Seochon Gyedanjip: Amazing Fresh Seafood in Seoul
December is cockle season. Since they're in season, I ordered them without a second thought in Sinsa-dong (a neighborhood in Seoul) recently, but ended up with a plate full of fishy-smelling cockles that completely ruined my mood. In my mind, all you have to do with cockles is buy them fresh and boil them, but I guess that's not so easy for restaurants to pull off. So, for my second cockle outing of the year, I carefully asked around for recommendations. Out of several famous spots, I ended up at Seochon Gyedanjip, supposedly the most famous place in Gwanghwamun's Geumcheongyo Market.
Seochon Gyedanjip
Geumcheongyo Market is just a small, narrow alley, but it's incredibly accessible since Gyeongbokgung Station and a bus stop are right out front. Because the market isn't on the main road, it's hard to spot from the outside, so you just have to head inside first.
How to find Seochon Gyedanjip: just go to wherever the biggest crowd is in the market. People are always huddled together because the waiting line is so long. They must have expanded, because the restaurant now faces itself on both sides of the alley. After shivering outside for about 20 minutes, we finally got a seat. The first thing you notice when you walk in is that the place is really small. Seriously small. Small enough that I have to repeat myself. Because it's so cramped, bumping into people as they walk by is a given, and you'll probably end up elbowing the person next to you while eating. But maybe because everyone has delicious food in front of them, no one really gets annoyed and just focuses on eating.
They say it's just the starter on the house, but it's way better than places that actually charge for mussels. You'll see plenty of tables polishing off a bottle of soju just with this complimentary soup. The even more surprising part is that if you ask the ladies working there, they'll keep refilling it. The staff are so incredibly kind that I almost felt bad. Service is just as important as the food, and the ladies here joke around a lot while bringing out water or food as quickly as possible. Maybe because the space is so tight, they try to make up for the discomfort by being as friendly and approachable as they can.
Since it was my first time here, I was looking around to see what to order, and the visual of the turban shells (cham-sora) was no joke. We decided to add the turban shells to the cockles we originally planned to eat! Compared to the time we spent waiting outside, the food came out pretty fast.
Here is the turban shell that came out first. When we ordered, they told us these guys came all the way from Geoje Island. I took one bite, and it was unbelievably chewy. I don't know how many times the lady has boiled turban shells in her life, but I found myself wondering just how sick of boiling them she must be to get them this perfectly cooked. Wow, this is seriously so good.
The cockles came out right after. The size of the meat is completely different from what I had in Sinsa-dong. They're huge! Yes, this is what a cockle should be. It makes me so annoyed thinking about eating those tiny, overwhelmingly fishy cockles before. Because these are so fresh, every single shell is wide open, and they're massive. Fishy smell? Not at all. I don't even know when the last time I was this excited eating seafood was.
Since the two of us aren't huge eaters, we ended up missing out on the restaurant's famous finishing dish: seafood ramen (haemul ramyeon). I'm absolutely coming back here anyway, so I figure I can just eat it next time. I'm so happy to have added another great spot to my winter dining list.
One thing to consider when visiting this place is your party size. You can get in regardless of how many people you have, but the larger your group, the longer you'll wait. If you have four or more people, you might be waiting a very long time, so it's best to visit with a smaller group. Prices range from the low to high 20,000s KRW per dish, though I hear the prices fluctuate.
Update
I've been back several times since posting this, and the crowds kept growing. After it was featured on the TV show Wednesday Food Talk, it got insanely packed, so the wait times are really long now.
The general consensus among the people I went with is that, whether you look at the prices or the space, it's a tough spot for a big company dinner.
Another Update After a Long Time
I came back after a really long time, and it's still delicious and still great. It's also still packed with people.
