Dongdaemun seafood restaurant post-work sashimi set: Simdo Hoetjip

The know-how of an owner with 40 years of experience—an evening of sashimi and soju at Simdo Hoetjip near Jegi-dong Station.

Simdo Hoetjip near Jegi-dong Station: location and directions

The address is 790 Yongdu-dong, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul. Hours are 15:00–24:00, starting at noon on weekends.

It is in a lane-side first-floor shop at Lotte Castle Firenze, right near Jegi-dong Station.

From Exit 3 of Jegi-dong Station on Line 1, enter the alley facing Inyeong Pharmacy and walk straight ahead. Round the corner of the large Lotte Castle apartment building and you will find it along the first-floor roadside. The sign is tucked inward, so look carefully.

An interior full of customers, starting with the fish tank

How long has it been since I last saw a fish tank like this!!? Healthy sea creatures were swimming about energetically. It was so white and clear, without a trace of algae—full marks for cleanliness.

The space runs deep inside, and every table was full on a weekday evening. As the crowd showed, this is a real neighborhood favorite for people living near Jegi-dong Station.

Live-fish sashimi and Simdo Special Set A

The core live-fish sashimi lineup is olive flounder, rockfish, and red sea bream. There are also various seafood dishes, mulhoe (cold raw-fish soup), steamed dishes, and soups.

Simdo Hoetjip’s signature is gujeolhoe naengchae, a nine-section raw-fish cold salad shaped by the chef’s 40 years of experience. We ordered the medium Simdo Special Menu Set A so we could try a good mix of sashimi and seafood.

Banchan and a somaek to start

At a sashimi restaurant, half the fun is the skkidasi, the accompanying small dishes. The freshly fried kimchi pancake was great, and the sautéed clams had a delicious salty kick too.

Why is this saury so plump? Turns out it was herring, haha.

Refreshing seaweed soup and savory steamed egg. We cooled off with a somaek, a soju-and-beer mix, while tasting the side dishes.

Thick-cut olive flounder, red sea bream, and rockfish sashimi

The assorted sashimi from the medium Simdo Set A arrived first. In a classic live-fish sashimi style, it was very fresh, thick-cut, and tempting.

The sashimi included olive flounder, red sea bream, and rockfish. Just look at the size of each slice—the flounder came from a huge fish. Its chewy, springy texture was truly commanding, with a gentle sweetness that spread across the palate.

There was engawa, the flounder fin, on one side of the plate too; the more I chewed, the more its savory flavor came through, showing how large the fish had been. The red sea bream was matsukawa-style, with a pleasantly firm, tasty skin.

We came straight here after work for drinks and dinner near Jegi-dong Station, so we were feeling a little empty. The maki rolls that arrived midway made it feel nicely substantial.

An assorted seafood plate chosen by three seafood lovers

The biggest reason we chose a set rather than a single fish variety: all three of us love seafood.

Fresh seafood is not something you often get to encounter unless you are by the coast, so everyone gave it a very warm welcome.

Sweet sea squirt, firm abalone, crisp and lively sea cucumber, chewy boiled octopus, and clams with deep umami from their large, plump flesh. Every item was fresh, with no fishiness or off smell—its freshness was the flavor itself.

Finishing with fish roe rice and spicy fish stew

Even if you came mainly to drink, Koreans would feel something was missing without a proper meal at the end. Spicy fish stew is practically a given—and fish roe rice too?!

It is clear that the chef’s 40 years of experience are rooted in Japanese cuisine. The fluffy rice was light, savory, and nutty, just right for wrapping things up.

Then there was a pot full of rich broth drawn from fish bones and trimmings. Its spicy heat washed away every lingering trace of fishiness, leaving only a clean finish.

There was so much flesh still clinging to the fish bones and trimmings that it felt like we had ordered a separate fish soup. Honestly, it just makes you keep ordering more drinks, ho ho...

The final tally that day: four adults (though one person did not eat at all) finished the medium Simdo Set A, two bottles of beer, and five bottles of soju.

It was such a happy evening gathering at Simdo Hoetjip, a true regular haunt for local residents rather than a flash-in-the-pan place near Jegi-dong Station.