Sticky rice tangsuyuk at a Yeosu shabu-shabu buffet: Tongkeun Shabu

It had been a while since I last went to a buffet, so I was really craving somewhere I could eat my fill. I heard there was a place near Yeosu City Hall where you could enjoy warm shabu-shabu and use all kinds of self-bar spreads too, so I went to check it out — being able to handle both the meal and dessert in one place made me very happy.

Tongkeun Shabu / 3rd floor, 25 Mangma-ro, Yeosu-si, Jeollanam-do

Where is Tongkeun Shabu, and where do you park?

Tongkeun Shabu is located on the 3rd floor of the Hana Bank building on Mangma-ro near Yeosu City Hall, so it was easy to find. For parking, you can use the lot behind the building, and even if it's full, there's a public parking lot nearby, so I could visit without any parking worries.

How much is the all-you-can-eat buffet at Tongkeun Shabu?

Checking the most important part — the price list — weekday lunch for adults was ₩23,900, and dinner plus weekends and holidays for adults was ₩26,900. Elementary school students were ₩14,000 and preschoolers ₩11,000, which seemed reasonable for the whole family to enjoy without much burden.

I visited on a weekday evening, and the restaurant was already about half full of customers, giving it a lively atmosphere.

Four broths at Tongkeun Shabu and the half-and-half option

At Tongkeun Shabu you can pick a broth that suits your taste to enjoy things even more — there was the clean, mild basic broth, the store's recommended Japanese-style beef 'sukiyaki broth,' the tingly, deeply spicy 'mala broth,' and the rich, savory 'chicken bone broth.' You can also choose a half-and-half combination to enjoy two flavors at once, so after some thought I went with the clean basic broth paired with the tingly mala broth.

What's on the self-bar at Tongkeun Shabu?

I headed to the self-bar to pick out vegetables and ingredients to add to the shabu-shabu. It was well stocked with cabbage, bean sprouts, oyster mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, garlic chives, wood ear mushrooms, and white wood ear mushrooms, along with kalguksu noodles, kimchi, dumplings, and pickled onions. Ingredients for rice paper wraps, dipping sauces, and even a warm mushroom soup caught my eye too. Since I'm a huge fan of sauces, the first things I grabbed were soy sauce, chili sauce, and peanut sauce.

Right across the way was another corner with smoked duck, spicy chicken feet, mala dakgangjeong (spicy fried chicken), pork ribs, carbonara, fried rice, fried chicken, sweet and sour pork, and the pork neck and beef belly meant for the shabu-shabu. There was also a variety of fruit, mango salad, smoked duck salad, cajun salad, yukhoe (beef tartare), naengmyeon (cold noodles), gorgonzola pizza, and a spicy cheese potato pizza. To top it off, there were ingredients for making porridge at the end, plus a sushi zone and rice paper wrap station — genuinely well stocked.

Sticky rice tangsuyuk and carbonara were the self-bar highlights

Worried that eating too much from the self-bar would leave no room for the main shabu-shabu, I only lightly grabbed the things I was craving at first. I tried the squid sushi, egg sushi, pork ribs, yukhoe, and spicy chicken feet, along with the sweet and sour pork — and it turned out to be chewy sticky rice sweet and sour pork, which was perfect for me since I usually prefer the sauce-on-the-side style. It was so good I ended up going back for two more helpings.

I wasn't expecting much from the Western dishes, but the carbonara turned out to be much creamier and richer than expected, so I went back for it once more. The photo only shows the spicy cheese potato pizza, but I also had the gorgonzola pizza, and both were excellent quality — I enjoyed them a lot.

The mala broth comes with its own set of ingredients

When our split broth order arrived, they surprisingly set out a customized set of ingredients to go with the mala broth. It was packed with things not found on the self-bar, like Chinese glass noodles, dried tofu skin, fuzhu (tofu skin sticks), and glass noodle balls — so if you're someone who loves mala tang, choosing the mala broth here would be a great choice.

These are the ingredients I picked out myself for the shabu-shabu — white wood ear mushrooms, bean sprouts, enoki mushrooms, and cabbage, along with plenty of vegetables to make the broth refreshing.

Today, with a 'let's just go all in on meat' mindset, I also piled on a generous amount of pork neck and beef belly for the shabu-shabu.

The downside of splitting the broth half and half

The broth didn't come to a boil especially fast, so I waited comfortably while eating the self-bar food I'd brought over. But looking closely, I noticed the basic broth and the mala broth boiled at slightly different speeds. Enjoying two flavors at once was nice, but given that the boiling timing was a bit off, next time I visit I think I'll order just one broth instead of splitting it.

Finally, the broth came to a boil and I properly dug into the ingredients. The basic broth was exactly as described — clean, mild, and refreshing, really bringing out the flavor of the vegetables and meat. The mala broth felt like the basic broth with mala flavor gently added on top, not as heavy or intense as a dedicated mala tang, which made it easy to enjoy without feeling overwhelmed.

Wrapping the vegetables and meat cooked in the basic broth in rice paper and dipping them in chili sauce or peanut sauce was a truly perfect combination.

For the mala broth, dipping everything in peanut sauce and chili sauce like at a mala tang restaurant is my personal preference, so I thoroughly enjoyed it every time I fished something out. I also tried wrapping the ingredients from the mala broth in rice paper, and since I like a chewy texture, they suited my taste really well.

Drinks and the chocolate fondue ice cream dessert

Along the way, there were also soft drinks and pomegranate or plum tea, so I had a refreshing glass of pomegranate — sweet yet tangy, it was great for cleansing the palate.

After eating my fill, you can finish off with coffee or ice cream for dessert, and there was a chocolate fondue that let me make something like a McDonald's chocolate ice cream cone. Since the McDonald's choco cone got discontinued, I was sad about that, but being able to enjoy it as much as I wanted here was great, and the taste was similar and sweet enough to make for a perfect ending.

Is Tongkeun Shabu worth a weekday dinner in Yeosu?

Tongkeun Shabu is a place near Yeosu City Hall where you can enjoy shabu-shabu at great value — not just the shabu-shabu itself but the self-bar spread was varied and satisfying in taste too, so it's somewhere I'll keep coming back to whenever I want a filling, well-rounded meal.