Daeheung Station sashimi restaurant: half-price sake & wine, Mapo Bada

What is Jaecheoldameun Mapo Bada?

Jaecheoldameun Mapo Bada (제철담은 마포바다) is a brand-new sashimi restaurant in Daeheung-dong, open just over a month, I hear~ But this is my space, so no lies here. And yes, this review includes some self-paid meals~

It was a weekday evening, not the weekend, and it was still busy. The sashimi itself was delicious and the full spread was the kicker... Usually when a place serves lots of extras, the amount of sashimi is relatively small, but Jaecheoldameun Mapo Bada didn't cut the sashimi at all and gave a generous portion, which I liked most. If you're looking for a Mapo sashimi restaurant with great side dishes (sekkoshi), this is perfect, a Daeheung Station spot with a great lineup~~

Opening hours and closing days

• Closed every Monday
• Tue–Fri 17:00–22:50
• Sat–Sun 12:00–23:00
• Last order is 1 hour 30 minutes before closing

Getting there from Daeheung Station and the atmosphere

It's a 1-minute walk straight from Daeheung Station Exit 3, so access from the station is great, and it's right on the main road so it stands out!

Look at this clean fish tank in a newly opened place... so clean I almost bathed in this water (?)

The inside is even bigger than I expected, so it seems good for a company dinner in Mapo too! There was a table of 8, and the customers were a mix of families, couples and small groups of coworkers, so it really suits whoever you come with.

What to order at Jaecheoldameun Mapo Bada

Personally, I think the best order here is a set menu, or the assorted sashimi if you go à la carte. The sets for 2 / 3–4 / 4 people add more and more extras as the headcount grows, so I recommend them even more when you come in a group...~~

Half-price 2nd and 3rd bottles of traditional liquor, sake and wine

Jaecheoldameun Mapo Bada has a variety of drinks, including traditional liquor, sake and wine, and the real hit is that the 2nd and 3rd bottles are only half price. Don't you have to get to three bottles? From the 4th bottle it's back to the regular price, so let's fill up to three and stop there ^_^

What we ordered and how much it cost

• Mapo Bada Value Set (for 2) - ₩79,000
• Soju - ₩5,000 × 3
• Fish-head stew (seodeori-tang) - ₩10,000

I'm a person who doesn't know how to enjoy traditional liquor, sake or wine, so just give me my usual soju.

Water comes as a 500ml bottle, so you don't have to wonder when the water jug was last washed.

What side dishes come with the Value Set for 2?

If you order the Value Set at Jaecheoldameun Mapo Bada, you get sashimi plus salad, sushi, side dishes, abalone porridge, grilled shrimp, steamed egg and grilled gizzard shad, one after another. Lots of things come along with the sashimi, and apparently that's not all!!!!!!

First, the salad. The dressing is mayo-based, and it isn't a sharp flavor I can describe, but I liked its very smooth, nutty richness. Adding croutons for texture on top of that mellow taste, honestly they know what they're doing.

It's a set for 2, so the sushi comes as two pieces per person, four in total~ The sushi suited my taste perfectly: the rice is on the heavily seasoned side and packed firmly! The sashimi on top wasn't dried out either, which I liked even more.

Banchan and gungchae muchim (seasoned celtuce stems)

The side dishes at Jaecheoldameun Mapo Bada were corn salad / gungchae-muchim (seasoned stalk lettuce stems) / stir-fried fish cake / seaweed soup, and

this gungchae-muchim was so identical to the one I had at Neuru in Yeonsinnae that I was shocked. I've now seen gungchae seasoned this way twice, once at Neuru and once here. I really don't know what sauce it is but it's sooooooo good. It's hard to find elsewhere, so when you see it, get a refill (?) Truly insanely delicious... pure umami...

Abalone porridge comes too, and it was nice to spoon up before the meal. The abalone is chopped small, but there's a surprising amount of it, so you can really feel that chewy abalone texture.

Which fish came on the main sashimi platter?

The main sashimi at Jaecheoldameun Mapo Bada was flounder / rockfish / sea bream / raw shrimp and yum-yum (?).

Ah, someone tell me the types of fish ㅠㅠ When I don't know this stuff I wonder if I should quit blogging. Feels like getting disqualified. Oh, the flounder came with three pieces of fin too, and they say they only use Wando flounder over 1.5kg? Honestly I can't tell if Wando makes it tastier, but not just the flounder, all of the sashimi was just insanely good ㅠ

They bring the sashimi with grilled shrimp on top, what generosity... and the grilled shrimp isn't ordered separately, it's included in the set by default!!!! You know how grilled shrimp at a sashimi place has hardly any shrimp but costs a fortune? And on top of that, steamed egg

And once the grilled gizzard shad comes out, the whole table is finally done ㅠㅠ The set for 2 is ₩79,000, and you saw the amount of sashimi earlier, it's definitely not small!!!! Sashimi in generous amounts by type for ₩79,000, and the rest of the lineup is like this? Isn't that excellent? I'm giving it a thumbs up as a real Mapo sashimi restaurant.

After-work sashimi and soju near Gongdeok

Sashimi and soju after work = heaven. Instead of going to some mediocre Gongdeok bar for a first round of random stuff, coming to Jaecheoldameun Mapo Bada at Daeheung Station for a proper spread is a hundred times better.

In Seoul, unless you go to a fish market or somewhere like that, sashimi is often sliced thin, but Jaecheoldameun Mapo Bada cuts it thick and in big pieces, which I liked, and the chewiness of the fish is out of this world... just crazy good.

Grilled shrimp and butter-grilled shrimp heads

With the grilled shrimp that comes by default in the set at Jaecheoldameun Mapo Bada, I wondered how long to cook them, and a staff member, even though busy, turned off the heat on the way and told us to let it rest before eating. I was touched by that care. Maybe because the weather got colder, the shrimp had grown big, very thick, and the sweetness from the shrimp was just wild.

If you cut off the shrimp heads and set them aside, they'll butter-grill them for you at no extra charge!!!!!! We all know butter-grilled is delicious... Personally, I think it'd be even better a bit less salty and sweeter! When you cut off the head, don't leave only the head part, cut at the neck, take notes everyone~

Sea bream matsukawa and raw shrimp

Jaecheoldameun Mapo Bada serves sea bream with the skin on as masukawa (skin-on sashimi), and it's insanely good, and the raw shrimp is basically sugar (kidding, not quite that much). Honestly the only raw shrimp I'd had was right after buying it at a fish market, so I was half worried, half excited about how it would be at a restaurant, and it's this good???????

Is the spicy fish-bone stew (seodeori-tang) worth ordering?

The seodeori-tang (fish-head stew) at Jaecheoldameun Mapo Bada is ₩10,000, with a clear, refreshing broth and plenty of fish meat, and I'd tell you to definitely order it. I don't associate with people who eat sashimi and skip the fish stew.

I'm a person who loves crown daisy greens in fish stew, so I liked that they gave plenty, and the broth was clear and refreshing, not deep and spicy. So it tastes better the longer it boils?

And what was truly amazing was that it wasn't just fish bones, it was full of meat... so much boneless fish meat (?) that you don't even need to pick it off the bones. When you come to Jaecheoldameun Mapo Bada, definitely order the stew, folks.

Final verdict

A properly good set-menu spread that I really liked: Jaecheoldameun Mapo Bada, a Mapo sashimi restaurant. Lots of things come out from the grilled shrimp to the gizzard shad, the amount of sashimi is definitely not small, and ₩79,000 for 2 is a steal, isn't it... It only just opened but already has a wait, a Daeheung favorite, so go early... A Daeheung drinking spot I'd love to come back to for winter yellowtail, that's the end of my Jaecheoldameun Mapo Bada review.