Gwangalli sashimi restaurant with a 2-hour dachi set: Gwanganda Jjji

My boyfriend went on a business trip to Seoul this time, so my mom stayed over at our newlywed place for a night — and while she was here, we finally went to Gwanganda, near Millak Waterside Park in Gwangalli, after way too long. I'd actually brought a friend visiting Busan here two or three years ago, and thought back then, 'Mom would love this place,' and finally made it happen.

Where is Gwanganda Jjji, and how is the parking and Gwangan Bridge window view?

Gwanganda is on the 6th floor of the Sanbada Hoetown building, and parking is available on the 1st floor! (If it's full, there's a public parking lot nearby.)

Here's the interior — ocean view...! Gwangan Bridge view...! The tables inside aren't cramped, and if you sit by the window you get a great bonus: the bridge itself. The weather was gorgeous the day we went, so the sky and sea were unbelievably pretty, ㅠ

What the 55,000-won dachi han-sang set includes in two hours

Gwanganda has a single menu: the dachi han-sang set at ₩55,000 per person. It's operated almost entirely by reservation, and the meal time is 2 hours! If you pace yourself with the dishes as they come out, that's plenty of time. We booked for 12pm and arrived around 11:45, and they had things ready a bit early for us.

First round of side dishes: cheese-grilled scallop to soy-marinated crab

After ordering and a short wait, the first round of sundries (banchan-style small dishes) came out.

Salad, mixed raw fish, cheese-grilled scallop, soy-marinated crab, sushi rolls, and cockle mix came out, along with a little persimmon served with honey. My first bite was the cheese-grilled scallop, and it was so good my stomach was already thrilled right from the start, lol.

Pufferfish skin salad, steamed abalone, cream shrimp and the thin chive pancake

Next up came pufferfish skin salad, steamed abalone, cream shrimp, and buchujeon (chive pancake). It was my first time eating pufferfish skin — the taste itself is bland (though the soy sauce dressing flavor lingers), and it's really about the bouncy, chewy texture! So interesting, haha. All three of the warm dishes were so good it was impossible to pick a favorite ㅠㅠ Both the cream shrimp and abalone were absolute winners.

And this buchujeon was pure art — they used the bare minimum of flour so it came out crispy and super thin. My mom loved it too, haha.

Five kinds of shellfish, and why whelk was mum's top pick

Next came five kinds of seafood: live octopus, raw abalone, raw shrimp, whelk, and sea squirt! My mom's top pick was the whelk! I loved everything. Freshness matters most with seafood, and everything here was so fresh, good-sized, and sweet with a nice crunch.

It was so fresh that the shrimp were still moving a bit right up until we ate them...^^ Sorry, human here — thank you, and it was delicious. By the time we'd tasted our way through all the sundries, the sashimi arrived.

What is on the assorted sashimi platter: flounder, red seabream, marbled sole, sea bass

The star of the show, right?

The fish selection probably changes by season, but the day we visited it was flounder, red seabream, marbled sole, and sea bass.

We wrapped it in lettuce, made our own sushi, ate happily — but by this point I felt like I was about to burst! My mom's stomach is even smaller than mine, so she looked like she was struggling, but she kept saying the sashimi was too good and kept eating anyway, lolllll ㅠ

Later courses: baby crab and shrimp tempura, braised rockfish, blue crab stew, abalone porridge

But it wasn't over yet, ㅠ. Crab tempura, shrimp tempura, braised rockfish, crab stew, and abalone porridge all came out. Because of my stomach situation I could only manage a taste of each, and looking back now it feels like such a waste... What stuck with me was the shrimp tempura! The shrimp were sooo~~ plump.

The abalone porridge was nutty and good, and the braise was nicely sweet with a spicy kick. The crab stew was also on the spicy side, which felt like it just cut right through everything, lol.

To finish, even yakgwa (honey cookie)! After all that, neither of us could eat dinner that night...

Who should book a dachi set at Gwanganda Jjji?

After a leisurely dinner with my mom in Gwangalli after so long, we even took a little walk toward the waterside park afterward — and honestly, this kind of thing feels like exactly what makes living in Busan fun, haha. It's a great place to take your parents, and also a solid pick to show an out-of-town friend what a real Busan sashimi restaurant looks like. And of course, every single dish was genuinely delicious! If you're looking for a place in Gwangalli to eat sashimi while looking out at the sea, I'd definitely recommend giving Gwanganda a try.