Mapo sashimi restaurant before a K League match: Mapo Bamdada

I'm going to introduce Mapo Bamdada (마포밤바다), a place near Mapo-gu Office Station that I visited last week. It's great value, so it's popular with people in the neighborhood, and it's a sashimi restaurant. Besides the main sashimi, it serves plenty of side dishes and cooked dishes. The fish and sashimi seemed well kept and fresh, and the staff were very friendly, so it's a good place for a meal or a drink.

Where is Mapo Bamdada, and what are its hours?

Mapo Bamdada is at 146 Woldeukeop-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul, and it is open from 12 p.m. to 1 a.m.

As a Mapo-gu Office Station spot, it's very easy to reach from the station. We took Line 6 and got off at Mapo-gu Office Station. With such easy transport, it seemed like a good place to arrange a meetup.

Are the fish tanks and sashimi at Mapo Bamdada fresh?

Mapo Bamdada gets fish shipped directly from the source every day and keeps it in cool tanks.

Seeing the fish and seafood flapping around, it all looked very fresh. I'd heard squid sashimi is especially good right now, and they said you can get it to go. While I was eating, lots of takeout and delivery orders came in.

Haha, while looking at the fish in the tank I spotted an otter. For a second I thought it was real and got a real fright, haha. So cute!

It looks like a very popular celebrity came by, haha. Boss, go buy a pen that works, hahaha 🖊 ✒️ 🔏 The pen must not have been writing well, because it looks kind of faded, haha. What a witty touch 👍

What we ordered at Mapo Bamdada before the K League match

At Mapo Bamdada we ordered a set menu that includes squid sashimi and flounder sashimi. There were many menu options, but we chose the set where we could have squid sashimi.

If you like seafood, the seafood dishes looked good too.

Next time I'd like to try the mixed seafood platter or the mini mixed seafood platter.

Seating and atmosphere at Mapo Bamdada

Mapo Bamdada had a variety of seats and was fairly spacious, so it looked like a nice place to eat in the cool air-conditioning~

What free side dishes come with sashimi at Mapo Bamdada?

The sides (sekkoshi, the free starter dishes served with sashimi) at Mapo Bamdada were chamnamul (pimpinella greens), corn, cabbage salad, marinated shrimp and a mini-sized mulhoe (cold raw fish soup). The mulhoe was sweet, sour and spicy, and a wonderful thing to eat in the sweltering summer. I think it would also be good to order somyeon (thin wheat noodles), dip them in briefly and eat them together.

Clam soup at Mapo Bamdada

There was also a cool, slightly spicy clam soup. When you eat a lot of raw fish, your stomach feels kind of oxidized, so this really helps.

Braised half-dried pollack (kodari-jjim)

Braised half-dried pollack (kodari-jjim) came out too, with well-boiled bean sprouts and a special seasoning. It was full of fish meat, so picking it apart was fun and it tasted great. Eaten with rice, it made a fantastic side dish.

True to a Mapo-gu Office Station favorite, a variety of side dishes and cooked dishes came out nicely, and I really liked the sides~ There don't seem to be many sashimi restaurants around Mapo-gu Office Station, and I could see why Mapo Bamdada is so popular.

How does Mapo Bamdada's squid and flounder sashimi set taste?

The main dish at Mapo Bamdada, the squid and flounder sashimi, came splendidly plated on a pretty dish! Maybe that's why it looked even more appetizing!

Squid sashimi is on the left and flounder sashimi on the right! It was also topped with plenty of cool cucumber. It's delicious eaten in various combinations with flying fish roe, garlic, chili, ssamjang (seasoned soybean paste) and chojang (sweet-and-sour chili sauce)!

Wrapping it in a perilla leaf was delicious too. The crunchy texture and the sound it made in my mouth were fun~

Adding somyeon noodles to the mulhoe

I ordered extra somyeon to add to the cool, sweet, sour and spicy mulhoe, and as expected it was delicious.

Is a sashimi restaurant near Mapo-gu Office Station good in summer?

I visited Mapo Bamdada, a Mapo-gu Office Station favorite whose charms were the varied sides, fresh sashimi and seafood. I usually don't go to sashimi restaurants in midsummer, but that was probably a bit of a prejudice. For an appealing sashimi restaurant like Mapo Bamdada, it's a different story~

At Mapo Bamdada we ate squid sashimi, flounder sashimi and lots of sides, then headed to the World Cup Stadium to watch a K League match!