Goyang family restaurant with window seats: Pyeonbaek Hoegwan Hwajeong

Once the weather warmed up I wanted warm shabu-shabu and fresh spring rolls, so I headed to Pyeonbaek Hoegwan Ilsan Hwajeong Branch, well known as a shabu-shabu spot near Hwajeong Station.

Where is Pyeonbaek Hoegwan Ilsan Hwajeong Branch? Hours and parking

Pyeonbaek Hoegwan Ilsan Hwajeong Branch is on the 3rd floor of a building at 47 Hwasin-ro 260beon-gil, Deogyang-gu, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do. Hours are 11:00–22:00, and parking is available in the building.

• 📍 Location: 3F, 47 Hwasin-ro 260beon-gil, Deogyang-gu, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do
• ⏰ Hours: 11:00–22:00
• 🚗 Parking: Available in the building

This Hwajeong Station favorite sits right on Hwajeong Rodeo Street, so it's easy to reach and easy to find. It serves all-you-can-eat shabu-shabu and fresh spring rolls, and since it's known for its shabu-shabu, it's the place we come back to whenever we're craving both.

Wide hall and window seats for a big family gathering

The inside of Pyeonbaek Hoegwan Ilsan Hwajeong Branch is really spacious and comfortable. With a big floor and lots of tables, it's a great spot for group dinners or large family gatherings. My side of the family is a big crowd too, and eating here means everyone can pick what they like — the roomy layout means a big group can eat comfortably without feeling cramped.

We took a table by the window. Sitting there gives you a view straight out over Rodeo Street, so window seats are the way to go.

There's a baby chair set up in one corner of the restaurant, plus disposable aprons on hand. It's clearly set up to be easy for visits with kids.

What's on the menu, what order to eat in, and unlimited cedar-steamed pork

The menu is split into lunch and dinner, and prices differ slightly depending on which broth you choose. You pick from 5 broths based on your taste. The prices are also easy on the wallet, so being able to eat filling food at a reasonable price is another thing I like about Pyeonbaek Hoegwan Ilsan Hwajeong Branch.

The order is to eat the cedar-steamed pork (pyeonbaek-jjim) first, then move on to shabu-shabu. Another great thing about Pyeonbaek Hoegwan is that at a lot of other places the cedar-steamed pork isn't unlimited, but here you can have as much as you want. For someone like me who loves cedar-steamed pork, that's really satisfying.

What's at the self-bar?

There are self-bars set up on both sides in the middle of the restaurant.

There's a wide range of ready-to-go items — various vegetables for fresh spring rolls, shabu-shabu vegetables, mushrooms, fish cake, glass noodles (bunmoja), dumpling soup dough (sujebi), and rice cakes — plus fresh woosamgyeop (thin-sliced beef short rib) and bu chae sal (flat iron steak) so you can pick according to taste. And all of it is unlimited — pretty amazing, right? haha

And that's not even all of it, haha — there's also a corner with tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes), fries, spaghetti, soup, and bread to go along with everything.

The cedar-steamed pork timer and sauce setup

Once the cedar-steamed pork was set down, I went and grabbed spring roll ingredients to my taste. Making this at home takes a lot of effort and is a hassle, but here I can enjoy fresh vegetables and meat with ease — which is probably why I keep coming back to Pyeonbaek Hoegwan Ilsan Hwajeong Branch.

The moment they set down the cedar-steamed pork, a timer starts, and once it goes off, staff come over and open the lid for you.

Soy sauce, chili sauce, and peanut sauce are already set on the table, so you just portion out what you like into the sauce dishes and you're ready to eat!

Seeing the cedar-steamed pork with that strong cypress aroma wafting up, my mouth started watering right away. It's said to be made the traditional way using 12 kinds of herbal medicine ingredients. It's always delicious, no matter how many times I come.

I popped a piece of meat in first — it was so tender and soft, really delicious. Steaming it over cedar seems to bring out the meat's own clean flavor, and it's not greasy at all, so I kept reaching for more.

Cedar-steamed pork wrapped in fresh spring rolls

The crisp crunch of the vegetables plus the clean, faint herbal aroma of the cedar-steamed pork made for a really delicious fresh spring roll.

At home, prepping a whole spread of vegetables and meat takes so much effort that it's hard to do often, but here you can just pick whatever ingredients you want and wrap them up right away. And since it tastes this good, there's even more reason to keep coming back, haha. Dipping it in whatever sauce suits you, you just keep wrapping more — and since it's all unlimited, we ate our fill, haha.

Shabu-shabu in two broths: katsuo and spicy mushroom

With our stomachs somewhat full from the spring rolls, we switched over to shabu-shabu. We chose the basic katsuo broth and the spicy mushroom broth.

We went back to the self-bar and grabbed fresh vegetables, fish cake, mushrooms, glass noodles, and fresh meat to our liking, dropped them into the broth, and shabu-shabu was ready to go!!

Watching the fresh vegetables and meat mingle in the broth, it looked so good I wanted to dig in right away.

As expected, the katsuo broth was clean but full of savory depth, so it was easy for the kids to eat too, while the spicy mushroom broth had a gentle heat that cut through the richness of the meat, so I kept going back for more.

Being able to taste two broths in one pot made for fun back-and-forth eating, and with so much variety we never got tired of it, right to the end.

Too full for the rice porridge finish

Today too, after diligently working through the cedar-steamed pork, spring rolls, and shabu-shabu, I ended up really full. You're supposed to finish with porridge cooked in the shabu-shabu broth at the end, but I was already so stuffed that, once again, I couldn't manage the porridge, haha.

If you're near Hwajeong or Hwajeong Station, or anywhere in Goyang or Ilsan, and looking for a place to fill up on all-you-can-eat shabu-shabu and cedar-steamed pork, or just searching for a good restaurant near Hwajeong Station, I recommend Pyeonbaek Hoegwan Ilsan Hwajeong Branch, a shabu-shabu spot near Hwajeong Station.