Sashimi bar in Sangbong for aged mackerel and icy mulhoe: Hoepanjang

What is Hoepanjang Sangbong like?

Hoepanjang Sangbong (회판장) is a new Sangbong Station branch of Hoepanjang, an aged sashimi restaurant famous in Konkuk University and Gangnam for good value and high-end quality. It's warming up, but... I was craving raw fish so badly that I searched hard for aged sashimi places near Sangbong Station, and what do you know, Hoepanjang had just opened in Sangbong?! The photos on Instagram looked perfect too, so I dashed over after work on a weekday evening :)

Location and how to get to Hoepanjang Sangbong

Hoepanjang Sangbong is at 86 Bongujae-ro 33-gil, Jungnang-gu, Seoul, roughly halfway between Sangbong Station Exit 3 and Mangu Station Exit 1. It's about a 10-minute walk from either, and since it's in the middle of the main street of the Sangbong Station eating alley, it was really easy to get to! Hours are 16:00–03:00 on weekdays (last order 02:00) and 15:00–02:00 on weekends (last order 01:00). No parking.

We came right after work hours on a weekday, and some people were already eating, and more kept arriving as we ate!! Hoepanjang, popular in Konkuk University and Gangnam, has opened as a new aged sashimi spot in Sangbong, so word seems to have spread already.

Can you sit outdoors or indoors?

At Hoepanjang Sangbong you can choose between indoor seats and outdoor tables. The weather was nice and cool, so we picked the outdoor table. In this kind of weather, eating outside just feels better, and somehow the food tastes even better too.

Hoepanjang Sangbong menu and what we ordered

You order on a tablet on the table. There were mixed sashimi sets, mixed sashimi plus seafood sets, and single items like flounder and salmon sashimi. Sides such as mulhoe (cold raw fish soup), muchimhoe (spicy sashimi salad), and seafood ramyeon were varied too, so it works for a proper meal or as drinking food.

• Small mixed sashimi platter ₩54,000
• Asahi draft beer ₩9,000
• Chilsung Cider ₩2,000

My boyfriend wanted beer with aged sashimi, so he went home after work to drop off his motorcycle haha. I brought my motorcycle ㅠ so I made do with a soft drink.

The interior is new, so it's very clean and pretty! Every booth has partitions, so it's private and nice for chatting over drinks. It has the feel of an upscale Japanese restaurant, so I think it would also work for a date or a company dinner around Sangbong Station.

What starters come out at Hoepanjang Sangbong?

The starters (skidashi) keep coming: grilled fish, beondegi-tang (silkworm pupa soup), assorted jeon (Korean pancakes), corn cheese, and mussel soup, all unlimited. Not long after we ordered, a fish whose name I forgot and the beondegi-tang came out! Was it sea bream? I can't remember. Even just those two would make this one of the better starter spreads among Sangbong Station sashimi places, but that's not all... it just kept coming, seriously haha. I forgot the name, but the grilled fish was really good. The flesh was soft and tender!

Assorted jeon, corn cheese and mussel soup come out too!! At first we thought, wow, grilled fish and beondegi-tang, great starters.. but then more kept coming and I was like ????? full of question marks... The mussel soup in particular is too good to be a free side dish... It's warm, refreshing, slightly spicy broth that settles your stomach, and heavy drinkers could probably finish a bottle of soju with it.

And all of these starters are unlimited,,, isn't that amazing? But there were only two of us and so much came out haha, we were too full to ask for more ㅠㅠㅠ

How big is the small mixed sashimi platter?

The small mixed sashimi platter at Hoepanjang Sangbong comes with a whole bowl-load of sashimi, plus a little mulhoe and muchimhoe on the side. What is going on with this portion haha. I was actually thinking of ordering mulhoe as a side, but after seeing the size of the platter I decided to go for it, and then mulhoe came with the platter... I've never seen an aged sashimi place like this haha. The portion is seriously huge. Great value, I think ㅜㅜㅜ

How good is the aged sashimi at Hoepanjang Sangbong?

Is it just big portions? Nope, not that either..... The owner reportedly goes to the auction market and fish market every dawn to source seafood directly. So you can try premium fish at a reasonable price, and maybe that's why the sashimi's chewiness is exceptional.

When the sashimi came out, the staff explained the cuts and fish in great detail, which made eating more fun! They said the sea bass that came in that day was plump and a really good fish(?). The platter had 8 kinds, and mackerel sashimi too, so I was very happy hehe

Side dishes and icy mulhoe

The platter came with a huge range of sides for the aged sashimi: special sauce, vinegared rice, gopchang-gim (thick seaweed), garlic, chili peppers, rakkyo (pickled shallots), perilla leaves, aged kimchi, sesame oil, and myeongran-jeot (salted pollock roe). I honestly thought the table legs would break haha. And the mulhoe that came with it? Seriously so good.... It's icy mulhoe, the broth is really refreshing and sweet-sour, and there was plenty of good-quality fish inside.

Mackerel sashimi on the platter

The platter includes mackerel sashimi, and I've never seen mackerel on a mixed platter before!!!!!! My boyfriend had recently been singing about wanting winter to come quickly so he could eat mackerel sashimi, and here it was on the Hoepanjang Sangbong platter. It was really rich and nutty... so good. They said it's aged about 3 days? and maybe because it's aged, the chewiness is on another level... With vinegared rice served alongside, we made bong-chobap (sushi rolled up in a big bite) right away haha

Croaker(?) and the mussels in the mussel soup

I think this one was croaker (mineo)(?). The fish was so chewy, and I loved it. And the mussels in the mussel soup weren't just shells(?), the mussel meat was plump.... Delicious.... I could totally recommend this among the aged sashimi places near Sangbong Station...

Summer amberjack and salmon

I was surprised to see amberjack when it isn't even winter, but they said it's gaetbangeo (a summer amberjack). It was as rich as the big winter amberjack, so I wrapped it in gopchang-gim and ate it happily haha. The salmon was also rich and tender, really good.

Is Hoepanjang Sangbong worth a return visit?

Hoepanjang Sangbong is excellent from the starters to the sashimi quality, and corkage is even free....! I highly recommend it to anyone looking for aged sashimi near Sangbong Station, and it should be great when you want something a bit more upscale to go with drinks around Sangbong Station ㅠ I definitely want to come back! It was so delicious....♥