Songdo shabu-shabu restaurant in Incheon: 6-course dinner at Syabudaum

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Where is Syabudaum Songdo Amusement Park Branch, and when is it open?

Syabudaum Songdo Amusement Park Branch is on the 1st floor of 95 Cheongnyang-ro, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon, South Korea. It's open 11:30–22:00 (last order 20:30), closed Tuesdays, with parking available in front of the store. If the lot in front is full, you can park for 3 hours free at the nearby Ramada Hotel.

Visited 09.04.26

I haven't been eating vegetables lately and it's given me constipation. Whenever this happens I have a trick: eat shabu-shabu. Shabu-shabu lets you eat delicious meat and also 'deliciously' blanch your vegetables. I love vegetables boiled or blanched until soft.

The place I chose was Syabudaum, a restaurant near Songdo Amusement Park in Incheon. It's close to home, and hearing shabu-shabu came as a full course meant I had to try it.

How to get to Syabudaum in Songdo

My boyfriend got off work and off we zoomed. It's about a 20-minute drive from home, but since it was rush hour it was pretty jammed..

Entrance and parking at Syabudaum

We arrived! There was parking space right in front of the store, and at 6:30pm on a Friday there was still plenty of room.

If the lot is full, you can apparently park for free for 3 hours at the nearby Ramada Hotel parking lot.

Inside Syabudaum: window seats, hallway seats and private rooms

Inside, Syabudaum Songdo Amusement Park Branch has a black-and-white interior with wood-tone accents. Seating is divided between window seats with full glass views, partitioned hallway seats, and private rooms.

The interior was basic black and white with a luxurious wood-tone accent. We sat by the window, and since it was a full glass wall the view felt really open — the hallway seats each had partitions, which looked like they'd make for a private meal!

Across from the window there were private rooms set up, which looked great for anyone wanting a quiet meal or a more formal occasion.

The table setting at Syabudaum

We arrived exactly at our reservation time, and the table was already set like this when we got there. It made me kind of happy, haha..

Next to me were these cute little potted plants.

How much is the Syabudaum dinner course, and what comes with it?

The Syabudaum dinner course is ₩29,000 per person, so ₩58,000 for two of us. Six dishes come out in order, from starter salad to dessert.

I came having already booked the dinner course! Since there were two of us, it was ₩58,000.

📌 Syabudaum Dinner Course – ₩29,000 per person

• Cabbage salad with cheese and yuzu sauce
• Hanwoo or Australian black Angus shabu-shabu & beef tendon
• Hanwoo carpaccio
• Fried eggplant
• Meal course (fish cake udon or porridge)
• Butterfly ice cream

Isn't this lineup way too generous? This is my first time at a shabu-shabu place that serves it as a full course..

Side dishes served with the course

The basic side dishes come out neatly arranged too. For reference, that kimchi was so good I asked for a refill — apparently it's 100% domestic kimchi made in-house. You could tell it was something else.

Now let's start the dinner course rundown!

#1. Cabbage salad with cheese and yuzu sauce

You basically get three sauces: grated garlic goes into the chili and sesame sauces, and wasabi goes into the scallion soy sauce.

This was so much my style, ㅠㅠ and that pink decoration is actually cheese. It looked pretty too, ㅠㅠ. The yuzu sauce was so fresh and tasty that even I, who doesn't love vegetables, cleaned my plate.

#2. Australian black Angus shabu-shabu with beef tendon

We picked Australian black Angus for the meat! Next time I'll definitely try the hanwoo (Korean beef).

First they ladle beef tendon directly into the clear broth. This is also my first time at a shabu-shabu place that serves beef tendon.. why are there so many firsts here. That's how fresh and original this place is.

The owner said the beef tendon is best eaten with a bit of scallion soy sauce on top. It really was delicious ㅠㅠ. Not a hint of gaminess, and the texture was so chewy. The tendon perfectly filled the gap you feel when eating only shabu-shabu meat.

After a few bites of tendon, they brought out the vegetables in earnest. They told us to add the meat once the broth was boiling.

At first I was confused there was no burner at this shabu-shabu place, but it turned out there was a built-in heating device in the table itself. I thought heat was just coming out of a trivet at first..

The moment the broth boiled — meat go!

Rule number one: try the first bite without any sauce. The meat was so tender with subtle umami.

I really loved this sesame sauce... it went so well with the shabu-shabu ㅠㅠ. I'm a total garlic fiend, and it had that fragrant garlic aroma too...

#3. Hanwoo (Korean beef) carpaccio

This isn't a shabu-shabu restaurant. It's fine dining wearing a shabu-shabu disguise. Otherwise a dish this elegant couldn't come out here. Thinly sliced hanwoo topped with arugula and truffle mayonnaise sauce.. how is this something you eat at a shabu-shabu place.

And it was even delicious... since shabu-shabu is a hot soup dish that warms your mouth, the cold hanwoo carpaccio created a fantastic balance.

#4. Fried eggplant

Eek. Eggplant tastes best fried. Syabudaum's fried eggplant is special. It's not just eggplant — there's shrimp fried inside, plus fried oyster mushrooms and lotus root. I don't normally like mushrooms, so why did I eat so many of these.

Potato pancake (add-on order)

Hehe. If a restaurant has potato pancake on the menu, I pretty much always order it. That's how much I love potatoes. Syabudaum's potato pancake comes topped with bacon, which makes the flavor even richer. So good ㅠㅠ.

#5. Fish cake udon — with the option to switch to spicy broth

For the meal course at Syabudaum, you choose between fish cake udon and porridge; we picked the fish cake udon. The broth can be changed to a spicy version.

I originally wanted kalguksu (knife-cut noodle soup), but they said it's only available at lunch ㅠㅠ. For the meal course you can switch the broth to spicy, though. The spicy broth had a doenjang (soybean paste) base, and the Korean-style savoriness mixed with spiciness was fantastic.

But.. the vegetables were so good. We added one more serving of vegetables.

Handmade shrimp balls (add-on order)

We also ordered handmade shrimp balls on the side ^^. I'm not really a fan of ball-shaped foods so I ordered them for my boyfriend, but for one thing, they're not frozen — the owner hand-forms and adds them fresh.

(Looks kind of like beef intestine.) But why is this so delicious too... it was so good I asked what was in it, and apparently shrimp makes up 98% while the other 2% is ground shiitake mushroom. It's basically shrimp coated in ground shiitake. There's no way it wouldn't be good.. these handmade shrimp balls are what I remember most from here.

Our broth had gotten nice and thick.

#6. Butterfly ice cream

Honestly I wondered what 'butterfly ice cream' even was. Turns out it's red bean and vanilla ice cream topped with an adorable butterfly-shaped cookie! The owner apparently bakes the butterfly cookies himself. Really nutty and delicious, totally my style. I ate my boyfriend's cookie too.

Puffed rice discovered while digging into the ice cream. Sweet at its core with nutty flavor added in — a thoughtfully made butterfly ice cream.

Is Syabudaum Songdo Amusement Park Branch worth it, and for what occasion?

What goes in bright but comes out dark? Syabudaum.

Syabudaum, a restaurant near Songdo Amusement Park in Incheon, completely broke the stereotype that shabu-shabu doesn't fill you up. It doesn't even wear off quickly — I'm still full as I write this (it's 12:30am). A slightly gross bit of extra info, but I had great digestion the moment I got home.

Every dish was made with real care, making it a great pick for taking your parents or visiting on a special occasion. If you want a proper shabu-shabu meal in Songdo, Incheon, definitely check out 💜Syabudaum Songdo Amusement Park Branch💜!