Ulsan shabu buffet with partitions and corn noodles: Shabre Garden

What is Shabre Garden Ulsan Nam-gu Branch like?

Shabre Garden Ulsan Nam-gu Branch (샤브르정원 울산남구점) is a shabu-shabu buffet in a new commercial building near Suam Raw Fish Market in Nam-gu, Ulsan. With about 50 buffet items, a spicy jjamppong broth, a mild clear broth, and even unlimited draft beer, it's about as good as a shabu-shabu buffet gets.

Have you been eating properly? Suam Raw Fish Market is a spot with good eateries that I've mentioned in my posts several times, and apparently a new shabu-shabu buffet has opened there. Let's go see what it's like.

Hours, parking and waiting

Shabre Garden Ulsan Nam-gu Branch is open daily 11:00–21:00, with a break from 15:00 to 17:00 and last order at 20:20. You can park at the Suam Raw Fish Market lot and the Suam public parking lot, and parking fees are covered.

A new commercial building went up near Suam Raw Fish Market, and Shabre Garden opened there. I visited when it had been open only 10 days. They say a dedicated parking lot will open in July, so parking should be hassle-free from then on.

You can join the waitlist remotely through Tabling. It's a new restaurant, but word has already spread and it's very popular, so I recommend joining the remote waitlist before you go.

Partitions make dining comfortable

The big plus of Shabre Garden is the partitions. Partitions line the walkways where people move around, so eating is not disturbed at all, and it feels like they thought carefully about customers.

How do you order at Shabre Garden?

There's no separate menu. You order at a kiosk according to your party size. The only other thing to order is drinks, through a table-order system, and once you've ordered you can go straight to the food. Now let's properly introduce Shabre Garden.

Vegetable corner, shabu-shabu toppings and rice paper roll ingredients

First up is the vegetable corner. Vegetables for shabu-shabu and the main ingredients for Vietnamese-style rice paper rolls are gathered in one place, and the variety is huge, so there's plenty to eat.

On the shelf above the vegetables, there are various shabu-shabu toppings such as sausage, fish cake, kalguksu (knife-cut noodles), tteok (rice cakes) and sujebi (hand-pulled dough flakes).

The dry rice paper and the hot water for dipping it are the combo for making rice paper rolls. One tip: as long as the people eating with you don't mind, dip the rice paper in the shabu-shabu broth.

Drinks, coffee and an affogato tip

The drink corner has soda plus pomegranate, orange and plum juice, and for after the meal there's espresso and Americano. If you like ice cream, I recommend putting ice cream on an Americano to make an affogato. Now let's look at the real dishes.

What's on the Shabre Garden buffet?

The buffet at Shabre Garden Ulsan Nam-gu Branch has Japanese food, with various sushi and rolls made with egg omelet, salmon, octopus and small squid.

There are Korean dishes kids love, like dakgalbi (spicy stir-fried chicken), fried rice, tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes) and jeon (savory pancakes), and

there's also cypress-steamed food (pyeonbaek-jjim) that adults and dieters can eat as much as they like.

Chinese and Western dishes such as cream shrimp, smoked duck, stir-fried udon and spaghetti are there too, which makes up the buffet's wide menu.

The fried items are also very varied, with fried chicken, gimmari (seaweed-wrapped glass noodle rolls), french fries and potato chips. Thinking about it, they seem to have considered both the pairing with draft beer and the dishes kids prefer.

A shabu-shabu buffet with kids' tableware too

What gave me that impression most strongly was the tableware for children. Shabre Garden has kids' spoons, chopsticks and even meal trays, fully prepared.

There's gorgonzola pizza and bulgogi pizza too, so pizza lovers couldn't ask for more.

Chocolate fountain and desserts

The dessert corner has a chocolate fountain that kids will go crazy for, plus waffles, assorted bakery items and marshmallows. Has there ever been a shabu-shabu buffet with a chocolate fountain...?

There are also fresh desserts with grapefruit, orange, tomato, jelly, mango and cake. Just describing the menu could fill a whole page.

Unlimited draft beer, no extra charge

For drinkers, the biggest draw at Shabre Garden is the unlimited draft beer. You can drink beer with no extra charge at all.

Shabu-shabu meat, sauces and broth

The meats for shabu-shabu at Shabre Garden are beef belly (usamgyeopsal) and beef chuck (umokshim). The belly is fatty and rich, while the chuck has less fat but a chewier bite.

There are 4 sauces: garlic, chili, soy and peanut, plus chili peppers and minced garlic to add to them. Try every sauce one by one.

Now put in the vegetables and let the meal begin! Two broths, clear and jjamppong, come as standard, and refills are available.

How did it taste?

It's a shabu-shabu place, so the meat matters most. Both the beef belly and the beef chuck at Shabre Garden had no gamey smell and weren't tough, so I enjoyed them.

Personally, the spicy jjamppong broth suited my taste better than the clear broth. With meat going in, the longer it boils, the deeper the broth gets.

The food I brought from the buffet stayed warm, with nothing cold, and I enjoyed everything from the salad to the fried items.

Best of the buffet: salmon sushi

If I had to pick the best buffet item at Shabre Garden, it would be the salmon sushi. The salmon is very thick and big, and one bite is extremely tender. It goes faster than you'd expect, so grab it quickly.

Corn noodles for jjamppong broth

When starchy toppings go into shabu-shabu broth boiled with meat, the broth thickens and tastes richer. Corn noodles in particular were the best match for the jjamppong broth.

To finish, a waffle with ice cream and apple jam, plus some cold ice cream, wrapped up the meal!

Verdict: is Shabre Garden Ulsan Nam-gu Branch worth visiting?

Shabre Garden Ulsan Nam-gu Branch is an Ulsan restaurant where you can enjoy an upscale shabu-shabu buffet. It had only been open 10 days, yet it's famous enough to have a wait.

From the quality of the meat and buffet to unlimited draft beer, plus kid-friendly dishes and thoughtful tableware, I think it suits families in many ways. It's well located near Suam Raw Fish Market and perfect when you're craving shabu-shabu, so I recommend Shabre Garden in Ulsan.