Songpa fish shop gizzard shad and a 1-hour Friday wait: Yeongjae Susan

One-line summary — if you're looking for seasonal fall gizzard shad and live shrimp at good prices that taste great, this is the place!

As the fall breeze starts blowing... time for more seasonal sashimi, right? We came to Olympic Park to watch the Davis Cup, and while we were there my husband and I stopped by Garak Market to pack takeout from Yeongjae Susan, famous for gizzard shad and live shrimp, then went to eat it at a corkage restaurant. Here's the review.

• Sashimi combo with gizzard shad, and price
• How to order live shrimp, and price
• Corkage restaurant review (Friday night wait)

Let me break it all down for you carefully~!

Where is Yeongjae Susan in Garak Market, and when is it open?

Yeongjae Susan is at 932 Yangjae-daero, Songpa-gu, Seoul, Unit C-10, 1st floor of Garak Mall's sales building. Hours are 07:00–22:00 with no closed days.

• Address: 서울특별시 송파구 양재대로 932 가락몰 판매동 1층 C-10호
• Hours: 07:00–22:00
• Closed: None
• Parking: Garak Mall underground lot

Yeongjae Susan sits on the first floor of Garak Mall's sales building. If you're driving, just enter 'South Gate 1 parking lot' into your navigation!

Parking at Garak Mall and how to walk to Yeongjae Susan

Let me map out the whole route carefully~!

After entering through South Gate 1 parking lot, it's easiest to park near pillar E09 on basement level 3.

Right nearby there's an escalator like this.

Ride it up and... you arrive at the brightly lit sashimi sales building!!

As soon as you come up the escalator, Yeongjae Susan is right there, so you won't need to go searching~~

Prices at Yeongjae Susan: three-fish platter and live shrimp 500g

For the two of us, we ordered the small three-fish combo for ₩65,000 and live shrimp 500g for ₩15,500 at Yeongjae Susan. Live shrimp 1kg is ₩32,000, said to be the lowest price in Garak Market.

You know how everyone uses the Mermaid Queen Pirates app to order sashimi takeout these days?? Turns out Yeongjae Susan has over 900 reviews on there too, a reliable shop!

Since we went specifically for gizzard shad and live shrimp, we ordered this combo for two: three-fish combo (small) ₩65,000, live shrimp (500g) ₩15,500! Nice that you can mix in other fish with the gizzard shad since eating it alone gets tiring~ And 1kg of live shrimp would be too much for two, so the 500g unit at Yeongjae Susan was just right! (And live shrimp 1kg is a wild ₩32,000, said to be the lowest price in Garak Market!!! Good for takeout too~)

There's a reference plate showing weight and size by category, which was helpful for comparing.

The fish species were clearly labeled on the tanks, so ordering was easy too. The shop was also very well kept and clean. No pushy sales tactics or pressure to buy more — they were kind and it made shopping stress-free.

They said the live shrimp were caught that same day, and honestly, even inside the bag they were flopping around so much I got a little worried about how we'd even peel and eat them haha.

How long is the Friday-evening wait at Ung-ne, the bring-your-own sashimi restaurant?

We didn't reserve a corkage restaurant separately — we went to Ung-ne, which Yeongjae Susan connected us to. We started waiting around 7:30pm on Friday and waited almost a full hour.

Since it was Friday night, every corkage restaurant had a wait, but they connected us here because it apparently clears fastest. We trotted along after the Yeongjae Susan staff member... haha.

This is Ung-ne, a corkage restaurant in Garak Market! With all the opening-celebration flower pots by the entrance, it looked like it had opened not long ago — clean and spacious inside~ But since it was Friday evening, waiting started around 7:30pm and we waited almost an hour. It was really, really crowded. I'd recommend reserving ahead before visiting.

How big is the small three-fish platter, and how did the gizzard shad taste?

The small three-fish combo at Yeongjae Susan consists of gizzard shad, flounder, and red sea bream, and even as the small size, it was plenty for two. The gizzard shad came sekkoshi-style (bones sliced fine), not tough at all, with good fat content that made it savory.

We also had the 500g of live shrimp on top, but honestly the sashimi alone would have been enough.

Ahh, the sashimi color looks great, right? The flounder and red sea bream were so chewy — even as white fish, they were bursting with umami and delicious.

Gizzard shad — one of the reasons we came to Garak Market today! It came sekkoshi-style with bones, but they weren't too tough so it was fine. Good fat content made it savory. And fresh, of course!

Eating 500g of live shrimp raw: prep and taste

We ordered the live shrimp 500g to eat raw and had just the heads made into butter fry. Peeling took about 10 minutes for the two of us, and they'll bring the removed heads separately.

This is the live shrimp 500g! We ate them raw and ordered just the heads as butter fry. They bring the heads like this after removing them. (Salt-grilling costs extra)

Live shrimp have been all over my algorithm lately, so this was honestly the first time in my life eating raw tiger prawn (dae-ha)! (Everyone looked like they were enjoying it so much ><) This... is genuinely hard to peel. Peeling 500g between the two of us took about 10 minutes haha. My hands really hurt. But it was really delicious. You know soy-sauce marinated shrimp, right? This is like that but without the soy sauce flavor — you get that rich, sweet, natural raw-shrimp taste!! Bought fresh right there at Garak Market, so it was really fresh~~

I see a lot of people dip these in fire-noodle mayo, but we went classic — chojang (vinegar-chili sauce) haha. This is truly a special treat~ Totally different appeal from grilled prawns. That plump, rich texture is just so good.

The shrimp head butter fry we ordered separately came out looking like this (₩7,000). I think they add sugar to the butter seasoning, because it's savory-sweet — why can't I ever get this taste at home!

We kept alternating bites of the crunchy gizzard shad sashimi too. Savory in a way that makes total sense why people seek it out every fall. Yeongjae Susan's portions were so generous that we ate our fill of sashimi enough to not need any for a while haha.

Who should shop at Yeongjae Susan?

• Anyone who wants to eat seasonal gizzard shad and live shrimp at a good price
• Anyone who wants a clean sashimi takeout experience with transparent weight and composition, no haggling

I strongly recommend 'Yeongjae Susan' in Garak Market to people like this!