A meal at Noryangjin Fish Market: browse the stalls, then choose raw fish or cooked seafood

Browse the stalls at Noryangjin Fish Market, then choose a meal of raw fish, steamed seafood or grilled dishes. You can buy seafood to eat in a restaurant or order cooked dishes directly from its menu.

A meal at Noryangjin Fish Market: browse the stalls, then choose raw fish or cooked seafood

The exterior of Noryangjin Fish Market.

At Noryangjin Fish Market, a meal can begin before you sit down. Walk through the sales floor, see which fish and shellfish are on display, and decide what you would like to eat. Sliced raw fish is one option, but if someone in your group does not eat it, you can plan a meal around steamed or grilled seafood, or cooked dishes ordered directly from a restaurant. Leave time for both browsing the market and enjoying the meal.

Start with a look around the first floor

The market's facilities guide places stalls selling live fish, chilled fish, shellfish and frozen seafood on the first floor, with raw-fish restaurants on the second and fifth floors. Rather than choosing a whole fish straight away, spend a little time in the sales area. Look at what each stall has out and stop when something catches your eye. This is your chance to see the fish you might order raw and the shellfish you might like steamed.

For an unfamiliar fish, look for its name on the stall or point and ask. You can browse while talking with your companions about what you would like to try. Thinking about whether you want sliced raw fish, steamed crab to shell and share, or a warm soup with rice helps narrow the choice. Leave room in the aisles for other customers and people moving goods. Take your time on wet floors, and point to seafood in tanks or on counters rather than touching it.

Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market is at 674 Nodeul-ro, Dongjak-gu, Seoul. Noryangjin Station is served by subway lines 1 and 9. The market's directions point line 1 passengers to exit 9, and line 9 passengers to exit 7 and the underground passage. Once you arrive, follow signs for the fish market. If you have a lot of luggage or find stairs difficult, look into the station's and market's access facilities before setting out.

According to the official guide, retail sales operate year-round, but hours differ by type of seafood. For a meal, start with the opening hours of the restaurant you want to use rather than the early-morning auction schedule. The market being open does not mean your chosen restaurant is serving meals at that time.

An octopus display at Noryangjin Fish Market, photographed in June 2024.

There is more to choose than raw fish

If you want hoe, Korean-style sliced raw fish, first decide roughly how much your group will eat and what you want on the plate. Your order will depend on whether you choose a single kind of fish, a mixed selection, or other food alongside it. Tell the stall what you would like and how many people are eating, then ask about the combinations and quantities it offers. It also helps to establish whether you are choosing a whole fish or ordering a suitable quantity of prepared slices.

If you are coming for cooked seafood, find a restaurant that can prepare it before buying the ingredients. The Korea Tourism Organization describes Ttosuni (또순이), on the market's second floor, as a restaurant specializing in spicy fish soup, steamed seafood and grilled seafood. If there is an ingredient you would like steamed or grilled, ask this restaurant whether it prepares it and how the ingredient gets from the stall to your table. Decide which ingredients you will have cooked and which dishes you will order from the restaurant's menu.

You can also browse the market and then order from a restaurant without choosing ingredients yourself. The published menu for Jinju Restaurant (진주식당), on the fifth floor, lists grilled mackerel, seafood ramyeon, stir-fried squid, and fried shrimp and squid. These are options for anyone who wants grilled fish with rice or would prefer a warm meal to raw fish. Look at the menu and available portions when you visit. In particular, this restaurant lists a minimum order of two servings for daegu jiri-tang, a clear cod soup, and al-tang, a fish roe soup.

Raw or undercooked seafood can cause infections from Vibrio bacteria and other germs. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends cooking seafood before eating it. If you want a cooked meal, choose thoroughly cooked dishes rather than a course that includes raw fish, and ask whether any of the accompaniments contain raw seafood.

Bringing your choice to the table

If you plan to buy seafood at a stall and eat it in a restaurant, settle on the restaurant when you make the purchase. Ask the stall and restaurant whether you should carry your raw fish over yourself or wait for it at the table. Knowing the restaurant's name and floor makes it easier to find after another look around the market. If you have ordered something steamed, allow time to sit and talk with your companions while it is being prepared.

The price of the seafood may not be the full cost of the meal. Visit Seoul describes a dining arrangement in which you pay the fishmonger for the fish and the restaurant for side dishes, vegetables and sauces. Jinju Restaurant also states that a table-setting charge applies when you bring in raw fish from another seller. It notes that services received from a crustacean seller it recommends are separate from the restaurant's steaming fee. When eating this way, ask about your chosen restaurant's table-setting and cooking charges as well as the cost of the ingredients.

Some mixed raw-fish dishes ordered directly from Jinju Restaurant, on the other hand, are marked as including the table setting. Buying ingredients to bring in and ordering a dish directly from the restaurant can therefore include different things. When choosing your meal, see what comes with it and decide whether to add soup, rice or drinks. Whether the table setting is included, and what cooking costs apply, depends on the restaurant and how you order.

Leave time to enjoy the meal

When the food arrives, begin by sharing what you have chosen rather than ordering a lot all at once. If some people are eating raw fish and others cooked dishes, it helps to keep everyone's choices clear at the table. Crab and shellfish that you shell by hand are worth allowing a little more eating time for.

If you would like to finish with soup, look at the soups and rice on the menu. See whether soup comes with your chosen dish; if you are ordering it separately, decide how much to share with rice. You can make a meal of rice and cooked dishes, or linger over a drink and conversation.

Part of the pleasure of Noryangjin is connecting the seafood you saw on the sales floor with the food that arrives at your table. You might leave knowing the name of an unfamiliar fish, or simply enjoy a familiar grilled dish and rice after a look around the market. Take your time browsing, and choose the meal to suit the people you are with.

Official information

• Noryangjin Fish Market facilities and sales areas

• Noryangjin Fish Market location and subway access

• Noryangjin Fish Market retail and auction hours

• Visit Seoul's guide to eating at Noryangjin Fish Market

• Korea Tourism Organization's guide to Ttosuni's steamed and grilled seafood

• Jinju Restaurant's published menu and dining information

• US CDC guidance on seafood and preventing Vibrio infection

Photo credits

• Cover photo · JJChoi / J.J Choi · Pixabay Content License (not CC0) · Re-encoded as JPEG.

• Octopus display at Noryangjin · Basile Morin · CC BY-SA 4.0 International · Proportionally resized and re-encoded.