Wirye rice paper wrap and shabu-shabu buffet: 10+ wraps first, Dadam

Today I'm writing up a Wirye favorite: Dadam Shabu Shabu & Wolnamssam Wirye Branch (다담샤브샤브&월남쌈 위례점). I'd been craving shabu-shabu and rice paper wraps for ages, so I went, and it was so satisfying that I had to record it right away 😌🍲

Where is Dadam Shabu Shabu & Wolnamssam Wirye Branch, and where do you park?

The restaurant is on the 3rd floor of G&G Plaza at 45 Wiryegwangjang-ro, Susung-gu, Seongnam, Gyeonggi, South Korea, a 7-minute walk from Exit 3 of Namwirye Station. The building is in front of the waterside park, and the G&G Plaza car park gives you 3 hours of free parking ✔️

Hours are 11:00–21:00, with last orders at 14:50 and 20:00, and a weekday break time from 16:00 to 17:00. The self-bar closes at 20:40.

Atmosphere and the self-bar

The interior is clean and modern, spacious, and there are partitions between tables, so the meal felt extra comfortable. It was a weekend and busy, so I didn't get to see the back, but apparently there are seats where you can eat while looking out over the lovely Changgokcheon stream 👍🏻

Near the entrance is the self-bar, always fresh, with more than 40 kinds of vegetables brought in daily from Garak Market, plus meat and a dessert café corner. It's a great Wirye shabu-shabu spot for dates, family meals, company dinners and all kinds of gatherings.

Prices and how to order

You order on the tablet at the table. Order first, quick!

I liked that the menu is simple.

• Weekday adult lunch (middle school and up): ₩17,900
• Weekday dinner, including holidays: ₩21,900
• Elementary school (grades 1–6): ₩13,900
• Preschool (ages 4–7): ₩8,000

Vegetables, beef and so on are all unlimited... 💛 and the price is pretty good 〰️ You can split the broth half and half from clear, spicy or seafood. After you order, only the broth is brought to you, and the rest you get from the self-bar. I chose clear + spicy ✔️

Once you order, they bring bowls like these for the wraps, vegetables and meat, and you head straight to the self-bar to start setting up. The broth pot gets set up soon too!

What's on the self-bar?

The self-bar has about 40 kinds of top-grade vegetables, selected and brought in daily from Garak Market, plus top-quality beef (beef belly and chuck), all unlimited as much as you like.. the best place 🖤

Shabu-shabu vegetables and add-ins

Broth refills are at the self-bar too, and for the shabu-shabu there's napa cabbage, bok choy, bean sprouts, wood ear mushrooms, minari (water dropwort), chives, red mustard greens and kabocha squash,, the mark of a true shabu-shabu place: they have minari 🤭 All my favorite vegetables are gathered here, so I'm already happy,,

There are also enoki, oyster, shiitake and king oyster mushrooms, tofu fish balls, sweet potato rice cakes, crab fish balls, cheese rice cakes, dumplings, fried tofu pouches, fresh sujebi (hand-pulled dough flakes) and more.

Rice paper wrap ingredients

For the wraps: tofu, cabbage, rice noodles, beet, lotus root, cucumber, tofu skin sheets, carrot, sausage, pineapple, buckwheat sprouts and other sprouts. Wow... the owner really knows food. I've been to plenty of places, but Dadam is a collection of ingredients where nothing is missing...

The winning sauce combos are all here too: peanut, chili, soy sauce and Cheongyang chili 〰️

Two kinds of beef: beef belly and chuck

Two kinds of top-grade beef, also unlimited, perfect for picking your favorite or mixing half and half,, beef belly (우삼겹), with alternating fat and red meat, richer and more tender than pork neck, and beef chuck (우목심), which is lean and mild. There's also rice for making fried rice or porridge, raw eggs, seaweed flakes... nothing is missing.

Dessert café corner

There's an americano brewed from top-grade beans that's said to be as good as a café's, and soft-serve vanilla ice cream that kids absolutely love, so the dessert is fully covered. It was a course everyone from kids to grandparents would enjoy ✨

Setting up the all-you-can-eat shabu-shabu and wraps

I finished browsing quickly, then loaded up on what to drop into the pot and what to wrap, and set it all out.

The half-and-half broth was ready 〰️ I brought wrap and shabu vegetables to my taste, beef and 3 kinds of sauce, and with rice paper and hot water too, the setup was complete-

Quick, dump everything in and bring it to a boil 🍲

Wraps first, shabu-shabu later

Once it's boiling hard, add the meat and get ready to eat. At Dadam I start with the wraps. Finish with wraps first, then shabu-shabu, and you couldn't be more full..

Soak the rice paper in hot water, load it up with cucumber, carrot, cabbage, perilla leaves and so on, fish out some shabu meat and lay it on top, add peanut and chili sauce, wrap it up and chomp- yum (jmt, "insanely delicious")

It's been so long since I had wraps. Everything was so fresh, and the meat was tender and good quality, so I was marveling with every mouthful 😌

Clear broth vs. spicy broth: which was better?

I also fished things out of the spicy broth. Bean sprouts and cabbage wrapped in too are amazing. The clear and spicy broths each have their own charm, but personally the spicy was slightly hot and so rich in umami that it was just so good haha.. Half and half is really great 👍🏻 I loaded both sides full and boiled them hard, so I could fish something out anytime, anywhere..

The fragrant, crunchy minari is a real kick.. and it's perfect later in fried rice or kalguksu (knife-cut noodles) too 💚 I loved being able to refill all these fresh vegetables as much as I wanted.

Ten or more wraps in a row..? Generously, and then on to the hot shabu-shabu. This is why a place where you can enjoy both wraps and shabu-shabu is the best.. Ahh… hot, delicious, healthy, just my favorite-

Even after all that I still wasn't ready to stop, so I scraped up the last of the vegetables for 1 more wrap.. 🤭 The vegetables, the ingredients, the meat quality, the sauces, everything was perfect, and it was a really tasty meal for the first time in a while. I'm stuffed..

Finishing with kalguksu and ice cream

For dessert I boiled kalguksu. I didn't have time to cook it long, which was a shame, but it was hot and good 〰️

The true last bite was an ice cream cone 🍦🍦 There's coffee too. A hearty, tasty meal plus dessert, a Wirye spot that has everything.

I hear they've also started takeout for the broth, sauces, wraps, shabu and more, and if I lived nearby I think I'd want to eat here often 🫢

Dadam Shabu Shabu & Wolnamssam Wirye Branch: overall verdict

I was truly satisfied with both wraps and shabu-shabu for the first time in a long while at Dadam Shabu Shabu & Wolnamssam Wirye Branch. The spacious, comfortable restaurant is great, and the fresh, varied self-bar let me eat wraps and shabu-shabu until I was stuffed. I recommend this Namwirye shabu-shabu spot to anyone looking for a family meal or a gathering 🤎