Live octopus hot pot at a Dongtan sashimi restaurant: Susanjang

Lots of new restaurants have been popping up around Dongtan's north plaza lately. This time my husband and I went to Susanjang Dongtan Branch for sashimi and seafood. I originally visited as part of a sponsored campaign, but here's the spoiler: after eating the assorted sashimi platter I got for free, the food was good enough that I ended up ordering the live octopus hot pot with my own money. Haha. If I went as a sponsored guest and then paid for an extra dish myself, that should tell you something about how I felt.^^

Where is Susanjang Dongtan Branch, and what are the hours?

Susanjang Dongtan Branch is a new Japanese-style restaurant near Dongtan's north plaza.

• 📍 경기 화성시 동탄구 동탄지성로 18 105호, 106호
• ⏰ Daily 17:00 – 00:50 the next day (last order 23:50)

Naver Reservation is available and the restaurant can handle group bookings. A private room can be reserved for 8–10 people, so this could be useful for anyone looking for a small gathering or company dinner spot.

More izakaya than a typical sashimi restaurant

From outside, the big Susanjang sign and the fish tank by the entrance catch your eye first.

You think you've walked into a typical raw fish restaurant — but step inside and the mood shifts a bit.

Dark wood tones and low lighting made it feel more like a Japanese izakaya than the typical sashimi restaurant I was expecting. I quite liked that.

Rows of sake bottles line the entrance, and the menu really does have a wide range of sake. A regular sashimi place with soju is fine too, but on a day when you want aged sashimi or seafood with a glass of sake, this atmosphere suits it much better.

Seating at Susanjang: bar counter to group rooms

The seating is quite varied. There are regular tables for 2–4 people, and a separate space in the back for larger groups.

And here's the seat that caught my eye.

There's a bar counter (dachi seat) facing the kitchen, which looked like a good spot for a solo visit with sashimi and a drink. This place lets you pick your seat depending on the occasion — dates, friend gatherings, group dinners, or drinking solo. There's also a Catch Table set up at the entrance, so you can register for the waitlist during busy hours.

Tablet ordering, with far more than sashimi on the menu

You order through the tablet at each table.

Besides sashimi and seafood, there were plenty of grilled dishes, soups, fried items, and specialty plates. On the current listing you'll also find scallop rock shrimp pasta, live clams steamed with alcohol, and butter-grilled rice cake, so the menu here is broader than a typical sashimi restaurant.

Water comes as barley tea in a bottle-style pitcher, and sauces and small plates are already set on the table. And here's the grilled fish that arrived first, before the order.

It came out nicely browned, perfect for picking at before the main dish.

I usually don't expect much from the basic side dishes, but eating it warm, it was actually pretty tasty. And then the main event arrives.

What comes on the aged sashimi and seafood platter

Wow. The kind of visual you have to photograph first. Haha. What I liked was that it wasn't just one type of sashimi laid out in a row — you get aged sashimi and a variety of seafood together on one platter.

The aged sashimi comes with flounder, sea bass, and red seabream, and the assorted seafood platter also includes scallop, abalone, sea squirt, sea cucumber, and warty sea squirt among other things.

You can see just from the photos how different the textures are on one plate. A chewy bite of sashimi, then abalone or sea cucumber, then something with a stronger flavor like sea squirt — it was more fun to eat this way than sticking to one type of sashimi the whole time.

The sashimi wasn't cut too thin, either. I prefer sashimi with some thickness so you actually get a bite, rather than pieces so thin they disappear the second they hit your mouth, and each piece here had good texture. Best of all, there was no fishy smell — I'd happily recommend this to anyone looking for a good aged sashimi restaurant in Dongtan.

And eventually I ended up doing this. Haha. Piling a little of everything onto one bite and trying it all together. Each piece is good on its own, but mixing them to your own taste was fun too.

The 25,000 won live octopus hot pot I ordered myself

I originally planned to just eat the sponsored menu and leave, but after the assorted platter I found myself thinking, 'The food here is good — should we try something else?' So from that point on, it was self-funded. We talked it over and ordered the live octopus hot pot (sannakji yeonpotang) — ₩25,000.

For me, this order actually meant a lot for the visit. It wasn't a dish I had to eat because it was sponsored — it was one I wanted to pay for myself after trying the food first and liking it.^^

After eating plenty of cold sashimi, having a hot broth come in was a great combination.

The clear-style broth with live octopus wasn't too heavy to finish off after all the sashimi and seafood. My husband kept spooning up the broth. Haha. We started with the assorted platter and ended up finishing off the hot pot too — properly satisfied.

Who is Susanjang Dongtan Branch best for?

Having visited, I'd describe Susanjang Dongtan Branch less as a place you just go to for sashimi, and more as an izakaya-style seafood restaurant where you slowly enjoy aged sashimi and a variety of seafood over a drink.

• Anyone who wants aged sashimi and a taste of several different kinds of seafood
• Anyone in Dongtan looking for a place to enjoy sake and sashimi together
• Couples on a date or friends looking for somewhere to have a drink together
• Solo diners who want a casual drink at the bar counter

It's a place that works well for all kinds of visits. I'll wrap up this review with the fact that I didn't just stop at the sponsored menu — I trusted the food after tasting it and went ahead and ordered the hot pot myself. Haha. If you're looking for a good aged sashimi restaurant in Dongtan, give Susanjang Dongtan Branch a try.^^