Garak Market fish shop with a 40-minute weekend wait: Yeongjae Susan

The weather's been getting cooler, so I started craving sashimi. That's what brought me to the Garak Market seafood market. I'd heard there were lots of sashimi restaurants there with decent prices, so I went to check it out. The place I visited today was Yeongjae Susan, and judging by the crowd out front, it seemed pretty popular.

Where is Yeongjae Susan and how do you get there?

Yeongjae Susan is located at C-10, 1st floor of the Garak Mall sales building. Garak Mall is huge, so it was hard to find — if you're coming by subway or car, the directions below should help.

• By subway: Exit Garak Market Station via Exit 2, enter through Garak Mall Seafood Gate 6 on the left, and it's on the left side
• By car: Search for Garak Mall South Gate 1 parking lot in your navigation, park near pillar E09 on basement level 3, then take the escalator up to the 1st floor — it's right on your right

If you drive, you can find it right after taking the escalator up. We came on a weekend evening, though, so it was packed.

A shot of the Yeongjae Susan storefront. This was taken when it was relatively quiet — it just kept getting busier after that. Since we came on a weekend evening, we waited about 40 minutes lol T_T

What Yeongjae Susan sells: sashimi combos and seasonal fish

Yeongjae Susan sells a huge variety of sashimi, and beyond what's on the menu board they also sell blue crab, king crab, live shrimp, eel, and more.

So much fresh seafood. Part of why we visited this place today wasn't just for the sashimi — it was also to buy the ⭐️live shrimp⭐️ that's been taking over my algorithm lately. 😊

Such lively-looking shrimp. I think it was around ₩30,000 per kilo here, and they also offered 500g, so I bought that for ₩15,000. We grabbed the nongwangchamhoe too and dashed out of Garak Market.

Ah, they pack it like this, and they said you can also eat it in the restaurant — worth noting!

They're also running an Onnuri gift certificate refund event through September 20, so if anyone's planning to visit Garak Market this week, only a couple days left — use your Onnuri certificate and get that refund!

Unboxing the 65,000-won nongwangchamhoe (small) and 500g of live shrimp

Here's what we packed to go:

• Nongwangchamhoe (small) — ₩65,000
• Live shrimp 500g — ₩15,000

Once home, we opened everything up, and even though it was the small size, the amount of sashimi looked like it could serve 2-3 people. The side dishes were a bit sparse (just the chojang dipping sauce and banchan pictured above), but the sashimi quality looked great.

The nongwangchamhoe was a combo of sea bass, flounder, and sea bream sashimi, and overall it was really springy and chewy, and incredibly delicious.

We dipped it in chojang like this, and also tried it with soy sauce — the soy sauce was amazing too (the soy sauce itself was genuinely delicious).

How to prep live shrimp sashimi at home

Next up was the live shrimp sashimi. These guys were still incredibly fresh and lively even after arriving home, so I think I screamed a few hundred times. So no one else has to go through what I went through, here are a few tips…

• Put them in the freezer for 20-30 minutes to stun them
• After stunning, quickly rinse them in water and remove the heads
• Soak the peeled shrimp briefly in ice water, dry them completely with paper towels, then cover with plastic wrap and let sit in the fridge for about 5 minutes (this firms up the flesh)

For the detailed method of eating live shrimp sashimi, I'd recommend checking a few YouTube videos and adapting it to your situation. Anyway, after a fairly lengthy battle, here's the result…

Total success 👍👍 I won this one.

We also put the leftover heads to good use and pan-fried them in butter — so, so good.

Final verdict: is Yeongjae Susan at Garak Market worth a visit?

This was my first time visiting Garak Market, and aside from the crowds and chaos on weekends, it seems like a place worth checking out. I'd especially recommend it to anyone who wants to try a wide range of sashimi, or buy seasonal fish and sashimi while it's fresh. Yeongjae Susan seems to be a fairly well-known spot in Garak Market, so if you're heading there, give it a visit.