Aged sashimi izakaya near Sadang Station: all 4 dishes hit at Susan

With this cool weather, it's the perfect time for aged sashimi and a drink! Winter is sashimi season, after all, right? This time I visited Susan Sadang Main Branch (수산 사당본점), famous as an aged sashimi spot near Sadang Station. I went on a weekday evening and the ground floor, which feels like an outdoor drinking tent, was already full, sadly :( But every dish we ordered was so good that my friends and I all agreed, "okay, this place can really cook" haha. The aged sashimi quality is great and it works well for get-togethers too, so here's my review of this Sadang Station bar, Susan Sadang Main Branch :)

Do you need a reservation at Susan Sadang Main Branch on a weekday?

Susan Sadang Main Branch is packed even at 7pm on a weekday, so I'd book ahead. I reserved for 7pm on a weekday. Sadang is a neighborhood full of office workers and university students drinking after work, so honestly a reservation is a must. It wasn't even Friday and the place was still full. Luckily, because I had booked, we were shown to a basement table with no wait.

Susan Sadang Main Branch location and opening hours

• Address: 17 Nambusunhwan-ro 271ga-gil, Dongjak-gu, Seoul, South Korea (B1 and 1st floor)
• Location: about 4–5 minutes on foot from Exit 7 of Sadang Station
• Hours: Mon–Thu 16:00–01:00, Fri–Sat 15:00–02:00, Sun 15:00–23:00
• Last order: Mon–Thu 00:20, Fri–Sat 01:20, Sun 22:20
• Reservations: Naver Reservation and phone
• Parking: no dedicated parking
• Seating: 1st floor and basement level 1

Ground-floor open-air vibe vs. the cozy basement

Susan Sadang Main Branch is about a 4–5 minute walk from Exit 7 of Sadang Station, on the Sadang food alley side, so it's a great spot to meet friends. The restaurant is split between the ground floor and basement level 1. When I visited, the ground-floor doors were wide open, so it felt just like drinking at an outdoor tent! When the weather is this nice, an open place like that is the best, haha. But even at 7pm on a weekday, the ground floor was already full.

So, sadly, down to the basement we went haha. If the ground floor is the airy open-air type, the basement is a bit cozier. It was also fine for a group of friends chatting over drinks. If you're looking for a meeting place around Sadang Station, it's worth keeping in mind.

Susan Sadang Main Branch menu and prices

Susan Sadang Main Branch is known for menus that let you enjoy aged sashimi and yuksashimi (beef sashimi) together. Signature items include Gwangban Yuksa (flounder + beef sashimi) at ₩48,000 and Gwangban Yeonban (flounder + salmon) at ₩48,000.

Besides sashimi, they also sell a variety of Japanese-style bar snacks like soup dishes, maki (rolls) and udon, so it's easy to order a bit of everything when you come with several people.

The mentaiko udon (thick, creamy pollock roe udon) had good reviews too.

The drinks list is varied too, starting with draft beer.

What we ordered that day

• Gwangban Yuksa
• Miso oden
• Ankimo maki
• Mentaiko cream udon
• Hotteok ice cream (review event)

I went with friends, so we ordered a bit of everything, from the main dish to a soup snack to a finisher. To say the conclusion first: every dish we ordered was delicious!

The welcome drink when you sit down

Once we sat down at Susan Sadang Main Branch, they brought out a welcome drink before the meal. At most bars you jump straight to ordering food, so even though it's a small service, this made a good first impression.

Gwangban Yuksa: how do the aged flounder and beef sashimi taste?

Gwangban Yuksa puts aged flounder sashimi and Korean beef sashimi on one plate for ₩48,000, and it was the first dish out that day! We each had a glass of the welcome drink with friends and then dug into the snacks haha. I like both sashimi and beef sashimi, so I went with this.

First of all, the aged sashimi quality was good! It's sashimi from a bar, so I didn't expect much, but the flounder had that deep savory flavor aged fish gets, and the nuttiness came up the more I chewed. Delicious.

Aged sashimi from a place that does it well has a different charm from regular live sashimi, right? The flounder this time was satisfying too, so if you visit Susan, definitely order the aged sashimi!

The beef sashimi felt fresh too. It was clean with no gamey smell and had a soft texture, so I really enjoyed it.

A soup snack to go with the sashimi: miso oden

At Susan Sadang Main Branch, I ordered miso oden (fish cake stew in miso broth) as a soup snack to go with the sashimi and beef sashimi. With sashimi and beef sashimi on the table, you need one hot soup dish, right? Having a warm broth snack between bites of cold aged sashimi and beef sashimi was a great combination.

When you're drinking, you crave a bit of hot broth now and then, and the miso oden made the meal more filling. If you're wondering which soup snack to order with sashimi, miso oden seems like a good choice. We had it with draft beer~~

A rice dish of sorts: ankimo maki

Ankimo maki is Susan Sadang Main Branch's roll made with ankimo (monkfish liver), and it came out right after the miso oden. We came for dinner and drinks, so I ordered it as the rice dish, and it was delicious too, which was satisfying. It's not salty, and it tastes great.

Finishing with mentaiko cream udon

The mentaiko cream udon was an extra order to finish after several snacks. Even though we'd already eaten a lot, as we kept drinking we wanted one last thing haha. My friends and I felt that every dish got the basics right. At a bar, when you order lots of snacks, there's usually one that's a little disappointing, but at Susan Sadang Main Branch the dishes we ordered were all good overall.

Review event hotteok ice cream

At the end we also had hotteok (sweet filled pancake) ice cream through a review event. You need a sweet dessert at the end, so definitely do the review event~!

Is Susan Sadang Main Branch a good meeting place near Sadang Station?

I'd recommend Susan Sadang Main Branch to anyone looking for a Sadang Station bar or meeting place with good aged sashimi. The ground-floor doors are wide open, giving it an outdoor-tent feel that suits a get-together. Most satisfying of all, every single snack was delicious! The aged flounder was high quality and the beef sashimi was fresh. Personally, I highly recommend the Gwangban Yuksa! And since it was busy even on a weekday evening, make sure to check about reservations before you go!