츠키지 Japanese Restaurant

 (Seoul, Ln 3, Anguk Stn, Exit 2)

Living in Seoul, I am privy to the wonderful selection of international restaurants the city has to offer.  Cee and I were on an excursion to Jae-Dong, one of the historic districts of Seoul, to check out a particular art gallery when we both agreed that we were very, very hungy. It was past 1pm when we alighted the train in the subway at Anguk Station and ascended up the stairs out through Exit 2. The number of families that were out and about was more than usual and everybody seemed to be in a good mood. Cee suggested that we have Japanese for lunch, and as we did a sort of 180-turn scanning the street for such a restaurant, we instantly spotted one diagonally across the street from us. It was housed in a building fronted with blond wooden slats and beside it was a deck on which one or two tables were placed. We crossed the street and walked about 30 or 40 yards until we reached the restaurant. We checked out the display menu that read in Korean and stepped inside.

 The interior of the restaurant was sleek and clean. An elevated area with tatami mats for people to sit down on lined the wall on the far right side and western-style tables and chairs inhabited the rest of the floor.  In the back, two sushi chefs stood at their station behind a glass-fronted display case. They seemed busy putting together a few orders. A matronly female hostess seated us at a table and a younger waitress handed us a menu in Korean and Japanese. Cee and I sat looking at the decorative features of the place, and I sort of marveled at the blue neon decorative piece above Cee's head. It was the only non-Japanese element in the establishment that I could see apart from the patrons, and it read, "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine." It seems to be high fashion these days for restaurants in Korea to add English writing to their walls. The blue neon reflected surprisingly well off the black iron railings,  dark leather-brown chairs and seats, and grey charcoal countertops at the sushi station. 

Egg-white custard (I think.)

Because Cee and I could not read the menu very well and they had no menus in English, we decided to just go ahead and order a 25,000 won-per-person "set menu" not knowing exactly what we were going to get. We were given two egg-custard appetizers to start us off, and when I was finished, I pulled out my Canon and took a couple of snapshots of the chefs and decorations.

The chefs agreed to stand still for me after I made a few failed attempts to take focused snap shots of them in action. In addition to these photos, I took a photo of a collection of bottles placed neatly around a wide pillar covered in Japanese signs.

Our 25,000 won "set menus" came out and Cee and I dug in...Japanese style... with chopsticks. The presentation of the food was simple yet pleasing to the eye and the sushi was very, very fresh. Cee and I enjoyed it all. We each received twelve pieces of sushi including marble tuna, salmon, and shrimp, along with side dishes consisting of taro root, dried and pickled persimmon (I think), salad, acorn gelatin, two soups (miso and noodle), and broiled eel. And although I had to be reassured that some of the fish was not going to overpower the senses, in the end I tried and finished all but one piece.

I recommend this restaurant to anyone wanting a nice and relaxing sushi lunch or dinner to complete their day out in this historic part of the city. Jae-dong is filled with trendy shops, cafes, restaurants, and galleries. Here you can find hand-made jewelry, bags, clothing, and other apparel. On nice days, the place is filled with families, tourists, lovers, and folks like me and Cee looking for a restaurant to review and art to view.

 Locations & Contact info:
서울시 종로구 재동 109번지 1F   Tel 02 742 2335
서울시 강남구 도곡동 418번지 1F  Tel 02 579 3345