Gangseo sashimi restaurant for salmon and flounder: Eochongye 1beonji

A Hwagok-dong sashimi restaurant on a crisp day

Almost overnight, the mornings and evenings have turned chilly. Maybe that is why everyone’s clothes are gradually getting thicker, and the cool weather is perfect for nighttime walks. The daytime sun still feels a little hot, though, so full-on autumn is just around the corner. With such lovely weather for dining out, I visited Eochongye 1beonji (어촌계1번지), a sashimi restaurant in Hwagok-dong.

The interior and seating without a reservation

There was a decent number of tables inside, and outside I could see lots of fish tanks (?) filled with fish. That must mean all the ingredients are fresh! We came without a reservation and were seated right away. Since it was a little before dinner, there were plenty of seats. There might be a bit of a wait on weekend evenings!

Salmon and flounder assortment with banchan

We ordered the salmon and flounder sashimi assortment in the small size. The side dishes included salad, dressed seaweed, white kimchi, and edamame. It felt like the standard banchan (small side dishes) you get at a sashimi restaurant! Edamame is my favorite side dish, so I ate it all and asked for another serving!

This seaweed soup comes with the meal, and it is delicious in its own right. Eochongye 1beonji, a Hwagok-dong restaurant known for sashimi, has quite a few reviews praising this hot seaweed soup too, so apparently it is popular as a comforting broth for people having sashimi with drinks.

There were also plenty of sauces to pair with the sashimi: chojang (sweet-spicy vinegar chili sauce) and soy sauce, plus makjang, shiitake wasabi, and ceviche sauce. The ceviche sauce was a nice little treat for dipping white fish, and it went surprisingly well.

The pairing of nutty salmon and mild flounder

Our salmon and flounder sashimi assortment arrived. Flounder and salmon are my absolute favorite kinds of sashimi, and I doubt there are many sashimi lovers who dislike either one! The combination of chewy, mild white fish and salmon with its wonderfully rich, buttery flavor lets you alternate between clean and nutty tastes, almost like the classic sweet-and-salty pairing.

Rich salmon with no fishy smell

The color of the salmon here is no joke. Even the regular cuts felt as fatty as salmon belly. Salmon is, of course, meant to be enjoyed for its savory, fatty taste, but this salmon felt even nuttier and richer. Maybe because it had been aged so well, it had no fishy smell at all—just a deliciously rich sashimi flavor.

On hot days, you really have to be careful with raw fish, because if the freshness drops even a little, it is easy for it to upset your stomach. That is why I usually did not eat sashimi much in summer. But a sashimi restaurant that manages things this well and sells only fresh ingredients is an exception! Eochongye 1beonji’s Hwagok branch is a place to enjoy it cool and worry-free even in midsummer!

They cut the salmon into wonderfully thick slices too. Salmon is good for recovering from fatigue and tastes so good that I could eat it every day without getting tired of it—it is my favorite menu item. At one point I was so obsessed with salmon that I wondered whether I should marry the son of a sashimi restaurant owner... haha. That is how serious I am about salmon... Eochongye 1beonji in Hwagok-dong gets my approval for salmon! Just keep in mind that it is quite fatty, so it may feel a little rich or become too much after a while.

Chewy flounder that went beautifully with chojang

And then there was the chewy, springy, mild flounder sashimi. After rich, fatty salmon sashimi, you naturally start craving mild flounder... White fish simply has to be with chojang! Salmon is perfect dipped in soy sauce with wasabi on top, while flounder goes so well with sweet-spicy chojang. It is also one of the few types of sashimi I wrap in ssam (a lettuce wrap)! The flounder was chewy and lightly sweet, and I really enjoyed it.

As always, the finish was a refreshing cheers! It was a salmon-and-flounder sashimi spread that paired perfectly with a crisp, fizzy beer. I feel both wistful and sad about how summer passed in the blink of an eye. This summer felt especially hard—what will next summer be like?