Yeongjong restaurant for a post-school dinner: Pyeonbaek Hoegwan

A Yeongjong restaurant with a playroom that's great for kids

There are quite a few restaurants with playrooms in Yeongjong, but of them all! Our child always plays so well here at Pyeonbaek Hoegwan. Maybe it's because there is a slide and a zip line. It's in the same building as Kicle Pediatrics, which anyone raising kids in Haneul City will probably know. Pyeonbaek Hoegwan Main Branch (편백회관 본점).

When you're deciding on dinner in Yeongjong, it can be surprisingly hard to choose: Should we have meat? Something brothy? Or just keep it simple? Especially when the weather gets a little cooler, or on a day when I'm craving something warm, a dish with broth is always the first thing that comes to mind.

Warm shabu-shabu after preschool pickup

That day, too, I was wondering what to have for dinner after preschool pickup, and shabu-shabu came to mind: a warm broth where we could eat vegetables and meat together. So off we went. This time, we visited Pyeonbaek Hoegwan Main Branch on Haneulbyeolbit-ro in Yeongjong—and..! I've been here more than 10 times.

Along with shabu-shabu, you can also enjoy pyeonbaek-jjim (cypress-steamed dishes) and use the salad bar, so I thought it would be a good place for a filling dinner after work.

The dining area and playroom atmosphere

Shabu-shabu is an easygoing choice for a family meal, but also for visiting with friends or a partner, so it seemed to get quite busy at dinnertime. Still, the restaurant was generally tidy, and the tables were not packed too closely together, so we could sit and eat comfortably.

At shabu-shabu restaurants, the table can feel smaller than expected once you put all sorts of things on it, but I didn't find this place particularly uncomfortable while we ate.

The order: cypress steam, then shabu-shabu

Before the shabu-shabu, you can enjoy the cypress-steamed dishes first. Usually, when you think of shabu-shabu, you imagine bringing the broth to a boil and adding meat and vegetables. Here, you eat the pyeonbaek-jjim first and follow it with shabu-shabu, which makes the meal feel more varied.

You start lightly with the cypress-steamed dishes, then boil the broth and have shabu-shabu. We ordered one menu, but having pyeonbaek-jjim and shabu-shabu in sequence made the meal feel a little more abundant. In particular, pyeonbaek-jjim gently cooks the ingredients, so it was enjoyable in a different way from shabu-shabu.

Eating the meat and vegetables as cypress-steamed dishes first, then putting meat and vegetables into the warm broth afterward, made even the same ingredients fun to eat in a slightly different way.

Comparing the regular and beef-bone tomato broths

Another fun part is, of course, the broth. At Pyeonbaek Hoegwan, you can choose two broths, so we ordered a different flavor for each side. The beef-bone broth's nutty, rich flavor forms the base, with the slightly tangy flavor of tomato added in, so it felt clearly different from the regular broth.

Rather than tasting light and fresh simply because it contains tomato, it is a style where the rich beef-bone flavor and tomato's tanginess come through together. That gave the meat and vegetables a different flavor from the regular broth, too. Personally, I thought choosing contrasting styles from the beginning—regular broth on one side and beef-bone tomato on the other—would be a good option.

The meat cooks quickly as soon as it goes into the broth, so you can take out the meat first while the vegetables cook, or let mushrooms and vegetables cook thoroughly—however you like. Best of all, because the warm broth keeps simmering at the table, the food stayed warm throughout the meal.

Why it was good for a longer meal out with kids

If you're looking for a Yeongjong restaurant with a playroom near Haneul City on a day when you want warm broth, meat, and vegetables together with your child, I think this would be helpful to consider. Mealtimes can run a little long, and once kids have finished eating, it's not easy for them to stay seated, right? In those moments, having a playroom close to the dining area is nice because they can play for a while. Especially when dining out as a family, the food matters, but whether the child gets bored matters more than you'd think, which is probably why I tend to prefer restaurants with a play space.