Impromptu sukiyaki dinner at a Hapjeong shabu-shabu restaurant, Seoul

I didn't originally head to Hapjeong for shabu-shabu. I'd been browsing Kyobo Bookstore near Hapjeong Station and more time had passed than I realized, so I started getting hungry. Rather than trekking somewhere else, I decided to just eat dinner in the same building. Wandering around the same basement level 2 as the bookstore, I came across a Hapjeong shabu-shabu spot — Shabu in Seoul Hapjeong Branch.

Once inside, the place was much bigger than it looked from outside, and quite a few people were already eating. Luckily the tables weren't crammed together — each sofa seat had its own separated space, which made it comfortable for the two of us. After hearing the menu explained, we picked the prime Angus chuck flat with sukiyaki broth.

Where is Shabu in Seoul Hapjeong Branch? Basement level 2 by Kyobo Bookstore

Shabu in Seoul Hapjeong Branch sits on the same basement level 2 as the Kyobo Bookstore I'd been browsing, so I didn't have to go back outside to get to dinner. I hadn't planned on a specific place to eat — I just got hungry and looked around nearby — so this location was pretty convenient. If you're browsing bookstores or shopping in Hapjeong and looking for somewhere to eat, I liked that you don't need to walk far.

When we walked in, a lot of people were already eating. At first I thought it might feel a bit crowded inside, but sitting down changed that impression. Eating Hapjeong Station shabu-shabu while talking, each seat had some separated space, and the large floor plan kept it from feeling cramped.

What are the dining room and sofa seats like?

What caught my eye first at Shabu in Seoul Hapjeong Branch was the spacious interior and the sofa-style seating. Even during a fairly busy time slot, I didn't feel overly close to the next table. With space divided around each sofa's backrest, it felt more comfortable while sitting, despite being an open hall.

Shabu-shabu is a dish you sit with for a while around a pot in the middle, so seating matters a lot to me personally. We took our time cooking meat and vegetables one by one, and thanks to the privately divided seats, we could focus on the meal itself even with plenty of other diners around. Seeing the size and seating layout, I understood a bit better why the place was busy.

The menu and choosing a broth at Shabu in Seoul Hapjeong Branch

After sitting down, a staff member first explained the menu structure and how to eat at Shabu in Seoul. As a first-time visitor, it's not always obvious how to choose the meat and broth, so hearing it explained before ordering made things much easier. We were told that if we needed more broth while eating, we could order extra.

One thing I found slightly disappointing was that you can only pick one broth per meal. It's not a setup where you compare different broths side by side — the two of us had to agree on one. On the other hand, since the finishing dish changes depending on the broth, choosing a broth meant also thinking about the finishing meal. We ended up going with sukiyaki, which finishes with yakisoba.

Prime Angus chuck flat and sukiyaki: the full table

After some deliberation, we ordered the prime Angus chuck flat. It didn't take long after ordering before the shabu-shabu spread arrived along with the meat. The meat was neatly arranged and the vegetables came as a tidy assorted plate — the whole spread looked pretty put-together when it first arrived.

Since we chose sukiyaki broth, the way we ate was a bit different from regular shabu-shabu. We put as much of the accompanying vegetables into the pot as needed, cooked them, then added the chuck flat bit by bit. Rather than dumping everything in at once, cooking just enough to eat made it easy to alternate between meat and vegetables, and there was the particular fun of shabu-shabu — slowly eating around a warm pot.

Sukiyaki egg sauce and the vegetable platter

Choosing sukiyaki also came with an egg sauce made for it. We ate the cooked chuck flat plain sometimes, and dipped in the egg sauce other times, trying the same meat a couple of different ways. There was no need to mix the sauce with anything or add extras from scratch — eating it as prepared was easy enough.

The accompanying vegetable platter was also neatly arranged on one plate, and we added vegetables into the pot little by little as needed. Rather than eating only meat the whole time, being able to pair in cooked vegetables kept the meal from feeling monotonous even as it went on. Since we'd been told at the start that we could order more meat or more broth, it was easy to adjust the pace to how fast we were eating.

Finishing sukiyaki with yakisoba, then omija tea

At Shabu in Seoul, the final dish depends on the broth you choose, and since we picked sukiyaki, ours led into yakisoba (stir-fried noodles). I'd thought we were only choosing a broth, but the last course gets decided along with it, so it's worth knowing this when ordering. We heard that choosing sukiyaki came with yakisoba at the end and went with it as explained.

After eating plenty of meat and vegetables, following it up with yakisoba felt like the meal continuing for another round. Rather than ending right after the shabu-shabu, having a separate noodle dish at the end left us pretty full. Once everything was finished, omija tea (five-flavor berry tea) arrived and we wrapped up the meal with a cup. It was a place I wandered into by chance while browsing Kyobo Bookstore, and it turned into a Hapjeong shabu-shabu dinner — prime Angus chuck flat, sukiyaki, then yakisoba, all eaten in spacious sofa seating.