Busan sashimi course with grilled seabream head: Ppong Sashimi

What kind of restaurant is Ppong Sashimi?

Ppong Sashimi is a Japanese-style course sashimi restaurant on Chungjang-daero 5beon-gil in Jung-gu, Busan, with every seat in its own private room. When friends from Seoul or elsewhere come to visit, I'm usually the one buying their last meal before they catch the KTX, and Ppong Sashimi is one of my go-tos. Every table is a proper room so you can eat without interruption, and it's right next to Busan Station, which makes it perfect for eating and then saying your goodbyes. Highly recommend.

• Address: 56 Chungjang-daero 5beon-gil, Jung-gu, Busan (Jungang-dong 4-ga), 1st floor, South Korea
• Hours: 11:30–22:00 (break time 14:30–17:00) / Closed every Sunday (open Sundays when Monday is a public holiday)
• All private rooms / lunch specials and dinner courses / no parking (use street parking in front)

It's about a 5-minute walk from Busan Station. You could easily eat here and head straight to the station to catch your KTX.

Private rooms and the opening side dishes at Ppong Sashimi

Every table at Ppong Sashimi is a private room, and if you book ahead you get priority for the fully enclosed ones with a door. I really recommend making a reservation.

The basic table setting includes salad, egg roll, and dried shredded octopus. The sweet-salty Japanese-style egg roll and the octopus were the perfect side for soju-and-beer.

Before the sashimi arrived, we got warm abalone porridge and seaweed soup. The seaweed soup had a strong pepper flavor that could go either way for people, but it was such a hit that I ate my sister's portion too. Alongside the warm dishes came raw minced tuna, which was a great palate cleanser before the real course began.

Round 1: seafood platter, sushi and sashimi platter

Ppong Sashimi's first course is a seafood platter and sushi. That day the abalone and squid were especially good — the abalone in particular had a nutty flavor and great texture, and the sea squirt and conch also tasted noticeably fresh. They clearly use seafood sourced fresh that day from Jagalchi Market right next door, and the freshness really stood out.

Next came red seabream, flounder, and salmon, along with chilled boiled pork. The pork had sauce brushed on and was torched once, giving it a smoky flavor while staying tender.

The red seabream had that crisp, bouncy texture you only get from truly fresh fish, and the flounder had a nice chewy quality. The salmon seemed to be deliberately cut from a lean part — no fat, which actually paired better when eaten alongside the white fish.

They also gave us garlic stems to eat with the sashimi. I'd say it might be one of Ppong Sashimi's signatures — it went especially well with the flounder.

We were already getting pretty full just from this, and this was only round one.

They say the sashimi platter course comes with an extra 3 pieces of tuna sashimi per person. If you want both tuna and regular sashimi, I recommend going with the sashimi platter course! The tuna had just the right amount of fat and was delicious.

Round 2: grilled red seabream head and beef bulgogi hot pot

Round two! Grilled red seabream head, cheese scallops, cheese shrimp, abalone, beef bulgogi hot pot, and fried shrimp.

I'm the only one in my family who eats fish heads, so the red seabream head was all mine. Everything else was delicious too, but especially the steamed abalone served with its own organ sauce — genuinely amazing. The abalone was clearly great that day. The beef bulgogi hot pot arrived right when we needed some broth, and it was excellent too.

The crispy fried shrimp paired really well with the curry salt.

Round 3: daegu jiri clear cod soup and albap rice

The final round is cod jiri (clear cod soup) and egg roe rice. Each person gets their own egg roe rice, and the clear cod soup made for a really clean finish. Since the beef bulgogi hot pot broth was fairly spicy, I think they finish with a clean, light soup on purpose. I'd had quite a bit to drink that day, and this soup sobered me right up.

Is the Ppong Sashimi course worth it?

If you're in Busan and a friend from out of town is about to head home, I recommend Ppong Sashimi for that last meal before they leave. The course is generous, and it's a great way to send someone off with a good final memory of Busan!