What to buy at Jagalchi, the Bay Area's Korean mega food complex

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.

What's next: Check out our full hot foods review on our Instagram.

If you go: Open daily from 10am-9pm at 63 Serramonte Center.