바보섬

About

Fun two-floor eatery in Yongsan. Quirky name, serious food.

Yongsan's Babosum pulls marathon weekend waits—five hours, routinely—for yellowtail so fat and pliant it barely needs soy sauce. The name plays on Korean wordplay: 바다의 보물섬, "treasure island of the sea," compressed into two syllables that also mean "fool's island." Apropos, because only a fool would stand outside for half a Friday night when CatchTable's remote queue exists, yet the dining room stays slammed from opening bell to last call. The house yellowtail arrives as thick, translucent slabs that glisten under the lights, each piece revealing the grain of the muscle. Regulars build mini-towers: seasoned nori, a slab of yellowtail, a dab of uni or salmon roe, then into the mouth before it collapses. The white kimchi on the banchan tray exists specifically to reset your palate between bites—the crunch cuts the richness, then you go again. Sashimi rice comes free and infinite; roll your own battleship sushi if the mood strikes. The assorted sashimi platter runs ₩125,000 and spans sea bream, amberjack, and bluefin cuts pulled minutes earlier from the ground-floor tanks. For groups, the multi-course sets (산해 or B-set, ₩145,000–₩270,000) deliver better arithmetic than ordering piecemeal. The octopus-bossam combo plate layers chewy tentacles over warm pork belly, pickled radish, and salted shrimp—a textural relay race that pairs dangerously well with draft Yebisu. The room's a two-floor blue clapboard box draped in fishing nets, elbow-to-elbow after 6 PM, one toilet per floor. CatchTable reservations open at midnight for ten days out; weekend dinner slots vanish in under five minutes. If you miss the sprint, queue remotely by 4 PM on weekdays for same-evening entry around 7. Fridays spike to 80-deep by 8 PM. Card only, no English menu, table limit of 2.5 hours when packed. Go early December through February when the yellowtail's at peak fat content, or risk eating regret all winter.