10-04-2025
What to buy at Jagalchi, the Bay Area's Korean mega food complex
Jagalchi has become an instant sensation and premier one-stop destination for authentic Korean cuisine and products.
Catch up quick: The highly-anticipated 75,000-square-foot Korean food complex opened on March 28 with lines out the door at Daly City's Serramonte Center.
The intrigue: The massive store, which is owned by the international chain Mega Mart, has a fine-dining restaurant called POGU, butcher counter, bakery, seafood market with an oyster bar, made-to-order cafeteria section, extensive pantry and drink aisles, Korean skincare staples, and specialty produce.
It's filled with everything from freshly-made banchan, spicy ramyeon and marinated beef bulgogi to K-beauty sunscreens, varieties of dried fish and all the kimchi your heart could possibly desire.
Fun fact: The store was named after a famous fish market in Busan.
Here's what to try:
🍶 Alcohol: The store offers many Korean spirits that are hard to come by in the U.S., including Seoul Night plum soju and Red Monkey makgeolli, a rice wine and unique takes on beer, including a kimchi-sour brewed ale.
🧁 Bakery: Try the injeolmi rice cakes, or the cream-filled sulpang, a spongey gluten-free dessert that comes in different flavors, including strawberry and chocolate.
🌶️ Fermented foods: Try the house-made cucumber sobagi, jeotgal (fermented fish), or kimchi options.
Or opt for one of many artisanal jangs — fermented soybean sauces — which are considered the building blocks of Korean cuisine. You may already know of one: Gochujang, known as red chili paste. Others include doenjang (soybean paste) and ssamjang, a combination of the two.
🥫Pantry staples: Endless options of instant ramen, rice varieties, spices, snacks, dried seaweed and specialty soft drinks line the store.
🍐 Produce: Fresh fruit abounds, with Korean pears and juicy jeju tangerines stealing the spotlight.
🦐 Seafood: Many types of fresh fish and shellfish, are reasonably priced, with striped bass ($8 a pound), red tilapia ($5 a pound), and golden pompano ($4 a pound) being among the most affordable.
🥩 Butcher: Choose from the wide selection of meats, which includes regional bulgogi varieties, specialty cuts, Japanese and American wagyu ribeyes.
🍲 Prepared foods: Packaged foods include freshly-prepared seafood pancakes called jeon, handmade mandu (dumplings), soy sauce marinated crab and tteokbokki, glutinous rice cakes bathed in a creamy and spicy sauce.
🧴 K-Beauty: Find everything from masks, sunscreens and moisturizers to cleansers, serums and more from brands like Round Lab, Anua, Beauty of Joseon, CORSX and Madagascar Centella.
💭 Our thought bubble: As a K-beauty fanatic and person who wears sunscreen religiously, Nadia was impressed with the types of products she found.
Her favorites include BRMUD 's 2-in-1 mud mask and foaming cleanser, Round Lab 's moisturizing sun stick and Beauty of Joseon 's viral sunscreen — and yes, it's the original formula that the brand no longer sells to U.S. customers.
Shawna is impressed with the wide variety of hot foods offered at such affordable prices. The $8 seafood pancake was on par with some high-end Korean restaurants she's been to! Also: they've got Korean pears, y'all. Those can be seriously hard to find in the U.S.
