Dongtan buffet ending with egg porridge, weekday 16,900 won: Pyeonbaek

Want cypress-steamed meat AND shabu-shabu but hate having to pick just one? So annoying, right?😂 Turns out there's a place in Dongtan where you can have both at once! It's Pyeonbaek Hoegwan Dongtan Branch, inside Grand Vía Star at Dongtan Station!

Where is Pyeonbaek Hoegwan Dongtan Branch, and what are the hours?

• ✅ Location: 2nd floor, Grand Vía Star, 446 Dongtan-daero, Dongtan-gu, Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
• ✅ Hours: 11:00–22:00 (last order 20:30)
• ✅ Parking: in-building parking
• ✅ High chairs, baby dishware ⭕️

And it's all-you-can-eat for just ₩16,900 on weekdays, ₩19,900 on weekends... a place like this you can't just walk past!!haha So I went to check out the food lineup myself, and whether it was actually good to bring kids to :-)!

Why Pyeonbaek Hoegwan is easy with kids: wide hall and a playroom

The interior at Pyeonbaek Hoegwan Dongtan Branch is clean and REALLY spacious! Tables are set far apart, so it's easy to bring kids, and people with strollers can visit comfortably too! Since the space is so big, it'd also make a great spot for a Dongtan Station group dinner :-)!

There's also a playroom space, so if you're going with kids, you can let them play to their heart's content while you eat in peace!

How to order and how the 100-minute course runs

You order at each table, and there's a basic table setting. Since it's a Dongtan buffet, you just bring back whatever you want on a plate👍🏻 ⭐️Time limit is 100 minutes! (1 hour 40 minutes)

The cypress-steamed dish gets set up right away first! They say it can take a while since the cypress steaming needs refill setup and steaming time. Watch through Pyeonbaek's delicious course to the end! Cypress steam first, then shabu-shabu! Tricolor mandu (dumplings)~ kalguksu (knife-cut noodles)~ all the way to egg porridge, it's a truly complete course✨

The self-bar: rice-paper wraps, tteokbokki and spaghetti

At the unlimited self-bar, you just bring whatever food you want! The variety was more than I expected✨

My mom's favorite rice-paper wraps (Vietnamese spring rolls) were unlimited too🤩👍🏻 And I kept bringing back unlimited tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes) and spaghetti, my personal favorites!

I just couldn't stop eating the rice-paper wraps🤣👍🏻👍🏻

Cypress-steamed meat and vegetables ready in just under 10 minutes

Meanwhile the cypress-steamed dish finished cooking! Just under 10 minutes and a staff member came to open the lid!

It looked so delicious! When they opened the lid, the faint cypress scent that rose up almost made me feel healthier just smelling it🥰haha The meat and vegetables were steamed moist and tender, not greasy at all — healthy and light to eat.

Our little princess number three ate it up like a champ too❣️

Unlimited shabu-shabu vegetables and meat, refilled without asking twice

Once you've enjoyed the cypress-steamed dish enough, it's time for real shabu-shabu.

At the self-bar, all kinds of vegetables and ingredients for shabu-shabu were ready to be added as much as you wanted. From vegetables like mung bean sprouts, napa cabbage, bok choy, and mushrooms to mandu (dumplings) and fish cakes, there was so much variety it was fun picking based on your taste!👍🏻👍🏻 I tend to load up on vegetables when eating shabu-shabu, and being able to take as much as I wanted like this was so great. All-you-can-eat is the best👍🏻👍🏻

There's plenty of meat too, stocked full in this meat fridge. No need to feel awkward, just take as much as you want!

Finishing with egg porridge instead of kalguksu (knife-cut noodles)

By this point we were so full we couldn't manage the kalguksu (knife-cut noodles), so we finished with the egg porridge instead! Familiar flavors are the scariest, right?? The egg porridge was so good too. Finishing with porridge left us completely full!

With cypress-steamed dish, shabu-shabu, and rice-paper wraps all in one place, I thought it'd be a decent spot for a family meal — and eating there myself, I understood exactly why so many families and groups choose it! Even on a weekday lunch, there were quite a lot of people!👍🏻👍🏻

I also had a nice cool glass of misugaru (roasted grain drink)!

If you're looking for a hearty meal out in Dongtan, the biggest strength here is that it's not just cypress-steamed food — you get shabu-shabu, rice-paper wraps, kalguksu, and porridge all in one visit :-)! Especially if you go with a group, everyone can pick and choose the ingredients they want, which makes it great for a family meal or a get-together. If you're looking for somewhere to eat with kids like me, Pyeonbaek Hoegwan Dongtan Branch is worth checking out when searching for a Dongtan shabu-shabu restaurant or a Dongtan cypress-steam restaurant :-)!