Mangwon Station sashimi restaurant, perilla squid wraps: Mapo Bamdada

Today I'm telling you about Mapo Bamdada (마포밤바다), a sashimi restaurant in Mangwon-dong near Mapo-gu Office Station where you can enjoy seasonal live squid sashimi.

Where is Mapo Bamdada, and is it easy to find?

Mapo Bamdada sits between Mangwon Station and Mapo-gu Office Station, so it's a sashimi restaurant that's pretty easy to reach by public transport.

Mapo Bamdada is a signature sashimi place for Mapo-gu Office and Mangwon-dong. The seasonal sashimi, mulhoe (cold raw fish soup) and seafood are so fresh that I think it's the best sashimi restaurant around Mapo-gu Office Station and Mangwon Station.

Seasonal live squid at Mapo Bamdada: what other live fish are there?

The seasonal live squid in Mapo Bamdada's tank weren't just fresh, they were swimming around and playing like crazy.

Around May, when live squid is in season, I really wanted to go to the squid stalls in Sokcho, but there's all that controversy about price gouging... So if you're around Mapo, Hapjeong, Mangwon or Mapo-gu Office in Seoul, Mapo Bamdada is just right. Honestly~~ I was also soaking in sadness because something I'd hoped for didn't work out.

Besides seasonal squid, there's a wide range of live fish: mackerel, flounder, rockfish, sea bream, dohta flounder (a type of flounder), striped flounder and more. This Mangwon sashimi restaurant also has sea squirt, rock sea squirt, sea cucumber, live octopus, spoon worms, abalone, conch and scallops.

There was also a signature from a celebrity who's hot these days, but even rubbing my eyes I couldn't make out the writing on the bottom line. I got stubborn and dug into it, and it says "Boss, buy a pen that works." Haha!

What's the atmosphere at Mapo Bamdada like?

Mapo Bamdada is a sashimi restaurant near Mapo-gu Office Station that's indoors but decorated to feel like outdoors.

True to a place made for sashimi and a glass of soju, the green soju bottles lined up on the window were a striking touch.

What's on the menu at Mapo Bamdada, and how much?

Mapo Bamdada is a Mangwon-dong sashimi restaurant with a truly record-breaking number of menu items. It opens at 12 and has no break time, so it's a Mapo-gu Office Station spot where daytime drinking is possible!!!

Lunch menu

• Lunch special, 11:00–15:00, from 2 people, ₩23,000 per person
• Roe stew (alltang) ₩10,000
• Sashimi rice bowl (hoedeopbap) ₩10,000
• Sea squirt bibimbap ₩10,000
• Salmon bibimbap ₩10,000
• Cockle bibimbap ₩10,000

Seasonal sashimi

• Live squid sashimi ₩45,000
• Live mackerel sashimi ₩35,000
• Live mackerel + flounder / + dohta flounder / + salmon / + mullet, ₩55,000 each
• Live mackerel + rockfish ₩58,000
• Live mackerel + red sea bream ₩65,000
• Stone flounder ₩60,000
• Black-spotted trevally ₩90,000
• Striped jack + flounder / + dohta flounder, ₩75,000 each
• Striped jack + red sea bream / + rockfish, ₩78,000 each

Omakase, single-fish sashimi and mulhoe

What kinds of single-fish sashimi are there, you ask? So many that my eyes were spinning. @,@ There's mulhoe too~~

Seafood

• Rock sea squirt, 1 kg ₩30,000
• Sea squirt ₩15,000
• Sea cucumber ₩23,000
• Spoon worms, 8 pieces ₩23,000
• Live octopus, 2 ₩23,000
• Steamed conch ₩30,000
• Scallops, 3–4 (the original menu shows ₩2,000)
• Abalone, 5 pieces ₩20,000
• Mini seafood assortment ₩33,000
• Seafood assortment for 2–3 people ₩50,000

Fried dishes

• Fried king prawns, 6 pieces ₩10,000
• Tongyeong fried oysters, 10 pieces ₩18,000
• Fried sweet-and-sour dish (튀김탕수) ₩25,000

Add-on menu

Mapo Bamdada is a Mangwon-dong sashimi restaurant with really kind prices on add-ons.

• Soy-marinated shrimp, 12 pieces ₩10,000
• Extra braised half-dried pollack (kodari-jjim) ₩5,000
• Rice mulhoe ₩15,000
• Rice with spicy fish stew ₩10,000
• Fish-bone stew (seodeori-tang) ₩8,000
• Seafood ramyeon ₩8,000
• Steamed rice, vinegared sushi rice, ramyeon noodles or thin wheat noodles, ₩1,000 each

Drinks

There's Ppalttu (a soju brand) and Daesun (another soju brand) too. This is the drink menu at Mapo Bamdada, a Mangwon-dong pub and sashimi restaurant in one.

• Soju ₩5,000
• Beer ₩5,000
• Maehwasu (plum liquor) ₩6,000
• Suntory highball ₩9,000
• Bamdada Suntory highball ₩10,000
• Gambare Otokosan (sake) ₩35,000

What are the basic table setting and free side dishes at Mapo Bamdada?

At Mapo Bamdada, more than half the table was already set before we'd even ordered.

Two soy-marinated shrimp come out, and Mapo Bamdada's shrimp is not fishy, not salty, and totally delicious!

Signature free sides: braised pollack and mini mulhoe

Mapo Bamdada's insanely good braised half-dried pollack, and this is a free side!! (₩5,000 if you add more.) I'd order it even if they charged ₩10,000.

The mini mulhoe is free too, with a generous amount of raw fish, and the sweet-and-sour seasoning feels like it rinses out your mouth~~

• Cabbage salad with black sesame dressing
• Chamnamul (pimpinella) salad with garlic sesame dressing

Another free side: clam soup

Mapo Bamdada's clam soup is free too, so I ate it gratefully, but it's so good I felt sorry about it. Like the braised pollack, they could charge ₩10,000 for it!!!

The soy sauce is Kikkoman! Even though it's pricey, Mapo Bamdada uses KIKKOMAN soy sauce to bring out the flavor of the sashimi ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

How did the two live squid at Mapo Bamdada taste?

This isn't the squid stalls in Sokcho, it's Mapo Bamdada, the Mapo-gu Office Station / Mangwon-dong sashimi restaurant. Sorry, guys... The ones that were happily playing in the tank at Mapo Bamdada's entrance ended up in my mouth!!! Squid that keep moving till the very end.

Even though it's Seoul, the quality of Mapo Bamdada's live squid sashimi is Sokcho level! Personally I like the legs better in live squid sashimi.. the crunchy texture is great. Thanks to that, my husband got to eat all the squid body he likes, yay~~

Live squid sashimi in perilla leaf wraps

I normally don't wrap my sashimi, you know~ But live squid sashimi wrapped in a perilla leaf is absolutely heavenly.

I tried seaweed wraps too, but

The Wando gim (seaweed) with the shrimp brand you often see at tuna sashimi restaurants comes out as a basic at Mapo Bamdada, so I made seaweed wraps too, but for squid sashimi, perilla leaf is the truth!!!

Mapo Bamdada location and hours

• Address: 146 Woldeukeop-ro, 1st floor, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea
• Subway: 220 m from Exit 4 of Mapo-gu Office Station, Line 6
• Bus: take bus 271 to Mangwon-dong Bangulnae-gil Entrance, then walk 30 seconds
• Hours: Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon, Tue, Thu 12:00–01:00; Wed 12:00–24:00

A little bragging

A bracelet my son made me, and a necklace & ring my daughter made me. Thank you ❤ my Tae siblings