서귀포 코우 Kou: Premium sushi restaurant in Seogwipo

The detective work to find all the restaurants we ate at during our trip to South Korea is real because Google Maps is kinda finnicky in South Korea (we mostly used Naver Maps) and I also cannot read/write Korean characters 🙃. But, here I am again with another restaurant review of an amazing sushi restaurant we visited during our days in Jeju Island.

서귀포 코우 (English name is “Kou”) is a Japanese sushi restaurant we ate at during our last night in Jeju Island. It is located in the southern region of Jeju Island in Seogwipo and has a 4.7 star rating on Naver Maps and 4.5 stars on Google Maps.

This was one of our favourite restaurants that we ate at during our trip because the sushi was amazing quality and the price is a steal!

Recommended: Read more about my trip to Korea in my travel recap post – including my 3 day itinerary in Jeju island.

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The vibe

By this time, we are just over 50% completed our trip and that means we’ve been eating a lot of Korean food, which is delicious and great, but we also couldn’t help but miss sushi because we love sushi so much. So, we went hunting for a decent sushi restaurant near us and decided to go to Kou.

It is a small-medium sized restaurant that can mostly fit tables of 4 and 2. We had no reservation but was able to get a bar-height table for 2 right next to the sushi counter. There were things blocking the counter though, so we couldn’t see what the chefs were doing behind the counter and we were also seated facing each other instead of both facing the bar.

The interior has a lot of wooden elements and that Japanese aesthetic. Overall, I think it is a cozy and nice restaurant. I’m not a fan of bar seating because of the height, but the chair has back support so I was good.

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Food and drinks review

Here is everything we ordered between 2 people. Prices are converted 1000:1 KRW to CAD and rounded to the nearest dollar for simplicity.

Yuzu highball ($10)

They have 2 pages of alcohol/drink menus and on there you can find sake, soju, and beers. I was super excited when I saw yuzu highball because that is one of my favourite drinks from Japan 🤩! I just love the sourness and citrus from the yuzu and it makes my drink so refreshing.

We order 2 yuzu highballs at around $10 each – great price in my books.

Side dishes + miso soup (free)

Even though they are a Japanese sushi restaurant, they are still very Korean because after we were seated, they gave us a small selection of side dishes that are complimentary. Usually in Korean restaurants, they will provide some banchan (side dishes) for you like kimchi, seaweed, bean sprouts, etc.

The side dishes they gave us are more Japanese inspired so it was more unique. The first blue plate had marinated eggplants (yummy! I love eggplants), the second dish had some radish, pickled onions and seaweed, and the third side dish was some cabbage “chips” with mayo.

They also gave us both a small bowl of miso soup. It had a more seafood/umami flavour to the broth. Delicious and heart warming!

Assorted sashimi for 2 people ($46)

To start off our meal, we order the assorted sashimi for 2 people, not expecting that much but guys LOOK AT THIS 😍?!?

We were shocked at what the assorted sashimi included. In Vancouver, we are used to the salmon, tuna, ebi and basic stuff but everything in front of us is a premium cut of fish! Starting from the left, we have abalone + abalone liver, hamachi, yellowtail, 2 types of bluefin tuna (not sure if it’s chutoro or otoro), akami, scallop, spot prawn, octopus, squid… like what?!? 🤯 Two pieces of each kind for only $46!

Amazing quality, super fresh and with this price it is just unbeatable. I loved everything on this plate, especially the 2 types of bluefin tuna but everything else was also really tasty. Even the octopus had a really fresh texture and wasn’t chewy. Spot prawns and scallops were sweet. This is like an omakase already.

Sushi 6 pcs ($12)

Next, arrives 2 orders of the 6pc sushi so we each get 6 pcs. And again, we are shocked at the 6 pieces that sit before us – premium cuts of fish again!

We have amaebi (spot prawn), big scallop, another bluefin tuna (🥰), and 3 kinds of white fish (I’m not sure but I am sure one of them is hamachi and another is mackerel).

In Vancouver, these would literally be at least $4 each and more but all this only costed $12!

Like the sashimi, quality was good and the cuts of fish were pretty thick also – amazing deal. We started discussing whether we should just order another round of 6 pc sushi.

Assorted tempura ($18)

We are almost full but end the meal with an assorted tempura. Again, it is amazing because for $18 in Vancouver you can maybe get like 9 pieces of prawn tempura. But here at Kou, you get since a nice variety of prawn, different fishes, yams, and other vegetables.

Tempura is fried well and is not oily – got a nice crunch and you can still taste the flavours inside.

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Final thoughts

Loewe’s rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Man I don’t usually give out 5 stars unless they are pretty fancy (because it adds to the experience), but at their price points, I have to give them 5 stars because the food is amazing for the price you get!

I saw a lot of tables around us order more Korean-based dishes like shrimp garlic kkanpung ($24) or fish stews and nabes ($30-40) but I think for sushi lovers, the real value lies in their actual Japanese and sushi menu items.

At $46 for 2 people sashimi and 11 items, that is roughly $2 per piece of premium sashimi. And with the 6pc sushi at $12, each nigiri is only around $2 also. Where the hell can you get bluefin tuna for $2? Apparently here at Kou.

Service was excellent. Even though the servers cannot speak English, they always tried their best to explain or translate for us, including how to put the soy sauce on our sushi (😂 we know how to do that). They have no English menu so I just took photos and translated it on Google Translate.

I highly recommend sushi lovers to check out Kou if they are craving sushi in the Seogwipo area. Great deal and great quality!

Sincerely, Loewe