Gwangalli seafood restaurant where Mom kept eating sashimi: Gwanganda

Today's story is about Gwanganda, which I found after a date with my mom in Gwangalli, when I suddenly wanted a big, proper seafood spread. Don't you wonder where Busan people eat sashimi and seafood? 😉 As a Busan native, I'm picky and can't just eat raw fish anywhere, but I finally found the place that settles seafood in Gwangalli for me! Let me tell you how perfectly satisfied I was with the seafood table at Gwanganda! ✨️

Where is Gwanganda and how does parking work?

Gwanganda is on the 6th floor of Sanbada Hoetown, right behind the Waterside Park public parking lot on the Millak Waterside Park side. The area is packed with raw fish restaurants, so you always agonize over which one to pick, but Gwanganda is famous by word of mouth, so I was even more excited ✔️

Parking is free in the 1st-floor lot of the Sanbada Hoetown building. If it's full, the public lots right next door (Waterside Park and Waterside Children's) give a discount for 1 car per table, up to 2 hours, so parking is easy. I got lucky and found a spot on the 1st floor :)

Gwanganda opening hours

• Mon, Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun 12:00-22:50
• Wednesday 16:30-22:50
• Break time 14:10-16:30, last order 20:30 (same on Wednesday)
• Closed on Tuesdays

Gwanganda's interior and ocean-view seats

As soon as you step out of the elevator, the staff greet you loudly and warmly, and I felt good right away. I heard Gwanganda has won an excellence award three times in the raw fish category of the restaurant sector at the 2026 Korea Consumer Industry Awards! 👏

Gwanganda has window ocean-view seats, rooms and group seating, so it works for dates, family gatherings and company dinners 👆 You can even tell them which seat you want when you book!

I booked ahead and got lucky with a window ocean-view seat. The blue sea and Gwangan Bridge spread out through the big windows, and the healing started the moment I sat down.. 🌿 Warm sunlight came in, the mood was great, and the place was kept clean overall, which made me even happier ✔️

What does "dachi" mean?

"Dachi" may sound unfamiliar to some of you. It originally comes from the drinking culture of Tongyeong in South Gyeongsang, where side dishes keep coming out every time you order a drink. Gwanganda doesn't follow that format exactly; instead it lays out a table full of various seafood and dishes. Unlike a normal raw fish place where the sashimi is the only star, the sashimi, the seafood and the cooked dishes are all stars, which was totally my taste as a seafood lover 👍

What comes with Gwanganda's dachi set?

Not long after we sat down, the staff began setting out the food one by one with practiced hands, and my jaw dropped at the sight! The plating was so pretty, and you could tell they cared about every single dish, so it made me happy just to look at it ✨️

They started with fresh ginseng (susam) and recommended the pufferfish skin first. The ginseng fills your mouth with a healthy flavor, and the pufferfish skin is chewy and bouncy. I liked the lineup from the very start! 👌

• Salad
• Spicy cold raw fish salad (mulhoe muchim)
• Seasoned pufferfish skin
• Seasoned cockles
• Sushi rolls
• Grilled eel in sweet-spicy sauce
• Cheese-baked scallops
• Soy-marinated shrimp
• Green onion pancake (pajeon)
• Grilled abalone
• Cream shrimp

That's just the basic lineup, and it's already this generous! Above all, with a table this full, I felt properly treated 🫢 Good job, me, for bringing Mom haha

Even flapping live shrimp and live octopus

On top of that, fresh seafood kept coming: live shrimp, abalone, sea squirt, conch and live octopus 🫢 The live shrimp came out flapping around, and it had been so long since I'd had live shrimp that I actually shouted "Wow!" haha

I've eaten a ton of seafood living in Busan, but you can tell fresh stuff from a single bite, right? Gwanganda had no fishy taste at all, and the natural sweetness of the seafood really came through, so I savored each one 👆

Can you get the sashimi together with the basic dishes?

They said the sashimi normally comes out after you've eaten a fair amount of the basic dishes, but we wanted to eat them together, so we asked in advance. With the sashimi added, the table looked even fuller and I wondered "Can we eat all this?", but it was so delicious that we ate almost everything haha 🥹

The plating was so pretty that I kept marveling the whole meal. Gwangan Bridge and the sea behind me, a generous seafood table in front of me, pure happiness! Of course I had to take photos haha

The sashimi at Gwanganda was sea bass, flounder, red sea bream and olive flounder, cut thick, with a great texture. It was springy yet got nuttier and more savory the more I chewed, and there was no fishy taste at all, so the freshness came through. My mom doesn't usually eat much raw fish, but that day she said the sashimi was really good and kept eating it.

Sushi rice also comes out so you can make your own sashimi sushi. It's good wrapped in sour white kimchi, good in a lettuce wrap, and since the fish itself is so good, it's good any way you eat it 😀

We visited on a weekday at 12:30 for lunch, and shortly after 1 p.m. it was almost full ✨️ A famous Gwangalli spot is different indeed! And no wonder: where else can you get a spread this generous for ₩55,000? haha

The finishing course: abalone porridge, crab stew, braised fish and tempura

I thought we were done after all that, but finishing dishes come out too. A course that continues with abalone porridge, crab stew, braised fish and tempura!!

No matter how full you are, there's always room for carbs, right? The crab stew (kkotgetang) was cool and spicy and cleaned up my palate, and the abalone porridge was so rich and thick that I thought it beat most abalone porridge specialty shops!

The braised fish was sweet-savory and well soaked in the sauce, the kind that makes you think of rice. The tempura came out hot, so even though I was full, I kept eating it haha

And finally yakgwa (traditional honey cookie) for dessert, a truly perfect dachi table :) ✨️

Gwanganda review: a Gwangalli raw fish restaurant

If you want to properly enjoy sashimi and seafood in Gwangalli, I can recommend Gwanganda with real confidence. The lineup is great for the price, and I was satisfied with the taste and the atmosphere too 👏 As a Busan native, I can tell you it's really rare to find a place where you can try this many kinds of seafood and dishes for ₩55,000 :)

If you want to enjoy not just sashimi but a wide range of seafood and dishes, you'll be really satisfied ✔️ It suits special occasions, meals with parents, dates, gatherings and business entertaining 👍 I still think about that slow meal with the Gwangalli ocean view, so I'm definitely going back once more with my husband :)