Stroller-friendly shabu-shabu buffet near Gajeong Station: Shabuway

Shabuway Ruwon City Cheongna Branch is a great shabu-shabu restaurant to stop by when you want a filling meal around the Ruwon City area. I love shabu-shabu and eat it fairly often — it lets you enjoy meat along with vegetables, mushrooms, and various sides, which makes it a really satisfying full meal.

This time, instead of picking just one broth, I chose two — spicy broth and mushroom broth — so I could enjoy two different flavors. One side spicy, the other mild, it was fun to pick and choose depending on the mood.

Where is Shabuway Ruwon City Cheongna Branch, and what are the hours and parking like?

Shabuway Ruwon City Cheongna Branch is located on the 2nd floor (units 201–208) of Ruwon Top Plaza at 11 Yeomgok-ro 464beon-gil, Seohae-gu, Incheon, a 5-minute walk from Exit 4 of Gajeong Station. It's open daily from 11:30 to 21:30, with a weekday break time from 15:30 to 17:00, though weekends and holidays run without a break.

• Mon–Fri: 11:30–21:30 (break time 15:30–17:00)
• Sat–Sun: 11:30–21:30 (no break time)
• Holidays: open normally with no break time
• Parking: available in the plaza's basement levels 1–2 and at Ace Tower in front of the building, supported up to 2 hours
• Ace Tower is located diagonally to the right of the plaza's basement parking entrance

Is it okay to bring a baby and stroller?

Shabuway Ruwon City Cheongna Branch has a spacious, clean interior, so I could keep the stroller right beside the table while eating. The moment I walked in, I noticed the inside was bigger and cleaner than I expected. The table spacing was fairly generous too, so I didn't feel cramped during the meal, and everything felt tidy overall.

When eating out with a baby, where to put the stroller is always a little stressful, but this place had enough room that visiting with a baby felt less burdensome. For families still using a stroller, this matters quite a bit — instead of having to fold it up and squeeze it into a corner like at a cramped restaurant, we could use it fairly comfortably here.

Families eating out with a baby like us tend to care about the layout and flow of the space, not just the food, and in that sense it was a comfortable atmosphere to dine in. With a spacious, clean interior and enough room for a stroller, this seemed like a solid choice for a family meal with kids.

A shabu-shabu spot worth finding in Ruwon City: Shabuway

Shabuway Ruwon City Cheongna Branch is a shabu-shabu restaurant conveniently located for anyone coming from the Ruwon City area. Walking in, the space was bigger than I expected, which seemed to work well for family meals or dining with several people. With shabu-shabu, you have a pot on the table and keep bringing over vegetables and meat, so having enough table space matters quite a bit. On that front too, it was a comfortable place to eat, and a good spot for a leisurely meal like the one we were looking for that day.

How do you order? Table QR code ordering

At Shabuway Ruwon City Cheongna Branch, you scan the QR code on the table with your phone to order. Once you scan it, you can check the menu and select what you want — it was simpler than I expected.

It was also nice not having to keep waiting for a staff member — I could take my time browsing the menu at the table and order at my own pace. That day, we chose the spicy broth and the mushroom broth. If it's your first visit, just scan the QR code to check the menu and how to order.

How different did the spicy broth and mushroom broth taste?

The spicy broth was exactly as spicy as the name suggests, while the mushroom broth was mild and not overpowering at all. Choosing a broth matters quite a bit when eating shabu-shabu, and being able to enjoy two flavors at once was much more fun than sticking to just one.

Cooking meat in the spicy broth, the juices from the meat blended in with the broth and made the flavor even deeper and richer. If you like spicy, punchy soups, this style of broth would suit you well.

The mushroom broth on the other side had a completely different vibe from the spicy one. It felt suited to moments when you want to enjoy the natural flavor of the ingredients rather than something bold. Meat and vegetables felt lighter in it, and switching back and forth between the two broths let me change up my palate along the way — I personally found it fun being able to choose two broths like this at once.

As much fresh vegetables as you want

At Shabuway Ruwon City Cheongna Branch, you can pick vegetables like napa cabbage, various mushrooms, and bean sprouts that go well with shabu-shabu and add them to the pot. One of the biggest perks of shabu-shabu is definitely being able to eat a wide variety of vegetables — that's probably why people crave it more than a meat-only meal. You just choose the vegetables you want, drop them in the pot, and let them simmer.

I love mushrooms, so I brought over plenty and added them to the mushroom broth — the aroma of the mushrooms went really well with the mild broth. Adding meat and vegetables to the spicy broth, and mushrooms and vegetables to the mushroom broth, made it feel like two different meals even though it was the same shabu-shabu.

Shabu-shabu is really about the meat

After preparing enough vegetables, it was time to seriously add the meat. With shabu-shabu, thinly sliced meat only needs a quick dip in the broth to cook, so you can eat it right away without long waits.

Cooked in the spicy broth, the meat picked up the sharp, punchy flavor of the soup, while in the mushroom broth it stayed milder. The same meat felt completely different depending on which broth it went into, which made me glad we chose two broths. Cooking the meat too long can make it tough, so eating it right after a quick dip was the tastiest, and paired with vegetables, the crunchy texture kept me reaching for more.

The sauce bar setup and a guide to combining sauces

The sauce bar at Shabuway Ruwon City Cheongna Branch has soy sauce, sesame sauce, and chili sauce as base sauces, along with green onion, chopped cheongyang chili, wasabi, and minced garlic. It's not just a lineup of sauces — there's a separate sauce combination guide showing which ingredients pair well together, so even first-time visitors can easily make a sauce to their taste.

I dipped the shabu-shabu meat in soy sauce and added a bit of this and that to suit my taste. Adding green onion brings a fragrant note, while chopped cheongyang chili adds a spicy kick. A little wasabi or minced garlic changes the same soy sauce into a completely different flavor.

The sesame sauce had a savory, mellow taste that worked well for dipping vegetables or meat, and the chili sauce suited anyone who likes sweet-and-spicy flavors. Rather than sticking to one sauce, it was fun mixing up several sauces, the same way we switched between the spicy and mushroom broths. In the middle of eating meat and vegetables, there are moments when you want to change up the flavor, and being able to combine sauces in different ways meant I could keep enjoying new flavors right to the end.

The Vietnamese rice wrap corner and salad bar vegetables

Shabuway Ruwon City Cheongna Branch has a separate Vietnamese rice wrap (fresh spring rolls in rice paper) corner with hot water, so you can dip the rice paper in warm water and make wraps right there. Rolling the shabu-shabu meat and vegetables into a rice wrap with sauce made it feel like a completely different dish.

I rolled up meat, bean sprouts, and various vegetables and it was delicious — the crunchy vegetables paired well with the tender meat. The salad bar also had a range of vegetables you could add to the shabu-shabu pot, so you could bring over as much of whatever you liked and cook it in the broth to your taste.

There was also a fruit corner for a light finish at the end of the meal, which I appreciated. After plenty of hot shabu-shabu and rice wraps, finishing with fruit cleaned my palate nicely. With meat, vegetables, rice wraps, vegetables, and fruit all available, it was great being able to enjoy a single meal in so many different ways.

How do you make the self-serve porridge?

The self-serve porridge corner at Shabuway Ruwon City Cheongna Branch has rice, raw eggs, green onion, and dried seaweed flakes, so you can make your own porridge with the leftover shabu-shabu broth. It felt like a waste to just stop after finishing the shabu-shabu, so I tried it.

• Add rice to the leftover shabu-shabu broth and break it up well
• Add a raw egg and simmer
• Finish with green onion and seaweed flakes

Since the broth had simmered with plenty of meat and vegetables, cooking rice in it gave the soup much more depth of flavor than just boiling rice in plain water, making it a great final course. Since you make it yourself, it was nice being able to adjust the amount of egg, seaweed flakes, or green onion to your taste.

Porridge made with the spicy broth kept a lingering kick that made it different, while the mushroom broth side made for a milder finish. It was surprising how there was still room for porridge even after eating quite a lot of shabu-shabu. Going through meat → vegetables → rice wraps → self-made porridge in order made the meal feel really complete.

What fruit and salads are at the dessert corner?

The dessert corner at Shabuway Ruwon City Cheongna Branch had oranges, green grapes, sapphire grapes, and tropical fruit, along with caprese and salmon salad. After filling up on shabu-shabu and self-made porridge, it was really time to wrap up, but there was a light dessert corner worth a look.

After eating plenty of warm food like shabu-shabu, having some fruit made my mouth feel much cleaner. The caprese, with tomato and cheese together, was light and refreshing, and the salmon salad was a nice change of pace to enjoy in between.

I personally kept reaching for the green grapes and sapphire grapes. They were bite-sized and sweet, perfect to eat like a dessert after the meal. Having fruit and salad available even after shabu-shabu, rice wraps, and porridge meant this wasn't just a meat-and-vegetables shabu-shabu — it was set up for a slow, leisurely meal.

Side dishes at the self-serve bar too

Shabuway Ruwon City Cheongna Branch also has a salad-bar-style self-serve corner with various side dishes to enjoy alongside the meal. Shabu-shabu alone is already filling, but being able to bring over other small dishes here and there kept the meal from feeling monotonous.

Eating meat and vegetables first, then adding side dishes little by little, made the meal feel more relaxed. When dining with several people, everyone might want something different, so having a salad bar means everyone can pick according to their taste. It felt like a setup that worked well both for people who love shabu-shabu and for people who want to enjoy the side dishes too.

Of course, carbs at the end

Eating just meat and vegetables with shabu-shabu leaves something missing. As you keep adding ingredients to the broth, the flavor gets deeper and deeper, which naturally leads to a finishing dish like noodles or porridge.

The broth, filled with all sorts of ingredients, seemed to get richer the more it simmered, so I got to eat well right to the very end. Both the spicy broth and the mushroom broth had their own charm, which made it hard to decide which one to finish with. This is part of the fun of shabu-shabu — using the broth right up to the last bite.

Drinks, juice, coffee, and ice cream

Is it a good spot for a family meal?

Shabuway Ruwon City Cheongna Branch felt less like a place to eat alone quickly, and more like a place to visit with family, friends, or a partner for a slow, relaxed meal. Since everyone can bring over whatever ingredients they want with shabu-shabu, there's less pressure about menu choices even if the people you're with have slightly different tastes.

Someone who loves meat can eat plenty of meat, and someone who loves vegetables can bring over plenty of vegetables. As for broth, splitting spicy and mushroom broth like we did that day can satisfy different preferences at once. Especially for families eating out with kids, a menu like shabu-shabu, where you pick from a variety of ingredients, probably feels convenient.

If you're looking for a filling meal in Ruwon City

On this visit to Shabuway Ruwon City Cheongna Branch, I chose the spicy broth and the mushroom broth to enjoy two different flavors of shabu-shabu. The spicy broth suited moments I wanted something bold, while the mushroom broth was what I reached for when I wanted something mild. Switching between the two broths meant the same ingredients tasted different each time, so the meal never got boring.

Above all, the charm of shabu-shabu is being able to eat meat and vegetables together and pick whatever ingredients suit your taste. If you're looking for a filling meal around Ruwon City with family or friends, shabu-shabu is worth considering.

Next time, I'd like to try a different broth combination. This meal let me enjoy a spicy soup and a mild soup all at once. If you like shabu-shabu, splitting two broths like this could be a fun way to eat too.