Three-fish sashimi combo at Yeongjae Susan, a Songpa fish shop

I've been craving gizzard shad lately, so I went to Garak Market to pick up some sashimi to take home.

How do you find Yeongjae Susan inside Garak Mall?

This time I visited Yeongjae Susan, on the 1st floor of the sales building at Garak Mall. The mall is so huge that finding a specific shop can be confusing the first time. I went in through the basement 3rd floor parking lot, near the E09/E10 entrance.

From there I took the escalator up to the 1st floor, and the shop was right there on my right — easier to find than I expected.

How easy is parking at Garak Mall?

If you use Garak Mall, you get a 3-hour free parking pass, and after that it's ₩500 per 10 minutes.

If your plan is to pick up sashimi and browse the market too, the parking window is generous enough to make driving there a good option.

What comes in the 65,000-won three-fish sashimi combo?

What we ordered that day was the small gizzard shad-flounder-sea bream combo (전광참회) for ₩65,000! Since it's made up of gizzard shad, flounder, and sea bream, I could get the gizzard shad I was craving along with other kinds of sashimi, so I went with this one.

I packed it up, brought it home, and dug in properly.

Gizzard shad: nuttier the longer you chew

With gizzard shad, chewing brings out that distinctive savory flavor right away.

The flesh wasn't so soft it went mushy — instead, the more you chewed, the more flavor came through, so I kept reaching for another piece instead of stopping at one.

There's a distinctive richness to gizzard shad that made it feel very different from eating a plain, light sashimi. Since I love gizzard shad, it was the one I was most looking forward to among the three, and it really was the flavor I'd been craving that day — very satisfying.

Flounder: the clean, light one that resets the palate

Next up, flounder! The vibe was completely different from gizzard shad. Where gizzard shad is savory and rich, flounder went down clean and light. The flesh was firm when chewed, which made it great for dipping in chojang (vinegared chili paste) or soy sauce, and eating it right after gizzard shad felt like resetting my palate. So I kept alternating — gizzard shad, then flounder, then back to gizzard shad, haha.

Sea bream: why switching between the three keeps it fun

I tried the sea bream too, and it had a bit more presence than the flounder, which made switching between all three genuinely fun. If you eat just one kind of sashimi the whole time, the flavor can start to feel too familiar, but with three kinds together, you get different textures and tastes each time. I originally ordered this because I wanted gizzard shad, but getting flounder and sea bream alongside it made me think this combo is a good pick for anyone who wants to eat several kinds of sashimi at once.

How the takeout sashimi looked and tasted plated at home

When eating takeout sashimi at home, whether the fish arrives neatly without getting crushed matters a lot. This time, after bringing it home, I transferred everything onto a plate, and separating the three kinds out made for different colors too — it looked great laid out on one plate.

What was disappointing at Yeongjae Susan?

Separate from the food, though, there was one part of the visit that was a bit disappointing. While I was there, I saw the owner speaking to the staff, and the tone came across as pretty harsh. In particular, how they treated one of the staff members didn't look comfortable to watch, and standing nearby, it left me feeling a bit uneasy.

On the other hand, the other staff members were friendly when I placed my order, and I didn't personally experience any unpleasant service. So this is something I think of separately from the food and the ordering process itself.

Hours and final verdict on Yeongjae Susan

They're open daily from 07:00 to 22:00, so it's easy to visit any time from morning to evening. If you love that distinctive savory flavor of gizzard shad, now's a good time to head to Garak Market and pick some up while you're craving it :) Next time I'm at Garak Market, I want to check out some of the other seafood I didn't get to try this time!