Sadang izakaya date night for yukhoe maki: Susan Sadang Main Branch

A go-to spot for great drinking snacks near Sadang

A yukhoe, beef sashimi, raw shrimp sashimi, and yukhoe maki spot — great for a date or a group hangout

Sadang is a meeting-point neighborhood, but honestly there aren't that many places worth going to around here. This time I found a really solid izakaya✨ The drinking snacks here are guaranteed good, so keep this one in mind! I'd go back 200%⭐⭐

Where is Susan Sadang Main Branch, and what are the hours?

Location | 17 Nambusunhwan-ro271ga-gil, Dongjak-gu (Sadang Station exits 13/14)

Hours | Daily 17:00–24:00 (last order 23:00)

A food photo standee set up out front catches your eye right away

Weekday 7pm wait and first-floor seating at Susan Sadang Main Branch

I went on a weekday at 7pm, and Sadang itself was really quiet that night. But Susan was packed!! You could really feel how popular it is. There's usually a wait, so booking through Naver reservations seems like a good idea.

I sat on the first floor, which has about 7-8 tables. Susan also uses the basement level.

Hurry up and come

What to order from the Susan Sadang Main Branch menu

What's on the in-store menu board isn't everything — check the menu registered on Naver too! Fish cake hot pot, beef sashimi, raw fish, and yukhoe are the signature dishes. Basically every item on Susan's menu is a snack I love... so hard to decide what to order

You order via QR code, which is nice and convenient. I was torn between half flounder + half beef sashimi and raw shrimp sashimi, but went with the raw shrimp sashimi since I'd been craving it lately!

This is the fish cake station — I noticed a lot of tables ordering the fish cake hot pot. It's one of the signature dishes and the reviews are great too. Good to order when you want something soup-based to drink with.

Ready to eat

My boyfriend arrived and the welcome sake showed up right away, cheers✨

Fortune-slip wet wipes lol pick one too

Mine said everything will go well haha

Raw shrimp sashimi, 58,000 won: about 20 shrimp on one platter

📍Raw shrimp sashimi (₩58,000)

Shrimp sashimi + fried shrimp heads + raw laver + gochu-jji (stewed peppers) + sauce. It comes as a full spread and the visual alone is overwhelming!! Shrimp sashimi usually isn't a huge portion for the price, so I expected just a few, but there were about 20 — I was surprised by how much came out, and the shrimp were big and plump too!

I'd been craving shrimp sashimi so bad, drooling already. Before ordering I asked the owner how fresh the shrimp were that day, and just like they said, it was so fresh with a great springy texture. It was cleanly prepped too, easy to eat, no fishy taste, and the more you chewed the more that raw-shrimp richness and sweetness came through — so good.

Successful heart shot

Failed heart shot

It's delicious plain, and also delicious dipped in vinegar-chili sauce or soy sauce. It's much bigger and springier than it looks in photos. It's been a while since I had shrimp sashimi and I was so satisfied eating this.

You can wrap it in the raw laver like this, but I actually liked eating it plain better

That gochu-jji (stewed pepper) is also great eaten one at a time, adds nice savory depth

How to eat the fried shrimp heads

The prepped shrimp heads come fried — hold the pointy part like I'm doing and just peel off the hard shell to eat. Crispy and nutty, really good.

For the fried shrimp heads, dip them in the sauce next to the vinegar-chili sauce

Yukhoe maki, 25,000 won: dinner and a drinking snack in one

📍Yukhoe maki (₩25,000)

The second dish we ordered, yukhoe maki. This one was also satisfying — for the price you get a generous amount of both beef tartare and rice. After the raw shrimp sashimi, our stomachs felt a bit empty, and this filled us up with carbs and protein.

Sesame seeds are mixed through the seasoned rice — even the rice alone was nutty and delicious

Piling the yukhoe onto the maki like this is really delicious. The beef was good quality and fresh, and the seasoning was perfect for drinking with. We ended up so full that we just picked out the yukhoe to eat by itself, and there was still plenty left over — a generous portion that works well as a meal or a drinking snack.

Susan Sadang Main Branch: what works and what falls short

• ✅ Strongly recommend the raw shrimp sashimi and yukhoe maki
• ✅ Ingredients feel fresh, quality really comes through
• ✅ Worth the price — both taste and portion are guaranteed
• ✅ A good spot for a date or a get-together with friends
• ❗The music inside is a bit loud, so it could feel too noisy for a blind date. Might want to sit close together(?)