Yakitori izakaya near Gongdeok Station with 6-skewer course: Yakitori

Today I'm bringing you a review of Yakitori Shomong, a great-atmosphere restaurant by Gyeongui Line Forest Park near Gongdeok Station! Wow, this place is genuinely delicious! I even felt it might have been better than the yakitori I ate in Japan.. I think the star of yakitori is the tsukune (chicken meatball skewer), and theirs is incredible.

There are plenty of other great menu items too, so keep reading! It's a great spot for a date, a work dinner, or taking your parents — and since it's one of the rare places serving draft Yebisu beer, you have to try that too. There's also a corkage-free coupon on Naver, so it'd be great to bring whiskey along!

Yakitori Shomong location and hours

• Name: Yakitori Shomong
• Address: 291-5 Dongmak-ro, 1st floor, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea
• Hours: Daily 17:00–23:00
• Group reservations, wifi, corkage available

It's located right by Gyeongui Line Forest Park, so it's a great spot for a walk before or after your meal.

What's the atmosphere like?

This is the exterior of Yakitori Shomong. There's an outdoor terrace, so it'd be great for a nice atmosphere in the evening. I visited during daylight so I ate inside.

The interior is clean too, set up with tables for four. I went in right at opening!

Not many places carry draft Yebisu beer, so I was happy to see it here.

Promotion

Potato salad if you write a receipt review! Don't miss it.

Menu and prices

A course order is required per person!

Set menus

• 2x 6-course + clam butter steam or kaisen tomato nabe + salted ice cream ₩89,600
• 2x 9-course + kaisen tomato nabe + salted ice cream ₩111,600

À la carte menu

• 3-skewer course ₩14,800 / 6-skewer ₩25,800 / 9-skewer ₩36,800
• Draft Yebisu beer ₩13,000
• Extra skewers priced separately
• Kaisen tomato nabe ₩32,000
• Fried hairtail, cheese menchi katsu ₩28,000
• Abalone hot pot rice ₩24,000
• Yurinji-style fried chicken ₩22,000
• Herring roe tofu wrap ₩16,000
• Grilled mentaiko (spicy pollock roe) ₩14,000
• Ume tori suisho, ankimo ponzu, potato salad ₩12,000 each
• Salted caramel ice cream ₩11,000
• Garlic cream cheese, lemon cream cheese ₩9,000 each

Jjajang-eomeom's pick menu

• 6-skewer course (₩51,600)
• Kaisen tomato nabe (₩33,000)
• 2 draft Yebisu beers (₩26,000)
• Cola (₩2,000)

There was a set menu too, but I didn't feel like ice cream so I ordered à la carte!

The food

I sat where I could see Gyeongui Line Forest Park.

The basic table setting. You get an otoshi (small starter dish) of cabbage with sesame dressing. It was nice for cleansing the palate between bites.

Draft Yebisu beer. This is what draft beer should look like! Can you see that creamy foam? Insane, just insane.

I took a sip of the foam and just went, 'Ohh!'

6-skewer course (chicken tenderloin, truffle chicken thigh, tsukune, heart, knee cartilage, skirt steak)

Chicken tenderloin. The most tender chicken tenderloin I've had in my life, and the plum-wasabi on top was the kicker. The kind of flavor you'd want to wrap up a whole bag of and take home.

Truffle chicken thigh. It normally comes topped with truffle salt, but since we're not big fans of that, we asked for it swapped to regular salt.

Tsukune. Best tsukune I've ever had. I tried the first bite plain, without sauce,

the second with just egg yolk, and the third with egg yolk mixed into soy sauce along with chili. So good.. I would've loved one more but I was already full.

Heart. On a completely different level from any heart skewer I've ever had. Yakitori Shomong itself tastes different from typical yakitori, and it surprised me!

Knee cartilage. The texture was the charm here — nice and crunchy.

Skirt steak. It came pre-seasoned with soy sauce and it was so good! I do think seasoned skewers taste better, honestly haha. My friend said the chicken tenderloin was the best, and for me the skirt steak was great, but the heart and tsukune were the real shockers! Both went perfectly with the draft beer.

Kaisen tomato nabe

Tomato nabe. A tomato hot pot loaded with delicious seafood (baby octopus, mussels, shrimp, and squid, all in generous amounts). Noodles come included as standard, and there's a huge portion of them.

A little roundup of the cute seafood.

Skewers first, then the nabe — such a great combo.

Final thoughts

The food didn't all come out at once but arrived timed just right, so there was no waiting around, which I appreciated. A place that makes you curious about every single skewer! The cooked dishes are great too. I'd love to try the fried hairtail next time.