Medium sashimi platter at Songpa seafood shop Yeongjae Susan, Seoul

It's starting to feel like gizzard shad (jeoneo) season again, so I set out a proper sashimi spread at home for the first time in a while. Whenever I'm craving raw fish I usually end up at Garak Market — today I looked around for somewhere good and landed on Yeongjae Susan, right there in Garak Market!

Yeongjae Susan

Yeongjae Susan discount and parking tips

You can apply a 20% discount coupon at Yeongjae Susan when ordering through Naver. If you're driving, the best parking spot for reaching Yeongjae Susan is near pillar E09 or E10 in the Garak-mall seafood market basement parking lot!

After parking, just ride the escalator up and Yeongjae Susan is right there on the right.

Whenever I go to Garak Market I always agonize over where to buy from, but Yeongjae Susan won me over from the first impression.

The clean tanks and the friendly owner were a nice touch, and since I wanted gizzard shad for the season, they walked me through the combos and menu clearly, which cut down my decision time.

The wall at Yeongjae Susan is covered in awards. They rank near the top across various delivery platforms, and with such high order volume, live fish come in more than three times a day, so freshness of the assorted sashimi is guaranteed, apparently. Having eaten it myself, I can confirm — you can trust it.

What comes in the medium three-fish sashimi platter?

Today's order at Yeongjae Susan was the jeon-gwang-cham-hoe medium combo (₩900,000) — seasonal gizzard shad, white-flesh flounder, and red seabream. I wanted live shrimp too, but... I held off today so I could fully taste the sashimi.

For someone who likes tasting a little of several kinds of sashimi, this was exactly the right combination.

Gizzard shad spinning round and round in the tank. I don't eat gizzard shad sashimi often and it's not really my favorite, but every fall I end up craving it and always have it at least once.

There's more than just gizzard shad — shrimp and all kinds of other seafood too, so it was fun just to look around!

The 3-hour parking pass and cooler-bag takeout

Yeongjae Susan gives you a 3-hour parking pass with purchase, so if you're driving, make sure to grab it!

Even the packaging is a reusable cooler bag, which made it look clean and nice enough to give as a gift too.

When I got home and opened it up, there was a big ice pack packed inside, so I could dig in right away while it was still cold.

The jeon-gwang-cham sashimi was plated beautifully along with rakkyo pickles, wasabi, pickled ginger, and soy sauce, ssamjang, and chojang dipping sauces. Clean, simple composition.

Three completely different kinds of sashimi meant different colors and shapes, which made the whole spread look much more generous.

With gizzard shad, flounder, and red seabream all piled generously by type, it felt like a proper sashimi spread even at home.

At first I thought the portion looked a little small, but once I picked up a piece, there was more sashimi layered underneath.

How did the gizzard shad, flounder and red seabream taste?

I sliced up some cheongyang chili peppers at home and made makjang dipping sauce. First up was gizzard shad! I'd been craving it lately, so it was the one I was most excited for in this order.

The nutty flavor characteristic of gizzard shad filled my mouth, and I thought, ah, yes, this is the taste. It gets more savory the more you chew, giving it a totally different appeal from the flounder or seabream.

That's probably why I keep seeking out a good gizzard shad spot in Garak Market whenever the season hits. Alternating between the flounder and seabream in the middle made the difference between the two even more distinct.

The chunky flounder had a great texture when chewed — chewy and clean-tasting in the mouth. Enjoying the nuttiness of the gizzard shad and then switching to a piece of flounder felt like the flavor flipped entirely, and the combination worked well.

Can't skip the red seabream either. It has a different texture and appeal from the flounder, which made me understand why they put three kinds together in one set. A piece of flounder, a piece of seabream, then back to gizzard shad again — rotating through them this way meant I never got tired of it, all the way to the end!

Would I order from Yeongjae Susan again?

I've been to plenty of seafood shops in Garak Market, but Yeongjae Susan was so friendly from the moment I ordered, the packaging was clean, and the sashimi's freshness was on point — I really want to recommend it! Next time I'm craving seasonal sashimi, I think I'll head back to Garak Market's go-to sashimi takeout spot, Yeongjae Susan.