Brightly colored bags of instant ramyun are immaculately stacked along grocery store shelves as customers weave their way through crowds to take a closer look. The number of noodle options seems endless, but that’s not the only thing that kept hundreds of people buzzing inside the newly opened Jagalchi Korean food complex in Daly City’s Serramonte Center.
Jagalchi, a massive 75,000-square-foot grocery store named after the largest seafood market in Korea, opened its doors Friday, nearly a year after first announcing plans to take up the vacant space inside JCPenney. The newly minted Korean food complex, owned by Mega Mart, features a seafood and butcher counter, Basquia Bakery, a restaurant, dozens of grab-and-go dishes, and an extensive selection of traditional pickled banchan.
Asian grocery markets have boomed around the Bay Area with the popularity of H Mart, Mega Mart and Tokyo Central stores that have been on a rapid expansion in recent years. Mega Mart is expected to open its fourth Bay Area store in Dublin sometime this year. Yet Jagalchi is the first of its kind in the region and stands apart from the other markets for its massive Korean offerings, both food and household goods, as well as its dining option, backed by a chef with Michelin star cred.
Just before the grand opening hour, a crowd of guests eagerly stood in a line that weaved around Jagalchi toward the Target store at Serramonte Center. Once the doors flung open, the line quickly moved, and guests were free to roam and discover the treasures stored inside the foodie paradise.
Jagalchi’s seafood and butcher counters are among the first sections guests will find inside the market. In the grab-and-go seafood section, cartons of fresh salmon sushi and tuna sashimi were neatly arranged alongside vibrant seaweed and squid salads. Guests huddled by the butcher counter to scan the wide selection of marinated meats that included beef bulgogi and sliced beef rib-eye used for Korean barbecue. Around the corner from the butcher counter, a refrigerator held a variety of thinly cut meats, like beef short ribs and brisket, used for shabu-shabu.
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The market also has a hefty selection of packaged banchan, the small side dishes that traditionally accompany Korean meals. Among the options are dried and sliced daikon radish, salted kelp and classic kimchi. More kimchi can be found in an adjacent section of the store. Jagalchi also offers a wide variety of Napa Valley wines, Japanese whisky and plenty of soju, too.
Among the most fascinating areas of the market is the temple food section, where hot, ready-to-eat meals were being prepared. Behind a glass partition, three kitchen staffers were busily cutting dough to shape round mandu — Korean dumplings. The market offers four flavors — pork, kimchi, vegetable and red bean — priced between $6 and $7 for two pieces. The buns are also sizable. Farther down the temple food section, a kitchen staffer dipped whole spiral-cut potatoes into a sizzling fryer where folks patiently waited for crispy hoeori gamja — a popular Korean street snack.
Jagalchi’s crown jewel is the restaurant Pogu, which means small harbor, and is near the center of the market. Led by chef Tony Yoo, the chef-owner of Michelin-starred Dooreyoo in Seoul, Pogu features a selection of Korean dishes but takes a step back from fine dining. The casual dining restaurant offers comfort dishes Yoo grew up eating as a child in his native Gangwon, Korea. Many of the menu items are also inspired by his grandmother, whom Yoo described as his mentor.
“She made everything like homemade kimchi, homemade soy sauce, soybean paste, soybean sauce and chili sauce,” Yoo said. “She made everything magic.”
Some of the dishes on the menu that were inspired by his grandmother are the samgyetang, a traditional ginseng chicken soup made with mushrooms, and Gangwon buckwheat noodles, named after his hometown. Yoo hopes to build a bridge between his guests and the traditional flavors that he’s mastered in the kitchen over the years.
“When people come to Jagalchi, they will experience the essence of Korea,” Yoo said.
As guests wind their way toward the exit, Basquia Bakery awaits with plenty of dessert and pastry items for the taking. The Korean bakery, which also has locations in Sunnyvale and at Fremont’s Mega Mart grocery store, offers gluten-free baked goods made with rice flour. On Friday, the pastries included pillowy steamed breads made with injeolmi (Korean rice cake) and custard. A larger line of customers weaved around the cake counter, too.
It’s needless to say that Jagalchi’s grand opening was a hit, as evidenced by the volume of customers who excitedly spent hours exploring the market. If one thing is true, Jagalchi seems to have solidified the Bay Area’s hunger for more Asian grocery markets.
Jagalchi, 63 Serramonte Center, Daly City. Open daily, 9 a.m.-10 p.m.
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March 28, 2025
Food Reporter
Susana Guerrero is a food reporter at SFGATE, where she’s covered Bay Area restaurants since 2015. Her profile on celebrity chef Martin Yan won second place in the San Francisco Press Club awards in 2022. She earned an M.A. in journalism from USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and a B.A. in English from UC Berkeley. She’s a Bay Area native. You can contact her at susana.guerrero@sfgate.com.
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