made picking through them one by one fun.

In particular, there was a generous amount of uni piled on the gunkan (battleship sushi). It had a texture that melted softly in the mouth along with a nutty flavor, and it was delicious. The eel was glazed with sauce so glossy it shone, and the tender eel paired well with the sweet sauce. The shrimp and white fish were also fresh, each with its own distinct texture properly intact. Since there's such a wide variety, if you want to try a bit of everything, I'd recommend ordering the Choesang Sushi!

Choesang Kaisendon — the seaweed-wrap combo

The Choesang Kaisendon was also very generous — salmon, tuna, white fish, shrimp, and various other seafood were piled high on top of the rice. There was so obviously a wide variety of seafood that I found myself wondering where to even start haha.

All the slices of raw fish were cut thick, so you could really feel the tender texture, and they were fresh and delicious.

It's tasty just scooping up the raw fish and rice together, but wrapping rice and your choice of fish in the seaweed that came with it was also great — I put tuna on one bite, salmon on the next, picking whatever seafood I wanted each time, so I never got tired of it until the end.

Ankimo — chewy yet melting

And personally, the dish I enjoyed most that day was the ankimo! It came on a separate plate, and the first bite surprised me with a chewier texture than I expected. I usually think of ankimo as rich and soft, but the ankimo at Choe Uyeong Sushiya Jongno Branch had this chewy-yet-melts-in-your-mouth texture that was seriously insane!!

It had a rich, nutty flavor too, and pairing it with the radish sprouts and lemon that came alongside made it a bit fresher to eat. All the seafood that day was fresh overall, but the ankimo especially stuck with me! If you usually like ankimo, I'd recommend ordering it too.

Four tempura — sweet potato, scallop, mochi, shrimp

We also ordered a variety of tempura — sweet potato, scallop, mochi, and shrimp, tried them all. The tempura overall came out crispy, and it was nice to have one warm piece to pair with the sushi or kaisendon here and there.

The sweet potato tempura was crispy outside with the sweet potato's characteristic sweetness inside, and the scallop tempura had a tender scallop texture inside the crispy batter — delicious. The mochi tempura had the chewy texture its name suggests, quite different from the other tempura, so it was fun to eat one every so often in between. The shrimp tempura came out sizably large too, crispy outside with a plump shrimp inside — another reliably delicious dish!

Final thoughts

The seafood at Choe Uyeong Sushiya Jongno Branch was really fresh across the board, and I left satisfied! The Choesang Sushi and Choesang Kaisendon sets were generous, and the chewy-yet-melting ankimo especially stuck with me. If you're looking for a Jongno sushi restaurant near Jonggak Station where you can enjoy a wide variety of sushi, give it a visit!