Ordering Sashimi and Grilled Seafood Together in Busan, What Size and When to Add the Grill

You can. Cold sashimi and hot grilled seafood are a combination that keeps each other alive on the same table, which is why it has been a long-standing ordering method at Jagalchi. Sashimi is cold and clean-tasting, so after a few pieces the palate goes flat, and that is the moment when one bite of hot grilled fish or grilled abalone brings the appetite back and keeps the sashimi tasting good right to the last piece. In the other direction, eating only grilled food leaves a greasy weight behind, and the sashimi rinses that away. Look at the evening tables at the Jagalchi Haean-ro restaurant and six in ten have a grill plate sitting next to the sashimi plate. Grilled fish comes by the set at KRW 15,000 (about USD 11), with species like rockfish, mackerel and flounder going on depending on the day. With several people, ordering two or three sets to mix species puts a variety of fish on one plate and looks better for it. The grilled fish sits on the display case out front already cooked, which makes it easy to choose, and the reheating time after you order is short. There is one thing to watch when eating sashimi and grill together. Sending the grill out at the same time as the sashimi leaves the sashimi going lukewarm on the table, so the grill always gets attached afterward. Side dishes rotate daily based on what is fresh, and when a grill plate goes on, raw seaweed and salted seafood come alongside to rinse the palate.

Start the sashimi one size below your headcount, and add the grill when the sashimi plate is about half gone. The assorted platter is fixed-size pricing at KRW 60,000 small for two (about USD 43), KRW 80,000 medium for three (about USD 58), KRW 100,000 large for four (about USD 72) and KRW 120,000 extra large for five or six (about USD 87), and if you plan to eat grilled food alongside, dropping the sashimi one size still leaves the table full. Four people who also want the grill can start with medium instead of large, and if it runs short, adding one more set beats leaving food behind. The timing for the grill is when half the sashimi is left. Ordering at that point means the grill arrives hot right as you finish the raw fish, while ordering both at the start means the grill cools first. For an anniversary, putting premium wild-caught sashimi from KRW 80,000 (about USD 58) in the platter slot and attaching only grilled abalone matches the occasion properly. The premium selection gets built from whatever species yields well that day, such as spotted halibut or roughscale sole, so asking which species is on when you order is the way to handle it. Around 7 PM on a weekend the sashimi takes about 20 minutes and the grill about 10, so receiving the sashimi first and then ordering the grill keeps the flow unbroken. That timing is exactly why the restaurant veteran with over a decade at Jagalchi goes table to table asking whether to bring the grill a little later.

Grilled abalone wants a light touch of salt and nothing more, eaten one piece at a time between the sashimi, and the vinegared chili sauce is better left alone because it buries the natural sweetness of the abalone. Prepared abalone, sized to your group, gets grilled in the shell and scored before it comes out, and the flesh is springy with a sweetness that builds the longer you chew. Eating it as two or three pieces of white-flesh sashimi, then one piece of abalone, then back to the sashimi, brings the two plates on the table down at the same rate. The innards run slightly bitter so plenty of guests set them aside as a soju dish on their own, and for children or older guests we serve only the white flesh. At the Jagalchi Haean-ro restaurant, grilled abalone is what two-person tables choose most often when attaching a single grill to their sashimi. The portion is not daunting and the table looks properly dressed for it. That the seasoning is not strong the way spicy hagfish is, so it does not interfere with the taste of the raw fish, is the other reason. If you want both grills, the right sequence puts the abalone down alongside the sashimi first and brings the hagfish out separately after the sashimi is finished. Abalone does not toughen as it cools, so there is no rush, and the juices left in the shell can be spooned out as a dish in their own right.

Steamed shrimp goes between the sashimi plate and the grill plate, and the Jagalchi way is to push it first toward whoever at the table does not eat raw fish. Ordering the assorted seafood sized to your group brings steamed shrimp with it, and depending on the table there are days it goes on as an accompaniment. Peeled and eaten with no sauce at all it still tastes sweet, which makes it the plate children and older guests reach for first. On a table that ordered both sashimi and grill, the role of the steamed shrimp is a buffer. Before moving from cold raw fish to hot grilled food, one lukewarm shrimp in between shifts the temperature in your mouth naturally. Steamed clams fill the same slot, and since they come sized to your group, ordering them with four or more is where the portion fits. If anyone in your party has a shellfish allergy, saying so when you order means we leave the shrimp out and swap in a different cooked item. Look at family tables after 6:30 PM and an arrangement forms on its own, with the sashimi toward the adults and the shrimp and abalone toward the children, and it is that arrangement that lets people who eat raw fish and people who do not share one table. Pile the shrimp shells on your side plate and they get cleared, so there is no need to worry about the table getting messy.

Because the seasoning is strong enough that eating it before the sashimi means you stop tasting the sashimi at all, hagfish belongs on the table after the sashimi plate is cleared. Domestic live hagfish grilled over charcoal is fixed-size pricing at KRW 60,000 small (about USD 43), KRW 80,000 medium (about USD 58), KRW 100,000 large (about USD 72) and KRW 120,000 extra large (about USD 87), seared first over charcoal, then finished with chili paste seasoning and tossed with onion and green onion on a cast iron plate. At a table eating it alongside sashimi, ordering the hagfish one size below your sashimi gets the portion right. Four people who had a large assorted platter want the small hagfish. Wrapping it in a perilla leaf with garlic settles the heat, and ordering fried rice with three or four pieces left gets it tossed in the seasoning remaining on the plate as a finish. Calling for the fried rice after you have eaten everything is too late. Half the company-dinner tables at the Jagalchi Haean-ro restaurant put this grill down after the sashimi, and the longer the drinking runs, the better that order fits. If the heat is too much, it can be adjusted to a milder version, and there is also the option of eating it seared with salt only. The plate needs to be hot for the springiness to hold, so eat it as it arrives. Asking for a fresh side plate and chopsticks when you move from sashimi to hagfish keeps the clean flavor of the raw fish out of the seasoning.

Around KRW 75,000 for two, KRW 160,000 for four and KRW 250,000 for six is the benchmark when ordering sashimi and grill together. For two, a small assorted platter at KRW 60,000 plus one grilled fish set at KRW 15,000 does it, and if you are drinking, grilled abalone sized to your group goes in place of the set. For four, a large assorted platter at KRW 100,000 with a small hagfish at KRW 60,000 is the standard, and adding a small rockfish spicy stew at KRW 50,000 closes the whole thing out at KRW 210,000 (about USD 152). For a six-person company dinner, an extra large platter at KRW 120,000 with a medium hagfish at KRW 80,000 and a small spicy stew at KRW 50,000 is the most common combination, with fried rice added to match the headcount. The restaurant sits 220m from Jagalchi Station (Line 1) Exit 2 toward Jagalchi Haean-ro, about a 3-minute walk. It is two stops from Busan Station on Line 1. With 190 seats across the first and second floors it takes company groups, and calling +82-10-8998-4803 for four or more gets the sashimi and grill sizes set to your headcount in advance. A taxi runs about 10 minutes and KRW 6,000 to 8,000 from Busan Station, or 20 minutes and KRW 12,000 to 15,000 from Seomyeon. Buses 8, 30, 71, 113 and 1003 stop at Jagalchi Market. Afterward, BIFF Square is a 5-minute walk, Yeongdo Bridge 7 minutes and Gukje Market 8 minutes, and the Saturday 2 PM bridge opening lines up if you walk over after lunch.