Gangnam seafood bar salt gimbap with flounder fin: Sanhocho Nonhyeon

A few days ago I had a reason to drink near Nonhyeon Station, and wondering what to eat with my drinks, I figured it'd been a while since I had sashimi now that summer's turned to fall. I looked around and found a bar selling fresh seafood, so I went to check it out. Today's story is about Sanhocho Nonhyeon.

Where is Sanhocho Nonhyeon and what are its hours?

Sanhocho Nonhyeon is located at 56 Hakdong-ro 2-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, 1st floor units 101 & 102, South Korea. It's a 4-minute walk from exit 3 of Nonhyeon Station on Line 7 and the Sinbundang Line.

• 📍 56 Hakdong-ro 2-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, 1st floor units 101 & 102, South Korea
• 🚇 4-minute walk from exit 3 of Nonhyeon Station
• ⏰ Daily 5:00 PM – 5:00 AM
• 📌 Last order 4:00 AM
• 📌 Open as usual during Lunar New Year, no holiday closure
• 📌 Groups welcome · Takeout · Reservations · Separate men's/women's restrooms · Wi-Fi

Outdoor tent seats and a fish tank: tables already reserved at 5 PM on a weekday

Walking into Sanhocho Nonhyeon, the first thing you see is the outdoor tent seating. Now that the weather's cooled down, it seemed like the perfect spot for fresh seafood and a drink.

Between the outdoor tent seating and the indoor seating there's a fish tank stocked with live fish. They looked really lively — the shrimp in particular looked super fresh.

We visited around 5pm on a weekday, and even then several tables already had reserved signs on them. It seems like a lot of people book ahead here.

How to order the pick-your-own sashimi trio at Sanhocho Nonhyeon

Orders go through the tablet at each table, and there turned out to be way more menu items than I expected. We ordered the build-your-own sashimi trio the owner recommended, along with salt gimbap.

From the menu you could pick any three types of sashimi you wanted. We went with flounder, mackerel, and tuna belly.

Retro interior and the free side dishes

After ordering, I took a look around and the indoor space was decorated in a very retro style. There were glass cups and a cupboard full of vintage items that felt like an old-school teahouse, and what I was especially happy to see was Del Monte — a brand that's still around, but one I've known since I was a little kid, so it hit different. Just browsing the place was fun in itself.

The banchan (side dishes) came out like this. Anyone here eat beondegi (silkworm pupae)? I actually like them, but lately even street vendors selling whelks or beondegi in winter have disappeared, so it made me sad — seeing beondegi again after so long made me really happy.

How did the sashimi trio taste? Bonito jelly and minari salad

After a bit of a wait, our sashimi trio arrived. Wow — the color was great, but the plating was truly a work of art. It felt like being at a high-end Japanese restaurant.

Those golden jellies sitting on top of the sashimi are apparently bonito flakes turned into jelly.

This is minari (water celery) salad — they said wrapping it with the sashimi makes for a refreshing bite.

I went for the mackerel sashimi first since I was most curious about it. I like dipping mine in soy sauce, so I tried it that way. One bite in — oh, it was fresh but full of flavor, and I finally understood why people who really know their mackerel sashimi only ever order mackerel.

Following the owner's advice, I also wrapped the tuna belly — which can get a little rich on its own — in minari salad and seaweed, and the refreshing salad and seaweed cut right through it, making it easy to keep eating.

Making tuna belly sushi with the sushi rice

Oh, and I didn't get a photo of this, but they also gave us a separate bowl of sushi rice. So I took a small piece of rice, added a dab of wasabi, and topped it with tuna belly. It turned into pretty convincing sushi! Eating it, it really tasted like sushi from a proper tuna restaurant. If you feel like a bit of carbs alongside the sashimi, making your own sushi is a great option.

Honestly, my favorite part of any sashimi platter is the flounder fin. It's the part I go for first at sushi restaurants too.

Salt gimbap topped with flounder fin: the best bite of the night

There was one more thing we ordered — salt gimbap! I'd seen on the menu that it's a perfect match with flounder sashimi, so I piled my beloved flounder fin right on top and tried it.

Next to the table there was a note explaining the best way to enjoy salt gimbap with sashimi.

Wow, it was seriously delicious. The rich, slightly fatty flounder fin paired amazingly with the salty gimbap. If I'd had more flounder fin and salt gimbap, I could have kept eating that combo forever. But as you know, the fin isn't a cut that comes in large quantities, haha.

Corn cheese as a side dish

We also ordered corn cheese. What's a raw fish restaurant without corn cheese, right? It came out lightly torched on top.

Corn cheese is one of those dishes that's delicious no matter how you eat it. Sweet and salty, it hit a whole new dopamine button in my mouth after all that sashimi and sushi.

Worth it? Sanhocho Nonhyeon for drinks near Nonhyeon Station

It had been a while since I'd had drinks in such a great-atmosphere, retro, sentimental bar, and I had such a fun and delicious time. If you're looking for a bar in Nonhyeon or a bar in Gangnam where you can enjoy delicious, varied seafood, how about Sanhocho Nonhyeon?