Those in the know already know this, but Sinsa-dong is packed with agujjim (spicy braised monkfish) places, and Busanjip is considered the original among them. There’s always a long line, and this time too I think we queued for a good 40 minutes. It’s not like the other places are doing badly, but this one does so much better than the rest that I went to check it out for myself.
The sign
They say they’ve been in the same spot for about 30 years. Seems it’s been famous for a long time.. It’s a small place, so it fills up fast. The turnover is pretty quick too.
Side dishes
My finger got in the shot, but anyway, a simple spread of side dishes.
Soup
Maybe there’s crab in it, it has a clean, refreshing taste.
Jumeokbap (rice balls)
It seems like a simple dish, but it goes really well with the spicy agujjim. Apparently this place is where it started.
Kkotge-beombeok (blue crab tossed in spicy sauce)
I was going to order the agujjim, but it happened to be blue crab season when I went, so I switched to the kkotge-beombeok. It looks a bit scary, but it was less spicy than I expected, and I enjoyed it. The crabs were on the small side for the season, but they were full of meat. I don’t think there are many places in Gangnam this good for the price. I can see why it’s so popular.
That said, this place is so popular that the others have all benchmarked it, so even if you go to one of the other monkfish places nearby, the taste isn’t that different. Waiting 30 minutes to an hour is a hassle too. And the clincher: the secret of the flavor seems to be MSG, and my stomach didn’t feel great afterwards.
It falls a little short of being a real must-eat place, but it seems worth a visit once just for the experience. If this place looks too crowded, you can just go into one of the busier places nearby.