Yeonsu seafood restaurant couple set at Veteran General Fish Market

When I was craving raw shrimp and mulhoe near Yeonsu Station

There are so many places to eat near Yeonsu Station. I wasn't in the mood for a hot soup dish or anything greasy; my husband doesn't like light options such as Vietnamese food, and I wasn't craving a full-on quick meal like Subway or burgers either. Raw shrimp? Mulhoe (chilled raw-fish soup)? Oh, just thinking of it sounded so good. Off we went to Veteran General Fish Market Incheon Yeonsu Branch (베테랑 종합어시장 인천연수점), right nearby.

Parking is available on underground levels B1, B2, and B3 of Yeonsu Plaza, with 3 hours of parking support. It's in the same building as the Eunee's Haejangguk on the corner.

Open daily 11:00–23:00, last order at 21:00.

The place is huge, from the entrance all the way inside. As we walked in past the counter, there was a self bar set up in the middle.

The chefs' workspace is an open kitchen, and at the pancake-and-vegetable self bar you can cook your own kimchi jeon (kimchi pancake). There are wrap vegetables, other vegetables, and dressings ready to go.

As you'd expect from a seafood restaurant, they had lots of alcohol stocked. They even had both zero-sugar cider and cola. 👍

The Couple Set we chose instead of gizzard shad sashimi and raw shrimp

We agonized over whether to have gizzard shad sashimi and raw shrimp or the Couple Set. A small gizzard shad sashimi plus 10 raw shrimp cost about the same as the Couple Set, so we picked the set for value. The result? Total satisfaction. 🩷

• Couple Set (2 people): ₩58,000
• Live raw fish: red sea bream, salmon, flounder, rockfish, and seasonal live fish
• Fish sushi, assorted fried dishes, grilled fish, spicy fish stew, and basic side dishes

At a seafood restaurant, seaweed soup is practically the rule. They gave us plenty of aged kimchi and even salted pollock roe; the finely sliced fish-bone salad was tasty too with a little cho-gochujang (sweet-and-tangy chili sauce).

A self bar with everything from kimchi pancakes to wrap vegetables

Finally, time to check out the self bar. Seeing ramen noodles, I think they're there to simmer in the spicy fish stew. I'm so sad we couldn't finish everything. Ꙭ̯ There is seriously so much food. Wasabi is at the self bar too, along with garlic and chopped chili. We needed more aged kimchi, so we helped ourselves to another serving. What an amazingly generous place. ✨

The self-bar wrap vegetables were fresh and packed in tightly. There were chilies and sliced garlic too, and we helped ourselves to lots of corn mayonnaise salad—my husband's pick.

Right beside the self bar is a space where you can cook your own pancakes. I love a service like this. It feels as if the number of side dishes has grown. One pancake is plenty, so you can try it first and cook another if you need one.

This is a coffee-only table area. Since the restaurant is so spacious, you can help yourself to small plates, soju glasses, wet wipes, and the like. Of course, the staff will bring them quickly if you call. 👌

Assorted sashimi with plenty of rockfish and salmon

Even the basic table spread wasn't just there to make up the numbers—it was all genuinely delicious and perfect for whetting our appetites before the meal.

I loved the assorted sashimi so much. 💓 There were seven pieces of my beloved rockfish, plus lots of salmon, which we love. It was so fun choosing pieces: wrapped in greens, generously dipped in cho-gochujang, and dipped in makjang (savory fermented soybean paste). So happy.

The choices were two dried black persimmons, two abalones, or four fried shrimp. Since fried dishes already came with the basic set, we chose two abalones. An absolutely brilliant choice. That crisp, chewy abalone was so delicious. 🧡

They even included little pieces of sushi, so the table was already overflowing. Such a good selection.

I'm personally team rockfish, but the red sea bream was delicious too, and wrapping the flounder in aged kimchi and dipping it in sesame oil sauce was insanely good. ⋆◡̎⋆

Wow, look at that sheen. Apparently this is a way of eating sashimi inspired by Chef Yoon Nam-no: roll the fish in sesame oil sauce, dip it generously in cho-gochujang, pile on twice as much sushi rice, and pop it into your mouth in one bite. ̗̀ ♥ˎˊ:

Dipping red sea bream in makjang and wrapping it snugly in a perilla leaf made me very happy. Makjang with sashimi is a combination I absolutely love. ʚ◡̈ɞ:

Fried dishes included in the set and spicy fish stew to finish

The saury that came as a basic side dish was delicious too, and salty enough to make me crave rice. I wondered whether we should order a bowl. ꪔ͈̥

This assorted fried platter was included in the set too. There were about six pieces: shrimp, kabocha squash, and sweet potato. The fried shrimp goes without saying—it was so crisp and delicious. The thin kabocha was a special treat, and the sweet potato was thick but full of satisfying bite.

It had been a while since I'd had maeuntang (spicy fish stew), and because it was part of the basic set, we could enjoy it without an extra charge. Normally when we go to Yeonan Pier, we don't order spicy fish stew at all. We never felt the need to pay extra for it, but ⚠️ eating it at Veteran General Fish Market changed my mind a little. Its spicy, refreshing finish was so nice at the end of the meal. It would be complete heaven with sujebi (hand-torn dough flakes).

Ice-cream affogato and coffee-only tables

The ice cream at the self bar had caught my eye from the start. There were strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate flavors; my husband is a chocolate lover, so he picked chocolate only. He pulled an espresso from the coffee machine and made himself a DIY affogato. My husband is such a food champion, honestly.

For anyone who likes a clean cup of coffee for dessert, there are no fewer than four coffee machines. Three serve black coffee varieties, and one is a mix-coffee machine. ✅ There is a separate table area just for coffee, with about 6–8 large-group tables.