Munhyeon-dong shabu kalguksu after a play, somaek for three: Yunujae

Shabu kalguksu instead of raw fish on a Busan trip

On this Busan trip I skipped the raw fish and had shabu kalguksu at Yunujae Munhyeon Shabu Kalguksu (윤우재 문현샤브 칼국수) in Munhyeon-dong instead. It had been ages since my last trip to Busan, and every time I go I eat raw fish. This time it had gotten so hot that I really wanted something more restorative than raw fish. So after some thinking, I picked Yunujae, one of the well-known Munhyeon-dong restaurants!

How was the weekend dinner wait at Yunujae?

I got to Yunujae around 7:40 PM on a weekend evening. It was crowded and there was a wait, and the waitlist closed right behind me. They don't take orders after 8 PM, so I'd recommend arriving with some time to spare.

My younger cousin who lives near Seomyeon goes all the time and always raves about how good it is, so I was super excited before even getting there. We came after watching a play nearby, and it was busy, probably because it was the weekend. I was really lucky: I put my name down and was waiting, and the list was cut off right after me!

Location and parking

Yunujae is really close to Munhyeon Station, so it's easy to find. If you're coming by car, note that you need to park in the basement 1 (B1) level of Daerim City Plaza.

Tablet ordering and the sadness of the sold-out seafood pajeon

You order on the tablet at each table. I really wanted the seafood pajeon (scallion pancake), but when we visited it showed as sold out and I was so sad.. People say it's that good.. I don't know when I'll be back in Busan, so seeing "sold out" made me really gloomy.

So to cheer myself up, I ordered shabu kalguksu for 3 and extra meat! Meat is better when you have lots of it, right?

Kimchi and broth refills at the self-bar

When you order shabu kalguksu, kimchi comes out first, and you can refill both kimchi and broth at the self-service corner. The kimchi is seriously delicious, so I kept going back to the self-bar for more. And if the broth runs low as it boils down, you can grab more from the self-bar too.

The 3-serving set, plus extra meat and vegetables

The kalguksu pot comes out first, and maybe because we ordered 3 servings, there were tons of vegetables and plenty of broth.

You get one kalguksu and one sujebi per person, and you add them after you've eaten a fair amount of the meat and vegetables! The meat already looked like plenty, but we're greedy about meat.. so we sneakily added more. The extra meat comes on a separate small plate.

We have a vegetable lover in the group.. so we added vegetables too! I think shabu kalguksu is better the more vegetables it has. Don't the extra vegetables look fresh and generous?!?!

This is the extra meat!

Shabu kalguksu with somaek

Looking at the full spread, we felt that shabu kalguksu alone wasn't enough, so we added soju and beer too! Shabu kalguksu with somaek (soju-beer mix) felt even better.

Do you need to order fried rice separately?

At Yunujae, fried rice comes as standard, so you don't need to add it. Since it was my first visit, I really wanted fried rice and ordered it at the start, but a staff member came over and asked if I was adding more since it comes by default. So I canceled it right away! The portion is generous too, so unless you really love rice, no need to add more!

How did the shabu kalguksu taste?

The appeal is the moderately spicy broth, and with the generous vegetables and the deep flavor of the meat, I got really full. You put the meat in and boil it bubbling away, and there are tips for eating it at its best set out at each table, so follow those when you cook. Maybe because we were drinking, I had a lot of the broth too.

After eating a good amount of meat and vegetables, we added the kalguksu and sujebi and boiled again! I think it would have been even better if I'd left a few vegetables in before boiling, but it was still plenty tasty the way we did it.

Finishing with fried rice, scraped clean

After eagerly fishing out the noodles, the last step is the fried rice. You scoop out the leftover broth bits before frying it up, and as a rice lover myself, the fried rice finish was fantastic. It really doesn't feel finished without the fried rice.

My cousin said that when it comes to Busan kalguksu, Yunujae is the first place that comes to mind, and it was definitely no lie: it was so good that I scraped up every last grain of fried rice before leaving! If you're looking for a Munhyeon-dong restaurant, I recommend Yunujae.

It's great as a meal, and it was really good as drinking food too. On days when I crave spicy kalguksu, or on rainy days, I think I'll be thinking of Yunujae again.