Ben and I went on a date on Friday night, since the girls slept over my mom and dad’s place. We have a restaurant that is our go-to place when we are in my mom and dad’s area, but I wasn’t feeling it on Friday, and wanted to try somewhere new. After yelp-ing a few things in the area, I narrowed it down to Korean sushi, ramen, or our go-to cajun seafood place. I consulted the BFF on what to do, since 1) she’s Korean and could help me figure out if we would like Korean sushi, and 2) she knows our palettes so well that she always has good recommendations. She said, “The sushi is daring, the ramen is safe, and our cajun seafood is super-safe.” Thus, we went with daring, so Dongbu Live Fish it is!

This was a small mom and pop restaurant, and I have to admit, we were a little apprehensive upon entering. It’s a small establishment, and there were these large tanks on one side, and tables on the other. The reviews on yelp were good, so we felt safe, but we had a feeling this was going to be interesting. We’ve tried a lot of Korean food, but we have never had Korean sashimi. The special thing about Korean sashimi is that it is about as fresh as it could be. I already knew what we wanted to order, so we got the small live sashimi combo to share (that was more than plenty for two people!).

The chef, I assume he was the chef, went to one of the large tanks on the other side of the room, and pulled out a live halibut. It was a moving and wriggling fish! He showed it to us, told us this was our fish (and asked if I wanted to take a picture, so I did), and then he went to the back to do his fancy slicing. In the meantime, they brought out us a salad, quail eggs, and lots of little Korean side dishes. Next, out came some soup, and the thinly sliced abalone, which they just picked fresh from the tank moments before, and some spicy buckwheat noodles. Then, our big plate of the thinly sliced halibut, and some lettuce. The BFF (and the chef) informed us, you take a slice of fish, put it in the lettuce, add some bean paste, garlic, and jalapeño, and eat it all in one bite. We were chowing down on all this deliciousness that we were both starting to get really full. As soon as I declared that I couldn’t eat anymore, they brought out rice and hot pot tofu soup. Okay, so I had a little bit of that, and proclaimed I was done. But wait! Then, they brought out grilled mackerel, and I went for a little bite to try it, but it was so good, I kept going. Next thing you know, Ben and I had devoured the mackerel and it was all gone. Ben continued eating what was left, and I was done for real. I wasn’t stuffed, but I felt good enough, and wanted to save room for dessert.

For dessert, we went to pick up some Honeymee, which was milk ice cream with pure honey drizzled all over (see here). I happily indulged in each spoonful of that cup full of joy until it was all gone. I can’t wait to introduce the girls to Honeymee, I know they’ll love it too! If you’re adventurous, I highly recommend trying Korean style sushi. It had a lot of the Korean flavors we were already used to in other dishes, so it ended up not being too new to us. What was new though, was that was the freshest fish we ever had. I mean it was alive, then 10-15 minutes later it was in our stomachs!