Jongno bar with raw shrimp sashimi and a ginger ale soju set

I headed to Jongak Station to wrap up a Jongno date course. All the good restaurants and bars are clustered around Jongak Station, you know? The weather had warmed up a bit so it was packed with people. While looking for a Jongno bar or sashimi place, I ended up at Suksseong Susan!

Where is Suksseong Susan Jongno Main Branch, and what are its hours?

📌 16 Samil-daero 19-gil, 3rd floor, Jongno-gu, Seoul ⏰️ Mon–Fri 11:00 – 24:00 Sat–Sun 12:00 – 24:00

It's within 400m of Jongak Station Exit 3, near the entrance to Jeongmeum-ui Geori (literally "Youth Street"). I always thought it was just a random restaurant alley, but turns out it actually has that name haha. It's on the 3rd floor of the building with Simin Hof, and there's a big, easy-to-spot sign.

Menu and prices at Suksseong Susan: starting with the raw shrimp sashimi

Suksseong Susan, this Jongno bar and sashimi place, really had it all — aged sashimi, seafood, Korean beef yukhoe (raw beef), various stews, even mulhoe (cold raw fish soup) and pasta. And you know raw shrimp is amazing this season, right? Lucky for me, they had raw shrimp sashimi too. I'd been going on and on about wanting it, so I was so happy to see it haha. I ordered the raw shrimp sashimi first without even thinking twice.

What we ordered at Suksseong Susan

• Raw shrimp sashimi ₩45,000
• Brisket rose pasta ₩23,000
• Clam odeng (fish cake) stew ₩27,000
• Soju ₩6,000
• Ginger ale set ₩6,000

Every seat at Suksseong Susan is a private room

Turns out every single seat at Suksseong Susan is set up as a private room. Perfect for having a private conversation, so it'd make a great blind date spot in Jongak too lol. I could just feel that someone was definitely on a blind date somewhere in there.

The basic side dishes were soft tofu with perilla sauce and kimchi with peas. Peas are my all-time favorite izakaya side dish haha. These days a lot of places charge extra for that ㅠ The soft tofu was a nice palate cleanser. The sauce was so good!

I was way too full that day, so instead of somaek (soju-beer mix) I had soju with ginger ale as a tonic. The set comes with two bottles of ginger ale, ice, and lemon for 6,000 won. Seems like a good deal.

Raw shrimp sashimi, 45,000 won, with the heads served fried

The raw shrimp sashimi arrived looking incredible. Doesn't the shrimp look super fresh? It came with fried shrimp heads too, which were genuinely delicious. Great touch haha.

I really had been craving raw shrimp sashimi... it was so plump and springy, the condition was excellent. I usually like sashimi dipped in soy sauce, but for raw shrimp sashimi, chojang (spicy vinegar sauce) is where it's at lol. One bite dipped in chojang and it was chewy and springy — so delicious! Of course it works well with soy sauce too, so eat it however you like.

Clam and fish cake stew, 27,000 won, packed with shellfish

This was basically a full meal that day lol. I wanted something with a hot, refreshing broth, so I ordered the clam odeng (fish cake) stew. It was loaded with hard clams, mussels, scallops, and other seafood, plus a solid four skewers of odeng. I thought the price seemed a little steep at first, but the visual definitely justified it.

There was a real variety of shellfish in there — hard clams, scallops, you name it — and the meat was super chewy and delicious. First the shrimp, now the clams, all bouncy and springy lol. And the broth was so refreshing... it genuinely made me go 'ahhh' out loud. Overall, the drinking snack quality at this Jongno spot Suksseong Susan is really good! You could easily make a full meal out of it without ordering a separate dinner.

Brisket rose pasta, 23,000 won, about 1.5 servings

You're probably thinking, why order so much lol. We'd decided to skip dinner separately, so between covering both drinks and a meal, we ended up ordering three menu items. This brisket rose pasta comes generously loaded with brisket. It's nice that bread comes alongside it too. The portion is pretty big as well — feels like about 1.5 servings.

It had been a while since I had pasta at a bar, and this was genuinely spicy and delicious! The seasoning was spot on. This actually works surprisingly well as a soju pairing lol. Raw shrimp sashimi, clam stew, and pasta — you'd think that combination would be weird, but it actually works together. Just eating raw shrimp sashimi and clams alone leaves you a bit unsatisfied, but the carbs really filled things out and made us properly full. We had a hearty meal while sipping drinks alongside it, like a proper meal-with-a-drink situation.

You know these fried shrimp heads are seriously good, right haha. The look might be a bit much... but it's basically the original Saeukkang (shrimp chip snack) in real form. We ordered three drinking snacks and ended up having a full meal — each dish had great quality and generous portions, so we genuinely ate until we were stuffed. If you're looking for a raw shrimp sashimi spot this summer, or a Jongno bar and sashimi restaurant near Jongak Station, give Suksseong Susan a try!