Gwangalli sashimi restaurant, sisters' octopus seaweed salad: Geumrang

On a trip to Gwangalli, I went to Geumrang Hoetjip (금랑횟집), a sashimi restaurant where the food just keeps coming. Even when I thought my belly would burst, it was so good that I ate to the end. A real Gwangalli local favorite ꒰ ⸝⸝ɞ̴̶̷ ·̮ ɞ̴̶̷⸝⸝꒱ 🎣🐟

Geumrang Hoetjip in Gwangalli: location, hours, reservations and parking

Geumrang Hoetjip Gwangalli Main Branch is about a 4-minute walk from the Millak Waterside Park bus stop. It is open 11:30–22:50 (last order 21:25). You can reserve through Naver Reservation or by phone, and for parking you can use the public lot at the waterside park.

What are the atmosphere and seating like at Geumrang Hoetjip?

Geumrang Hoetjip is on the 6th floor of the Marine Rich building near Gwangalli Beach.

The entrance is plastered with signs 😮 It's an old Blue Ribbon restaurant that has been running for 15 years, and apparently celebrities, locals and tourists all come.

In the daytime you get a wide-open ocean view of Gwangan Bridge, so your eyes and mouth are happy together 🌊 At night I bet the bridge's night view is beautiful. The interior is large with lots of seats, so it seems great for group meals, and there are private rooms too, so it's good for family dinners as well!

Geumrang Hoetjip menu and what comes in the Subyeon Hansang

Geumrang Hoetjip has hansang set meals (a full table spread) that come with side dishes, single sashimi dishes, and even hoedeopbap (sashimi rice bowl) and mulhoe (cold sashimi soup) as good-value lunch specials. I ordered the Subyeon Hansang for two.

• Subyeon Hansang for two
• Coke Zero

The Subyeon Hansang starts with skidari (small starter dishes): steamed abalone, merou steak, gonowata (salted sea cucumber innards), seasonal dishes, nakji tangtangi (chopped baby octopus), marinated shrimp, assorted seafood and seaweed soup. Just as you're about to finish those, the premium assorted sashimi comes out, followed by the meal part: butter-grilled scallops, tempura, rice with fish roe and spicy fish stew. It's a very generous lineup.

How many side dishes come with the Subyeon Hansang?

The starters at Geumrang Hoetjip came out until the table legs nearly broke, haha. They kept coming and coming, and I actually asked the owner, "Is there still more..?"

We kicked off lightly with innards porridge!

The sweet, sour, refreshing hoemuchim (spicy raw fish salad) whets the appetite, and you can add noodles to it, which was delicious.

Marinated shrimp, salmon salad, kimchi pancake, butter-grilled scallops: honestly, not one of the starters was a throwaway. It's not random stuff just to pad the count; everything was delicious, so I was already stuffed before the sashimi 🥺

Octopus with seaweed salad, the standout dish

Among the starters, the octopus was a real standout. Eaten together with the seaweed salad (?) thing, it was so good.. It was boiled so tenderly that I wanted to order more octopus on its own.

Sea squirt, sea cucumber, steamed shrimp, tako-wasabi (wasabi-marinated octopus): maybe because the seafood was fresh, there was no fishy smell, just the delicious taste of the sea ❤︎

The softly steamed abalone went down in one bite 𓈒𓂂𓏸

The soy-marinated shrimp and nakji tangtangi were great too, and the octopus was still wriggling, which made it even better ㅠㅠㅠ

Live raw shrimp still jumping on the plate

I'd never had raw shrimp this lively. It was so fresh that it kept jumping up · · · so I covered it with a perilla leaf while we ate other things.

Later the owner snipped off the shrimp heads for us ✂️ I tried it, and the shrimp meat was chewy and plump and delicious!!

The sashimi hadn't even come out yet, and my sister and I were like, "We're already full..?"

What fish come in Geumrang Hoetjip's premium assorted sashimi?

After the first round of starters, the premium assorted sashimi arrived with a wide variety: flounder fin, rockfish, sea bass, flounder, and sea bream with only the skin lightly scalded in hot water.

Even the aged kimchi was tasty, so wrapping the chewy sashimi with a perilla leaf and kimchi was great 🤤 By the way, the Subyeon Hansang allows one sashimi refill on a small plate, but we were so full it was absolutely impossible..

Dipping it deep into the gonowata was amazing too 🐟 It comes out looking so appetizing that Geumrang Hoetjip seems like a perfect place to treat guests.ᐟ.ᐟ

Subyeon Hansang at 60,000 won per person: is it good value?

For the third round, the meal portion of the Subyeon Hansang came out in a big spread, and even at ₩60,000 per person, with this much coming one after another, it actually felt like good value.

Spicy fish stew, rice with fish roe, braised flounder and shrimp tempura: the meal dishes were great too, and I felt almost like livestock being fattened up ㅠㅠㅠ It's been a while since I felt this happy 🥹 The braised flounder's sweet savory flavor is the kicker, and the spicy stew was packed with fish, so I cleaned it all up with the roe rice.

Geumrang Hoetjip in Gwangalli: final verdict

From starters to assorted sashimi to the meal dishes, Geumrang Hoetjip made us feel treated like guests. I could feel why it's famous as a Gwangalli local favorite ꒰ ˶ˊᵕˋ˶ ꒱ The portions are seriously big, so be sure to go on an empty stomach!