Weekend minari shabu-shabu lunch in Sinnonhyeon: Cheongdo Minari

Why I came back to Cheongdo Minari Sikdang Sinnonhyeon Branch

Cheongdo Minari Sikdang (청도미나리식당) Sinnonhyeon Branch is a Korean restaurant near Sinnonhyeon Station that serves minari (water dropwort) shabu-shabu. Shabu-shabu with my boyfriend, finally!! Lately it's been nothing but meat or pasta, so I just wanted some plain Korean food. And something spicy, if possible! I'd tried the Cheongdo Minari Sikdang in Yongsan before and fell for it, so I came back to the Sinnonhyeon branch.

I bet lots of office workers around Sinnonhyeon Station come here for lunch, so it's a great Sinnonhyeon lunch spot! We had a generous minari shabu-shabu plus kalguksu (knife-cut noodles) and fried rice, a really filling meal.

Getting to Cheongdo Minari Sikdang Sinnonhyeon Branch and the interior

It's only about a 2-minute walk from Exit 9 of Sinnonhyeon Station. The restaurant is in the basement, and when I went down, the inside was huge and comfortable.

How much is minari shabu-shabu in Sinnonhyeon?

The minari shabu-shabu at Cheongdo Minari Sikdang Sinnonhyeon Branch is ₩12,000 per person for the weekday lunch special. We went on a weekend, so it was ₩14,000 per person. You get minari, shabu meat, kalguksu and fried rice, so for a value meal in Gangnam it seems really reasonable.

Every seat has a kiosk, so ordering was easy! Once we ordered, they brought out a pot packed with fresh, green minari.

Should you add extra meat?

The basic portion is 75g of meat per person, so we added 150g of extra meat (₩8,000) and the two of us ate really full. The meat is also quite thick, unlike at other shabu-shabu places, so it has a nice chew.

Sauces, extra vegetables and choosing a broth

Gochujang (red chili paste) sauce sits on every table, and I grabbed soy sauce and wasabi from the self-serve bar. I'm a soy sauce person~~

The fried rice portion is quite big too, and I liked that the extra vegetables, mushrooms and minari, come separately! Adding them bit by bit is better than boiling everything at once. Apparently minari gets tough if boiled for long, so serving it separately felt really thoughtful.

You can choose between red broth and white broth, and we went with the spicy red one.

How does the minari shabu-shabu taste?

Cooked meat from the red broth, eaten together with minari. Yum. The broth is spicy and so good. By the end you've had meat, fried rice and kalguksu, so it's super filling, but maybe thanks to the minari it feels like a healthy meal.

It's even better with the soy sauce, haha. The crunch of the minari goes really well with the tenderness of the meat. The meat isn't too fatty either, with a good ratio of lean meat.

We added 150g of meat, and the slices were huge and wide.

It's good with baek-kimchi (white kimchi) too, haha

The kalguksu noodles don't make the broth gloopy

The kalguksu portion was quite big, and since the noodles come pre-cooked once, they didn't cloud the broth. They gave us eating-show tongs, which were super handy, hahaha

There's broth at the self-serve bar, so add more to taste. The broth reduces while you eat shabu-shabu, so I recommend topping it up!

The noodles were really springy, like udon noodles, and because they come pre-cooked, they didn't cloud the broth, which was great!! Adding kalguksu usually makes the broth thick, so thanks to this the soup stayed clean-tasting.

How to make the minari fried rice yourself

The fried rice at Cheongdo Minari Sikdang is DIY! The ingredients are really generous.

• Ladle almost all the broth off to the side, leave just about one ladleful, and fry!
• While the rice cooks, eat the fluffy cooked potato. Eat the potato last, since that's when it's properly cooked!
• Mix well, let it sit a little, then fry it again.

The colors are so pretty. Orange carrot, green minari, onion, seaweed flakes and egg!! I wish I could have this at home all by myself,, hahaha

After frying it longer over the heat, the egg turned crumbly and fluffy. Unlike other shabu-shabu places, this fried rice is full of minari, and the crunchy bite of the minari was so good T_T

How much should two people order?

At Cheongdo Minari Sikdang Sinnonhyeon Branch, two shabu-shabu sets plus extra meat is just right. With Gangnam prices, it's not easy to eat for under ₩40,000 for two, so I highly recommend it as a filling and tasty date meal!

If two women go, even without extra meat it's enough to eat until you're full!

Are there other menu items besides shabu-shabu?

Besides minari shabu-shabu, Cheongdo Minari Sikdang Sinnonhyeon Branch has a varied menu: minari dakbokkeumtang (spicy braised chicken stew), perilla seed and minari duck soup, minari raw duck roast, and raw duck hot pot. They say you can taste the crunch and fresh aroma of top-grade minari from Cheongdo. It's a Sinnonhyeon spot that's also good for a drink with dinner.

There was already a table of older guys having hot pot and drinks in the middle of the day, hahaha. I recommend it for lunch, dinner, dates and company dinners!