Minari shabu-shabu and kalguksu, Sinnonhyeon: Cheongdo Minari Sikdang

Where is Cheongdo Minari Sikdang Sinnonhyeon and what is it like?

Cheongdo Minari Sikdang (청도미나리식당) Sinnonhyeon branch is a minari shabu-shabu restaurant just a short walk from Exit 9 of Sinnonhyeon Station. It was easy to find, and the inside is bigger than I expected. I love shabu-shabu, and I heard there was a place near Sinnonhyeon Station known for minari shabu-shabu, so I went for dinner haha

We went in the evening, and there were company dinner groups and quite a few young women too. I took this photo when we were nearly the last customers, at a moment with no one around haha

You order by tablet at your table, and they even have aprons and hair ties ready. Such a thoughtful touch, love it!! The minari shabu-shabu spread came out generously.

Ordering minari shabu-shabu and choosing a broth

At Cheongdo Minari Sikdang we ordered minari shabu-shabu for 2. You can pick a spicy broth or a clear broth, and we went with clear. Just choose whatever suits your taste.

By the way, there is a lunch discount too, so it seems like a really good option for office workers around Sinnonhyeon looking for a hearty meal.

After we ordered, minari, mushrooms, beef, kalguksu noodles and even the fried rice ingredients all came out at once. An extra serving of minari and vegetables comes as standard, which minari lovers will be pretty happy about haha

The beef comes thinly sliced for shabu-shabu, so it was nice to just swish it briefly in the broth, and eating it with minari made it feel much cleaner.

Chili sauce + perilla powder dip: does it go with shabu-shabu?

At Cheongdo Minari Sikdang you can mix chili vinegar sauce (chojang) with perilla powder 1:1 and use it as a dip, and this combo was quietly a real treat.

When you think shabu-shabu, you usually think soy sauce or chili sauce first, right? But here there's this way of mixing chojang and perilla powder 1:1.

At first I thought, "Will this really go together?" but when I dipped the meat and minari, it worked better than I expected. The tang of the chojang plus the nutty perilla powder kept me reaching for more.

The self-serve bar also has soy sauce and wasabi sauce, so if you want a familiar flavor, you can go that way too.

The minari's aroma isn't overpowering either, so it went well with the clear broth, and overall it was easy and comfortable to eat :)

The potatoes were a surprisingly memorable part of the shabu-shabu

I enjoyed the minari and the meat at Cheongdo Minari Sikdang, but surprisingly it was the potatoes that stuck with me most.

While we added more broth and waited before putting in the noodles, we ate the potatoes, and they were slightly sweet and fluffy, better than I expected haha

The chewy kalguksu noodles made it even better 🩷

The kalguksu noodles here are a bit different from ordinary kalguksu, with an even chewier texture, and they were totally my style haha

Fried rice or porridge to finish, and how big are the portions?

They told us the fried rice ingredients that come at the end can be made into fried rice or into porridge. We made porridge, and it was a perfect finish 👍

The portions are more generous than you'd think 🥰 After the meat, vegetables, noodles and porridge, I was so full that I felt embarrassed about worrying over the amount of meat at first haha

Small details that stayed good to the very end

On the way out of Cheongdo Minari Sikdang Sinnonhyeon, they had dental floss, toothpicks and even candy ready, and small things like that quietly stick in your memory.

The owner was friendly too, so we could eat comfortably, and the room is fairly large, so it seems fine for a dinner date and also suits a work lunch or company dinner nearby. If you're looking for a hearty meal near Sinnonhyeon Station, especially shabu-shabu or a good place to eat in Sinnonhyeon, it's worth a visit.