Jegidong sashimi spot: flounder wraps & fruit sauce, Simdo Hoetjip

Wrapping things in sashimi? I'd never thought of that... but sashimi lovers will all be into it, right?! And you wrap lots of different seafood, ginseng and raw chestnut in it too... Here's Simdo Hoetjip's gujeol hoe naengchae (nine-item cold seafood salad), a perfect summer stamina dish for hot days.

What is Simdo Hoetjip near Jegidong Station like?

Simdo Hoetjip (심도횟집) is a sashimi restaurant on the first floor of the Lotte Castle Firenze building, near Jegidong Station and Gyeongdong Market. I hear the head chef has 40 years of cooking experience, including a stint as main chef at an embassy abroad!

The restaurant also has a guide on how to enjoy the gujeol hoe naengchae best.

What we ordered at Simdo Hoetjip

What side dishes come with your order at Simdo Hoetjip?

The basic setting at Simdo Hoetjip comes with stir-fried clams, perilla leaves with cheongyang chili (spicy green chili), seaweed soup, ssamjang (seasoned dipping paste), fresh wasabi, steamed egg, kimchi pancake and grilled herring. The sides were all really good, one by one.

The stir-fried clams were rich in umami with an exotic flavor.

The steamed egg was savory, soft and full of umami, so good.

The kimchi pancake was really savory and crispy. >.< Every single side dish was really delicious.

A huge grilled herring comes out too. It had the same exotic, umami-rich sauce drizzled on top, plus shredded green onion, so it felt like a proper dish of its own.

What goes into the gujeol hoe naengchae?

Simdo Hoetjip's gujeol hoe naengchae arrives on a huge plate piled with premium ingredients: big flounder sashimi cut for wrapping, cooked shrimp, steamed clams, sea cucumber, ddaksaeu (deep-water shrimp), steamed abalone, boiled octopus, ginseng, raw chestnut and plenty of mixed vegetables.

The fresh ingredients were plated so prettily and generously that my expectations shot up!

How do you eat gujeol hoe naengchae in flounder wraps?

You lay big slices of flounder sashimi on your plate, add seafood and vegetables, roll it up, and dip it in the chef's homemade fruit sauce. The fruit sauce the chef makes himself was sweet, sour and refreshingly tingly, and it was so good!!!

The gujeol hoe naengchae together with the side dishes. Haha, I was excited for this novel menu, and the sides were each so tasty that I was really satisfied.

As the staff explained, I spread a big slice of flounder on my plate and wrapped it up, mixing different seafood combinations. Lots of vegetables, lots of fruit sauce, yum. Wow, the clean, fresh taste of the seafood goes so well with the umami-rich, sweet-and-sour cold salad sauce. T_T

Each ingredient is cut to be easy to eat, so mixing and matching is fun. It was a novel and delicious dish.

I peeled the ddaksaeu out of its shell, piled on lots of vegetables and sea cucumber, and rolled it all up in flounder.

Wrapping it in a perilla leaf was really good too!!!

After the flounder wraps: finishing the vegetables as a cold salad

Once the big flounder for wrapping is gone, you pour lots of fruit sauce over the thinly sliced vegetables and toss them well.

It's already a tasty salad, or vegetable cold salad, on its own. You could mix in the sashimi and seafood too, but I figured eating the seafood alongside the vegetables would let you taste both more distinctly, so that's what I did! Haha.

Sashimi with the vegetables, shrimp with them too... sweet, sour and cool, so good. >.< My boyfriend even wrapped a generous bite with the steamed egg... hahaha.

How many people can share the gujeol hoe naengchae?

The portion at Simdo Hoetjip is quite big, so I think even 3 people could eat it! Of course my boyfriend has a huge appetite, so he finished it all... haha.

If you like sashimi and seafood, I think you'll be happy with this novel, creative gujeol hoe naengchae! We really enjoyed it.