Japanese restaurant in Yeonnam-dong for a date: Jongno Donburi

A Japanese restaurant for a date in Yeonnam-dong’s food alley

My husband loves Yeonnam-dong, so we visited over the weekend. Every time we go on a weekend, I feel that Sunday is surprisingly less crowded than Saturday, making it more pleasant, quiet, and nice for a date. The popular restaurants have shorter waits too, so it is easy to eat comfortably wherever you go.

Jongno Donburi Yeonnam, where we visited today, is in Yeonnam-dong’s food alley, so it is perfectly located for parking at the Yeonnam-dong public parking lot and strolling past the shops. I walked along Gyeongui Line Forest Park toward Yeonhui-dong and arrived at the restaurant in about 12 minutes.

Jongno Donburi has a clean, orderly atmosphere as a great Japanese restaurant, so it is lovely for couples on dates as well as blind dates.

On weekdays, the break time is from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m., so you will need to avoid that time. Still, it is shorter than at other places, which is nice.

A restaurant atmosphere that feels like a trip to Japan

Once you enter, the restaurant is slightly below ground, so you need to take the stairs down. I actually liked that because it gave the place an even more Japanese feel.

The kitchen inside is open, with counter seats in front of it, so it looked like a nice place to eat alone while watching the kitchen too.

Overall, the wooden tables and chairs were tidy, and they reminded me of ramen shops I visited on past trips to Japan, making me feel as if I were traveling.

There is also a space farther inside for a more private meal, which looked great for dining more quietly.

A wide range of rice bowls made easy to choose with photo menus

When we sat down and looked at the menu, there were so many different Japanese dishes. Every item had a photo too, which was really helpful when choosing.

There are many types of Japanese rice bowls, including katsudon and ebi-don, and the prices are not too high, so the value is good.

One reason I strongly recommend the sake-don is that the owner here is truly serious about salmon. They say they personally prepare and age top-grade salmon delivered every dawn. That is why all the salmon dishes—including sake-don, salmon belly rice bowl, and salmon sashimi—are popular and delicious.

Karaage and king prawn tempura make good sides, and at ₩7,000 each, they are easy to order casually.

When you order, they bring simple side dishes and jang-guk (Japanese-style soup). It was not overly salty, and I loved its savory, hearty flavor.

Tarako-don that was even better because it was not salty

The dish my husband ordered was tarako-don. It is a rice bowl topped with whole premium baekmyeongran (pollock roe) from Korea’s east coast, aged with less salt. When you open the lunchbox-like lid, the whole roe is lying beautifully inside ^^

Personally, I do not really like dishes involving pollock roe, so I was not expecting much.

I suppose it makes a difference who prepares and ages it—this was less salty than any pollock roe I had eaten before, and its distinctive saltiness, sea aroma, and flavor were so good.

Rather than eating it plain, dipping it in the mayonnaise sauce that came with it made it nuttier and even better. A staff member told us it would be tastier wrapped in the accompanying gim (roasted seaweed), so we tried it, and they definitely knew what they were talking about! It was so good.

There was seasoned rice beneath the roe, so eating them together was savory and addictive—I just kept going back for more, like it was a rice thief.

Sake-don strongly recommended by a salmon lover

But for me, it was sake-don! I am on team salmon, haha.

The salmon was such a beautiful color and so tender that I could feel its softness even when picking it up with chopsticks. It melted in my mouth on its own, but dipping it lightly in wasabi and soy sauce added a sharp kick and saltiness that made it absolutely delicious.

Every time a piece of salmon disappeared from the sake-don, I wondered whether I should order extra salmon sashimi—it was so delicious that it felt almost a shame to eat. Topping it with the pollock roe we had ordered made for a different combination, and it was even more delicious.

There was more seasoned rice in the sake-don than I expected. I ate the first few pieces of salmon on their own, then had the rest with rice. The salmon was so tender and tasty that it was delicious with the rice too.

Jongno Donburi’s sake-don was so tasty that even looking at the photos makes my mouth water ^^ Yeonnam-dong has lots of pasta places and restaurants, so we went in because we wanted rice, but both the sake-don and tarako-don were more delicious than expected. If you are visiting Yeonnam-dong for a date, I would really recommend stopping by.

For reference, we continued on to Yeonhui-dong for our date afterward. It is located roughly between Yeonhui-dong and Yeonnam-dong, so it was great for enjoying both areas.