Seafood vs meat jjamppong broth at Samsin, a Sinsa Chinese restaurant

It's a Sinsa Station Chinese restaurant, but the base menu is Chinese fused with Korean and Japanese touches. Great for a drink in the evening in Garosu-gil, and just as good for lunch!

Where is Samsin Garosu-gil and what are its hours?

• Hours: Sun–Thu 11:00–23:00 / Fri–Sat 11:00–24:00
• Break time: 16:00–17:00
• Last order: 22:00 / 23:00
• Address: 46 Gangnam-daero156-gil, 2nd & 3rd floor, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea (377m from Sinsa Station)

How are the private rooms and main hall at Samsin laid out?

You can check out the menu from outside Samsin Garosu-gil even before going in. Having eaten there, I can say the actual menu is much!! bigger than that board.

There was a small hall on the first floor, and rooms on the right side that I couldn't photograph because people were seated there. Both the first and second floors are split into rooms and open hall seating.

The second floor!! The interior feels very upscale. It's technically hall seating but slightly partitioned, so it manages to feel open and private at the same time.

The spaces closed off with doors are the private rooms!! The one on the right was occupied and closed, but the one on the left was empty so I could peek inside. Even though it's a room, leaving the door open lets it function like regular hall seating, so it never feels stuffy.

The basic table setting — a very upscale set of tableware!

Gongalppang (puffed bread) comes as a default starter, along with pickled radish, kimchi, and a ginger soy sauce.

Which five à la carte dishes we ordered instead of the course

The five dishes ordered at Samsin were yuni pepper ganjjajang, East Sea seafood jjamppong, handmade XO crab fried rice, Tokyo tangsuyuk, and Hokkaido milk cream shrimp.

Since it was lunch, I agonized over whether to order a mix of rice and noodle dishes or go for the course, and ended up ordering both a meal item and a cooked dish. Samsin Course A at ₩25,000 is a lunch-only value set letting you choose from soup, dim sum, tangsuyuk, or noodles. Beyond the course, the menu is seriously seriously seriously huge!

Tokyo tangsuyuk (small), 20,000 won: sauce poured at the table

Tokyo tangsuyuk (small) is ₩20,000. It's an homage to Tokyo-style steak, a fusion dish adding a spoonful of Japanese trend to traditional Chinese tangsuyuk. Chinese tangsuyuk meets Japanese flair!

The fried tangsuyuk arrives on something like a sizzling hot plate, and the sauce is poured over it right in front of you. The sizzle really does sound like a Tokyo steak. At the very least, it's fun for the eyes and ears.

The taste? Great! This is a dish that makes me think Samsin is genuinely excellent at frying. The sauce is delicious, the meat has no off smell, and the crispy tangsuyuk keeps you reaching for another piece.

Hokkaido milk cream shrimp, 24,000 won

Hokkaido milk cream shrimp is ₩24,000. Apparently it's shrimp coated in a cream made from Hokkaido's distinctively rich milk — a fusion dish where Chinese-style cream shrimp meets Hokkaido milk cream!

They advised eating the shrimp together with the cream on the left. Underneath the shrimp is a bed of cabbage.

This lemon cream shrimp was seriously so good, ugh. Among Sinsa Station Chinese restaurants, Samsin feels like it's newly rising to the top... I'd definitely want to order this dish again next time. Look at that Tokyo tangsuyuk and milk cream shrimp visual!!

Yuni pepper ganjjajang noodles, 12,000 won, with a fried egg

Yuni pepper ganjjajang is ₩12,000. It's Samsin's signature ganjjajang, adding Korean spicy notes to traditional Chinese chunjang black bean paste. The ganjjajang sauce is poured tableside when it's served. I just asked for the fried egg separately — ganjjajang with a fried egg on top, who knew!

Once the jjajang sauce is poured over, this is the visual!!

Yes, I'll officially say it — Samsin is a legit Sinsa Station Chinese restaurant!! They say a real gem restaurant nails the basics first, and while I ordered this partly because I genuinely love jjajangmyeon, this place's ganjjajang was truly delicious. Since my office is nearby, it feels like a good spot to keep coming back to.

East Sea seafood jjamppong, 13,000 won: the manager's pick

East Sea seafood jjamppong is ₩13,000. Apparently it's made with a broth simmered using traditional methods and loaded with East Sea seafood for a refreshing, spicy flavor. This is the manager's recommended pick, the tastiest jjamppong here — East Sea seafood jjamppong!!

This one's a fusion of East Sea seafood with Korean and Chinese cooking. "Fusion" can sound like a mess of random things thrown together, but here the Chinese base stays intact while Japanese and Korean touches are added lightly to boost the appeal. Spicy and clean, and delicious. From jjamppong, jjajang, and fried rice to tangsuyuk and cream shrimp — Samsin, the delicious Sinsa Station Chinese restaurant!

Handmade XO crab fried rice, 18,000 won, and its meat jjamppong broth

Handmade XO crab fried rice is ₩18,000. It's apparently fried rice flavored with handmade XO sauce simmered for 3 hours from 11 ingredients, along with plump A-grade crab meat. Handmade XO sauce!!! Eating it, I could taste a fairly strong wok-fried flavor, and it was an incredibly appealing dish.

Since there was jjajang sauce around, I ate it together with the fried rice, and it paired really well. Seems like it's fine to fuse the menu items together like this, haha ><;;

A jjamppong broth comes alongside it, and while the regular seafood jjamppong was very clean and refreshing, the jjamppong served with the XO fried rice had visible rich meat fat, more like a meat jjamppong broth!! Definitely deeper in flavor — so if you want clean, refreshing basics, go for the seafood jjamppong, and if you want rich, deep flavor, go for the meat jjamppong.

Dessert at Samsin: free mango coconut sorbet

Mango coconut sorbet, which you can get by leaving a review!! It has that refreshing sweet flavor that makes you wonder if it's pineapple or mango, but it's mango + coconut!! Super smooth and sweet.

When they brought out the sorbet, they asked if we were finished eating, and cleared away all the previous plates neatly as they served it, so we could enjoy the final dessert in a relaxed, comfortable way. A Sinsa Station Chinese restaurant that charmingly fuses Korea, China, and Japan — Samsin!