Sashimi restaurant near Sangbong Station, Seoul: Hoepanjang Sangbong

I went to Hoepanjang Sangbong, a raw fish restaurant near Sangbong Station. I'd been slightly let down by aged sashimi somewhere else recently, so today I went looking for a proper Sangbong aged sashimi spot. Hoepanjang Sangbong is close to Sangbong Station Exit 2, and it's also behind the Costco near Mangu Station Exit 1. It's exactly tented-seating (yajang) season these days, and outdoor drinks with sashimi sounded great, so we sat in the outdoor tent seats.

Where is Hoepanjang Sangbong, and what are the outdoor and indoor seats like?

There are indoor seats too. Each table has a high partition installed, so you can eat without worrying too much about people around you. Indoor seats would also be good if you want to have a date or a quiet conversation over sashimi.

Hoepanjang Sangbong sits at the very end of Sangbong Meokja Alley. Maybe because it's tent-seating season, every restaurant nearby had a busy outdoor setup. There's a wide variety of food in this alley, so you can just pick whatever you're in the mood for that day — but if you love sashimi, I'd recommend Hoepanjang. Even someone who's not usually into raw fish might change their mind after one bite here.

Hoepanjang Sangbong menu prices

Hoepanjang Sangbong's main menu starts at ₩54,000 for the small assorted sashimi platter. Here are the prices I checked that day.

Main platters

• Seasonal gizzard shad platter ₩54,000 / +seafood set ₩69,000
• Assorted sashimi platter Small ₩54,000 · Medium ₩74,000 · Large ₩94,000
• Assorted platter + seafood set Small ₩69,000 · Medium ₩89,000 · Large ₩109,000
• Extra-large flounder platter Small ₩54,000 · Medium ₩74,000 · Large ₩94,000
• Extra-large flounder platter + seafood set Small ₩69,000 · Medium ₩89,000 · Large ₩109,000
• Cold mulhoe platter Small ₩59,000
• Premium sashimi platter Small ₩64,000 · Medium ₩84,000 · Large ₩104,000
• Premium sashimi platter + seafood set Small ₩79,000 · Medium ₩99,000 · Large ₩119,000
• Aged salmon platter Small ₩54,000 / +seafood set ₩69,000

Side dishes to order

• Extra sashimi ₩24,900 / Gizzard shad tasting ₩9,000
• Seafood-loaded mulhoe ₩26,000 / Hoemuchim ₩24,000 / Seasoned conch ₩20,000
• Fried shrimp ₩15,000 / Seafood ramyeon ₩12,000 / Sashimi rice bowl ₩9,000
• Ramyeon or somyeon noodles ₩2,000

Beer, soju and other drinks

• Asahi draft ₩9,000 / Hallasan or Cheongha ₩6,000 / Soju ₩5,000
• Sake, highballs, traditional liquor, soft drinks

A great Sangbong Station drinking spot for tent-seating in Jungnang! It seemed like everyone was out to enjoy the outdoor tents — it was buzzing. We even ran into an acquaintance we hadn't seen in ages right at the start, so the mood was great from the get-go, haha.

Free starters: mussel soup, silkworm pupae soup, pancakes, fritters and corn cheese

When you order sashimi at Hoepanjang Sangbong, you get a set of basic side dishes. First up was mussel soup — spicy just from the smell, and great for a drink before the sashimi arrived. You can ask for it to be reheated if it cools down, and it's refillable.

The nostalgic silkworm pupae soup (beondegi-tang) came out too. It was nice to have it again after a long time. It was salty and paired well with drinks. You can ask them to reheat it, but it seemed like it might get saltier, so we ate it as it was. I'd recommend eating it warm before it cools down.

Pancakes and fried food came out together too. Eaten warm, they were crispy and delicious. They told us it's even better dipped in soy sauce — and with already savory pancakes and fried food plus soy sauce, how could it not be good, haha.

Corn cheese — a raw fish restaurant staple you can't skip! You could visibly see traces of char on the cheese, which made it look even more appetizing. Savory and sweet, I kept reaching for it.

Finally the Hoepanjang assorted sashimi platter arrived, and the plate size alone was impressive. They cleared everything off the side of the table to make room and set it up. Sauce, sushi rice, muchim, and gopchang gim (seaweed) are all free to refill, and other items are ₩1,000 extra.

A full Sangbong aged sashimi spread enjoyed outdoors! Seeing it laid out so generously, it felt more satisfying than what you'd get at many fancier sashimi restaurants. It made me want to enjoy the outdoor tent seating more before it gets colder, haha.

What comes on the 54,000 won small assorted sashimi platter

We ordered the small assorted sashimi platter for ₩54,000. The staff kindly explained each type of fish one by one, which I appreciated — I really like when a restaurant tells you exactly what you're eating. Starting from the left, flathead grey mullet, flounder, longtooth grouper, Japanese seabream, and humphead snapper were arranged in order, with salmon and gizzard shad in the middle.

The day before, I'd had sashimi that cost more but came in a much smaller portion, so Hoepanjang Sangbong's generously piled platter felt relatively more satisfying, haha. Having several kinds of sashimi on one plate also made it fun to compare them one by one.

Sauces, wraps and the flounder-perilla-radish bite

Hoepanjang Sangbong also had a wide variety of sauces and side dishes to pair with the sashimi — pollack roe sauce and perilla leaf sauce, plus baek-kimchi (white kimchi), chili, garlic, ssamjang, wasabi, sesame oil sauce, soy sauce, and cho-jang (vinegar-chili sauce). The trendy 'gwang-kkaen-mu' combo — flounder with perilla leaf and muchim — has been popular lately, and I was glad Hoepanjang lets you build that combo too.

I also thought of flounder wrapped with mukeun-ji (aged kimchi), so this time I made my own 'gwang-kkaen-mu-muk' combo, haha. Piling perilla leaf muchim and aged kimchi onto the flounder added a crunchy, tangy edge and let me enjoy the sashimi in a whole new way.

With a bite of sashimi and a sip of drink outdoors, the drinks went down so smoothly. The atmosphere and mood were so good that the alcohol actually tasted sweet that day, haha.

Why the fish size matters: 2.8 kg flounder and 5 kg-plus grouper

The fish used at Hoepanjang Sangbong were pretty substantial in size. The flounder that day was around 2.8 kg, and they told us they normally use extra-large flounder over 3 kg. The longtooth grouper is also over 5 kg, they said — which explains why the texture of the sashimi was so good. Now I'm curious just how big their usual extra-large flounder gets.

They recommended piling sushi rice and sashimi onto gopchang gim (seaweed) with a touch of soy sauce. Following their advice, the savory seaweed, sushi rice, and sashimi worked really well together. After eating plain sashimi for a while, wrapping it like this in between was a nice change of pace.

Gizzard shad sashimi, a sign of autumn! I recently saw a news headline joking that the gizzard shad famous for luring a runaway daughter-in-law back home has itself 'run away' this year, haha — apparently they're hard to catch and quite scarce. Thanks to that, this was my first taste of gizzard shad this year, at Hoepanjang. I'd been debating whether to add the gizzard shad tasting side dish if it wasn't included, so I was glad to find it was already part of the assorted platter, haha.

Tasting the mulhoe, Japanese seabream, humphead snapper and salmon

Even as the weather turns a bit chilly, mulhoe is still the best drinking companion. It was cool and sweet-and-tangy, almost sobering. You can add cho-dae-ri rice or somyeon noodles to it. I wanted to add somyeon, but my husband talked me out of it. In the end we were too full to add it, which was probably for the best, but it was a little sad to leave behind that delicious broth, haha.

The Japanese seabream, over 3 kg, came with its skin lightly seared. The smoky char and chewy texture of the skin gave it a completely different appeal from the other sashimi.

They explained that the humphead snapper is a great-value rock bream. The name itself was unfamiliar, which made me curious, and sure enough, like any bream, it had great umami flavor. I looked it up afterward and found it's a rare species living at depths over 500 meters. Whether it's a bargain fish or a premium one, bream really is bream — always full of umami and delicious.

My beloved salmon! True to a proper Sangbong aged sashimi restaurant, the salmon was soft and melted in the mouth. I tried many kinds, but salmon is still non-negotiable for me. Having an assorted platter meant I could enjoy everything from my favorites to fish I don't usually order.

The mood at the outdoor tent tables

While we sat outdoors, a lot of waiters from a nearby nightclub called Hanguk-gwan kept passing by handing out business cards, and everyone's approach to giving out the cards was different, which was fun to watch, haha. I'd actually been to Hanguk-gwan myself before I got married, so watching my husband get handed a card now felt a little strange, haha. Then, of all things, one of the cards had the same nickname as someone I used to know from a club years ago — and it turned out that exact person was sitting right at the tented tables of the shop next door, which was an even bigger surprise. Running into an old acquaintance by chance made the day even more fun and lighthearted. My husband gave Hoepanjang's sashimi his stamp of approval too!

Is Hoepanjang Sangbong worth a visit?

If you want a generous serving of aged sashimi near Sangbong Station, I'd recommend Hoepanjang Sangbong. You get to try many different kinds of sashimi at once, and the side dishes and accompaniments were well done too, so the assorted platter alone was plenty filling. I also liked that they explained each type of fish. It was the perfect spot for sashimi and drinks outdoors on a cool evening. If you're looking for a raw fish restaurant near Sangbong Station or a good spot for outdoor tent-seating in the area, it's worth a visit.