Junggye-dong seiro-mushi restaurant, lunch price at 4pm: Hana Shabu

I'd had an endoscopy not long before, so I wanted to eat healthy. Raw vegetables felt like too much, and I wanted mostly cooked veggies, so I looked up a Junggye-dong favorite, the shabu-shabu specialist Hana Shabu Shabu Junggye Main Branch.

My mom always says it's delicious and I'd heard the name a lot, but this was my first time actually going, so I went in half excited, half curious haha.

Where is Hana Shabu Shabu Junggye Main Branch, and where do you park?

Hana Shabu Shabu Junggye Main Branch is at 29 Dongil-ro203ga-gil, Nowon-gu, Seoul, Brownstone Junggye Unit 101, and it's open daily 11:00–22:00 with no break time. For parking, using the underground lot at Brownstone Junggye gets you 2 hours free.

The restaurant sits on a corner so it really stood out! There was even a dessert ube pudding banner right out front~!

Walking in, true to a Junggye-dong shabu-shabu favorite, there's a waitlist sign-up sheet~ We went on a weekday at 4pm so we didn't have to wait at all!!

Bar seats or table seats: the mood inside Hana Shabu Shabu

Walking in you see both bar seating and table seating. The place itself isn't huge, but it's quiet and clean, and honestly the atmosphere alone was one of my favorite things about this Junggye-dong shabu-shabu spot~ I thought it'd also work well for a Nowon work dinner!

Actually while we were eating, two group parties came in. I could totally see why it's a popular spot for Junggye gatherings!

Bar seats don't mean sitting with your legs cramped at all — you can actually drop your legs down underneath, which was nice~! Though there is a bit of a step, so it might be a little tough for older folks!

Shabu-shabu vs seiro-mushi, and Hana Shabu Shabu lunch and dinner prices

The menu roughly splits into two: shabu-shabu and seiro-mushi (cypress box-steamed). Shabu-shabu comes with meat + vegetables + udon noodles, while seiro-mushi is just meat + vegetables, no udon — that's the main difference!

• Lunch (shabu-shabu/seiro-mushi): Brisket + sirloin (140g) ₩23,000 / Sirloin alone (120g) ₩26,000
• Dinner (shabu-shabu/seiro-mushi): Brisket + sirloin (170g) ₩29,000 / Sirloin alone (150g) ₩32,000

For dinner, the meat portion goes up a bit along with the price!

You can also order a course that includes the meal plus dessert, and there's apparently a premium course with tadaki (seared beef) added on top, so if you're visiting next, pick whichever suits your taste!

Two seiro-mushi orders at 4pm, still at the lunch price

We decided on two orders of seiro-mushi. Originally we wanted to order differently — one shabu-shabu, one seiro-mushi — but they told us that would need two induction burners, so everyone at the table has to pick the same menu. So we just went with seiro-mushi for simplicity lol. Something to keep in mind!!

We visited around 4pm, and the owner told us since it wasn't past 5pm yet, they'd give us lunch pricing! Having that kind of thing looked out for made me happy right from the start haha.

Table setting and the three dipping sauces

We sat at the bar seats, and first they set up the side dishes, salad, and sauces.

There were three sauces — sesame sauce, chili sauce, and yuzu ponzu — and dropping the pepper side dish into the yuzu ponzu was surprisingly tasty haha.

Then we had some water, except it wasn't plain water at all — it was tea!! A good restaurant really does start with good water~!

On the chopstick rest paper there was a cute little guide on how to eat seiro-mushi and shabu-shabu, which would be handy for first-time visitors!

How do you eat seiro-mushi? The 12-minute cypress-box steaming

They set water on the hot plate first like this,

and then the dish arrived — a cypress steaming box packed full of vegetables and Black Angus beef in two tiers. True to a Junggye-dong shabu-shabu favorite, every single ingredient was fresh, nothing wilted! I guess that's what happens with good turnover, right??

They cut the meat right after we ordered, so it was fun to watch even while waiting!

They told us to put the steaming box over the water and wait about 12 minutes, and even set a cute little 10-minute timer for us~!

The vegetables were piled so high the lid wouldn't close! So they even set a water bottle on top to weigh it down lol.

While we waited, they also brought out tadaki (seared beef) as a review-event freebie, so there wasn't a dull moment!

The tadaki had a spicy sauce soaked right into the meat, perfect for waking up the appetite haha.

After 12 minutes, a staff member came over, opened the lid, and set the second tier of the steaming box on top of the lid to make it easier to eat.

Sauces ready, let's eat!! ╰(*°▽°*)╯

Honest review: how the seiro-mushi tasted after an endoscopy 🤤

There was a nice variety of mushrooms and plenty of bean sprouts too, plenty for two people.

Eating the meat and vegetables together, the sesame sauce paired best. Honestly, out of all the sauces that day, sesame sauce was hands-down my favorite haha.

They kept the flame on low instead of turning it off completely, so everything stayed warm until we finished eating, which I also really liked.

You can see the steam still rising as we're finishing up, right??

After an endoscopy, anything heavy or spicy felt like too much, but seiro-mushi wasn't greasy at all — light, healthy vegetables and meat, exactly what I wanted!

Final verdict on Hana Shabu Shabu Junggye Main Branch

To sum up, if you're looking for a Junggye-dong shabu-shabu favorite, I'd recommend the seiro-mushi at Hana Shabu Shabu Junggye Main Branch! A solid choice for a day you want to eat healthy, and it'd work well for a Junggye family meal or a Nowon work dinner too.

Next time I want to try the brisket + sirloin course for dinner haha. I'm also really curious about the ube pudding dessert! I feel confident recommending this place to anyone looking for a Junggye-dong shabu-shabu favorite going forward!