Sunae Station sashimi restaurant at the 4pm opening: rockfish, Haeseon

What comes with Haeseon's 40,000-won course near Sunae Station?

On a weekend I heard about a sashimi restaurant in the Sunae Station dining alley in Bundang that serves aged sashimi plus beef tartare-octopus tangtangi (a raw dish where live octopus is chopped and tossed with beef tartare), all for ₩40,000 per person, so I went to check it out.

It had been a while, so I went to eat the octopus tangtangi my wife loves, the aged sashimi I love, and have a drink together.

Haeseon is located on the 1st floor of the building directly across from Jeju Montrak near Sunae Station, and you can park in the same building.

Haeseon opens at 4pm in a two-level space

I was happy to hear it opens at 4pm, so I went right at opening time — and of course, my wife and I had the whole place to ourselves haha.

Of course, while we were drinking, several tables filled up soon haha. The two-story layout was kind of interesting too — surprisingly, there turned out to be quite a lot of tables.

The course starts with beef porridge and sea squirt

Porridge and broth come out first. It's a soft beef porridge, so it's not heavy to eat, which is nice.

Next came sea squirt, which my wife loves, so we had a shot of soju with it haha. It had been a while since I'd had sea squirt — I had some earlier this year — so I gave it all to my wife. My wife absolutely loses her mind over sea squirt and sea cucumber haha.

Flounder, sea bream and rockfish aged sashimi

Finally, the aged sashimi made of white fish arrived. It was made up of flounder, sea bream, and rockfish, which was perfect for my family since we only like white fish.

The aged sashimi was well-aged with good umami and softness, sliced thick, which also made for great texture. I was especially glad to see rockfish, which isn't often used in aged sashimi courses these days.

Why rockfish aged sashimi is a welcome addition

I started with a piece of rockfish. Unlike other white fish, rockfish has a bit of a chewy texture that I really like, but these days it's rare to find places that use it, so this was probably my first time this year.

Maybe that's why it tasted so good. Not mushy at all. Aged sashimi really is the best. Soft, umami-rich aged sashimi — the soju just keeps going in endlessly...

Grilled fish head and corn cheese

Next came grilled fish head and corn cheese, which paired nicely with the cold sashimi.

Grilled fish head might be my favorite grilled fish dish of all. That distinctive chewiness of the head meat is just too good. Crispy outside, chewy inside — grilled fish head haha. My wife only had one piece, so the rest was all mine — picking the meat off the bones is quite fun.

When you chew chewy live-fish sashimi, the sweetness stands out, but with well-aged sashimi like this, the softness comes with a burst of distinctive umami. That's why I actually prefer aged sashimi over live-fish sashimi, but aside from high-end Japanese restaurants, there aren't many places that do it well. Which makes this sashimi restaurant near Sunae Station, Haeseon, even more welcome.

Aged sashimi wrapped in aged kimchi

My wife wrapped the sashimi in aged kimchi like this, so I gave it a try too haha. This combination was good too. Eating it together like this was better than just aged kimchi alone.

Beef tartare with octopus tangtangi

The combination of octopus tangtangi and beef tartare — it wins over both of us, me who loves beef tartare and my wife who loves live octopus tangtangi...

My wife dislikes mixing it with beef tartare, so she fished out a few live octopus pieces separately for me. When I told her to try it, she did and said it wasn't bad either haha. The beef tartare sauce wasn't overly sweet or salty, so it went together well. Above all, it was so fresh that it was enjoyable to eat the whole time.

It felt like eating octopus that had been eating beef tartare, if that makes sense — the beef tartare was good, but the live octopus tangtangi, which is hard to make at home, was so fresh that it really won me over. This is the first sashimi restaurant near Sunae Station I've seen that serves beef tartare alongside sashimi haha.

Fried shrimp with potato fries, then spicy fish stew to finish

A casual tempura plate is also served, and surprisingly it included potato fries. Of course shrimp tempura is included too, but having potato fries mixed in there was pretty amusing...

The batter had a rustic, chunky look, which felt like a fresher idea compared to a clean Japanese-style tempura.

To finish, spicy fish stew. A meal at a sashimi restaurant only really feels complete once spicy fish stew comes at the end. Spicy and clean-tasting at the same time... this style of stew was not at all heavy to finish off a round of drinks with, which I liked.

What do you think? Haeseon, a sashimi restaurant near Sunae Station, seems like a great neighborhood bar with a well-put-together course for enjoying aged sashimi with a soju among locals, without any pressure.