Daegu shabu-shabu buffet with pad thai: Shabu20 Bokhyeon

I visited Shabu20, a great place in Bokhyeon-dong, Daegu. This all-you-can-eat shabu-shabu buffet is already hugely loved for its high-quality meat and salad bar. It is close to Kyungpook National University’s north gate, Isiapolis, and EXCO, so it is also a nice stop on a date! It had been a while since my last visit, and I spotted new salad-bar dishes. I’ll share everything in detail 😉

Shabu20 Daegu Bokhyeon branch: location and parking

This is an all-you-can-eat shabu-shabu buffet with quality meat. Shabu20 Daegu Bokhyeon branch is in Bokhyeon-dong, near Kyungpook National University’s north gate, EXCO, and Daegu International Airport. I stopped by for lunch after shopping at Lotte Outlet Daegu Isiapolis.

There was no need to worry about parking when driving. There are spacious lots on both sides of the building 😘

What is the atmosphere like at weekday lunch?

I arrived early for weekday lunch, but people started pouring in after noon. Weekends get busy, so if there is a wait, it is best to register in person through Catch Table beforehand.

The interior was spacious and pleasant. The seats by the floor-to-ceiling windows had a lovely view of green trees outside, so I picked one! There are high chairs and clothes hangers, too!

All-you-can-eat salad bar and new dishes

Meat station, Vietnamese rolls, and shabu vegetables

The meat station is a big reason Shabu20 is so popular. Even though it is unlimited, it uses quality beef chuck eye roll and premium pork belly. One taste tells you why. The meat is sliced and put out right away, and you can take three trays at a time.

For Vietnamese rolls, there were red cabbage, carrot, sprouts, cucumber, pineapple, perilla-leaf strips, and sliced onion. Shabu vegetables included cabbage, bean sprouts, kabocha squash, fish cake, fried tofu, wood ear mushrooms, bok choy, mushrooms, scallions, dumplings, and tofu. I filled up most on bean sprouts, plus fried tofu, mushrooms, and bok choy. Blanched in the boiling broth, the texture is incredible.

Dessert and salad bar with whelk-minari salad

There were salad, dressed acorn jelly, whelk-minari salad, injeolmi (roasted soybean rice cake), mugwort rolled rice cake, sweet-potato salad, oranges, and cherry tomatoes. The whelk-minari salad was especially good: bright and fragrant minari with pleasantly chewy whelk. You really have to try this!

Pad thai that stood out at the hot-food station

There was fried rice, pad thai, takoyaki, tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes), soy-sauce boneless chicken, and seasoned boneless chicken. Aren’t these dishes a big part of what made Shabu20 famous? From chicken to tteokbokki, they are the most popular foods.

The standout was the pad thai, which I had not seen at other branches. It seems to be a new dish at the Bokhyeon branch, and its flavor stays true to the basics, on par with a decent Thai restaurant. I went back for two refills, haha.

The soup was savory and salty, with plenty of ingredients—something I always eat because it tastes as carefully made as it looks. They also had umu noodle soy milk soup and umu seaweed jelly! I forgot to try themㅠ These are not available at many branches either, and they are new dishes too.

Sauces, porridge ingredients, drinks, and ice cream

There were chili, spicy chili, fish sauce, sesame dressing, peanut sauce, chopped-chili sauce, garlic-oil sauce, soy sauce with wasabi, and more. Chili and soy sauce with wasabi are easy crowd-pleasers; adding the chopped chili or garlic-oil sauce gives a different savory depth. There are porridge ingredients, too, so you can make it as a finale!

There were citrus and maesil plum juice, sparkling water, Pepsi Lime Zero, Tams, Mountain Dew, Chilsung Cider, coffee, hot chocolate, and ice cream. Add espresso to a scoop of ice cream and you can make an affogato.

Lunch prices and broth choices

• Lunch: 80 minutes, excluding weekends and public holidays, ₩22,900 per person
• Dinner: 100 minutes, ₩26,900 per person
• Broths: spicy, soybean, bonito, sukiyaki, and hot pot
• Bonito is the most popular broth, and you can choose a half bonito, half spicy pot
• Sukiyaki and hot pot each cost an extra ₩1,000

Please check the country-of-origin board as well :)

Shabu with half bonito and half spicy broth

We ordered weekday lunch, with half bonito and half spicy broth, at ₩22,900 × 2.

The spicy broth is mild enough even for someone who cannot handle heat. Just gently spicy?

The beef looks fresh just from its appearance, right? They slice frozen meat to order. It has thawed by the time you pick it up, but it is very thinly sliced, tender, and evenly marbled.

I brought my favorites: chili, fish sauce, and wasabi soy sauce. Wasabi soy sauce is a must. It boosts flavor without overpowering the meat or Vietnamese rolls.

The salad bar’s most popular chicken is moist inside and crisp outside, with a sweet-spicy fried-chicken flavor. It is as good as—if not better than—what you get at a chicken shop. My favorites were the whelk-minari salad and the new pad thai. I went back for them two or three times!

I poured all the vegetables into the broth. I used to wonder why people liked this so much, but now shabu is something I make sure to have regularly. Blanching everything makes it easy on the stomach, and I have fallen for its clean flavor.

When you cook beef in the spicy broth, it tastes a little like beef radish soup, haha. There is a subtle sweetness too—one of those flavors that pops into your mind now and then.

Soak rice paper in warm water and make Vietnamese rolls: the chewy wrapper and crisp vegetables make your mouth happy. There are lots of sauces, so try different combinations. This time I had the chopped-chili and garlic-oil sauces, and their distinctive flavor made it feel like I was eating a completely different dish.

For the finish, I made noodles with kalguksu (knife-cut noodles) and rice noodles. They cook at different speeds, so it is best to eat them separately, or cook each one on a different side of a split broth. Put noodles into the broth richly infused with beef and you can slurp them down endlessly with that deep umami.

For dessert, I had fruit and ice cream. I was full and skipped it this time, but drinks can be taken out too. There are takeaway containers by the register near the entrance, so you could even make an affogato to go.

Final thoughts

I visited Shabu20, a great place in Bokhyeon-dong, Daegu. It is always appealing because you can enjoy quality beef and salad without limits. The new dishes I tried this time were great too! It is near plenty of places worth visiting, from Kyungpook National University and Isiapolis to EXCO, so it makes a convenient stop. It is a place everyone will like—I highly, highly recommend it 🤩