Ulsan shabu-shabu buffet with Taehwa River views and parking: Wabom

My meat master has back trouble, so we can't go on a far-off vacation. Instead we've been doing this and that around Ulsan day by day, and the time still seems to fly. After a short stop in Seongnam-dong, I suddenly craved shabu-shabu (thinly sliced meat and vegetables cooked in broth) for the first time in a while, so we headed to Wabom, a great shabu-shabu spot in Ulsan.

Wabom Ulsan Mugeo Branch location, hours and where to park

Wabom Ulsan Mugeo Branch is on the 10th floor of Hansol Apple Tower, 2906 Ulmil-ro, Nam-gu, Ulsan. It is open daily 11:30-22:00, with last order at 20:40.

Location: 2906 Ulmil-ro, Nam-gu, Ulsan, 10th floor of Hansol Apple Tower

I'd heard parking at the Wabom building is hard, and that the Malgeunsaem car park allows 2 hours, so I searched for that car park in the navigation and went there.

When we came out on the car park's ground floor, Wabom was on the 10th floor of the building right next door.

We took the elevator up to the 10th floor, and Wabom, the Ulsan shabu-shabu place, was right there.

Taehwa River view seats and the atmosphere

What I liked about Wabom is that you can enjoy shabu-shabu and a wide buffet while looking at the Taehwa River. We went fairly early, but the seats with a good river view were already full.

As you'd expect from a shabu-shabu restaurant, the inside is spacious, and there are about three private rooms, which seems good for family gatherings or group get-togethers.

Every table already had the basic setup.

Broth: half basic, half spicy

They asked about the broth as soon as we sat down. We went half basic and half spicy. If you order just one broth, the pot looks a bit smaller than this one.

Going all spicy felt like a shame, so half-and-half seemed the best choice.

The price seemed similar to other shabu-shabu places, but with more variety like seafood and sushi, it felt like better value than elsewhere.

If you write a Naver receipt review, the ice cream is free. It's either ice cream or 1 bottle of alcohol, so just pick whichever you want.

What's in the Wabom salad bar: from sushi to seafood

I dropped my bag at the seat and ran straight to the salad bar. The sushi selection was as varied as a decent sushi buffet. We took one of each kind.

There were sprouts, carrots, cabbage and pineapple for rice paper rolls (wolnamssam, Vietnamese-style wraps), plus many kinds of mushrooms.

I piled on plenty of bok choy, my favorite, and grabbed a bit of everything. Best of all, I could look at the Taehwa River while scooping up vegetables. In summer you could probably see the river even at dinner time.

They had my favorite salads and a konjac salad too. We came for shabu-shabu, but it felt like we could get full on other stuff.

There were also olives, fusilli, crab sticks and yukhoe (Korean beef tartare). It had been a while since I'd had whole olives, so I tried them.

There was salmon, octopus, guro, and scallop too. We took a little salmon.

It's hard to find seafood at other shabu-shabu places, but Wabom in Ulsan had clams, shrimp, blue crab and squid too.

I put in a few to make the broth refreshing, and it tasted even better.

With various fried foods, pizza, suyuk (boiled pork) and sundae (Korean blood sausage), the variety was so wide that even one piece of each would leave you stuffed.

There's also a spot to get water for the rice paper.

There are 3 kinds of meat, so take whichever suits your taste.

You can refill the broth yourself too, so we only took the spicy broth and refilled with it.

Drinks include soda, juice, maesil (plum) drink and sujeonggwa (cinnamon punch).

Seafood first for a refreshing shabu-shabu broth

After a quick lap of the salad bar, we sat down and properly started eating. We first put in various seafood and vegetables to make the broth more refreshing.

Then we added lots of meat and vegetables and kept eating while looking at the Taehwa River, and got so full.

Dessert: fruit, coffee and soft serve ice cream

I was full, but I still took fruit for dessert.

Coffee and tea are ready too, so a cup of coffee would be nice.

There was soft serve ice cream and yogurt too. Full as I was, I took a few spoonfuls of yogurt.

I also ate the ice cream my meat master scooped for me. Full or not, we ate everything we wanted.

They had biscuits too. It was a total feast with the Taehwa River view after so long. And when you leave, be sure to register your parking before you go.