Dongwon VIP

By Bahk Eun-ji

Almost all Koreans immediately think of canned tuna when they hear the name Dongwon Industries, Korea’s major producer of this and other seafood products. So it’s not strange at all that the company runs a tuna sashimi restaurant with a special background and knowledge of this delicious fish.

For businesspeople, sashimi or sushi is a preferred option with a good reputation among the range of high cost cuisine available here. Dongwon VIP restaurant offers various price categories from simple menus to set meals of several courses, and even relatively inexpensive dishes are made with high quality meat.

“Most customers can hardly tell the difference between tuna and swordfish. Swordfish is similar to tuna, but much cheaper. And of course, the taste is different,” says Jung Taek-joon, the owner of the restaurant.

“In the past few years, many tuna sashimi restaurants have been offering ‘refills’ of tuna meat because many customers request this, so low prices have popped up in Seoul. I would say that if customers have been to those kinds of restaurants they were mostly served with swordfish instead of tuna,” Jung added.

Dongwon VIP restaurant provides the highest quality meat such as blue-fin tuna, called hon-maguro, by Dongwon industries, which has its own system from taking its catch from the ocean to distribution.

“This restaurant might not satisfy those customers who want to get as many refills of the fish as they want. However, this restaurant will definitely satisfy those customers who want to enjoy prime slices of tuna,” Jung said.

The restaurant is good for business meetings, because it has 14 private rooms.

Dongwon Industries also provides a smartphone application that includes all information about tuna and swordfish that enables customers to easily figure out the differences between them. It also provides information about shops located across the country.