Hapjeong Station solo shabu-shabu with a mini sauce fridge: Nahonsha

Nahonsha: a solo shabu-shabu spot near Hapjeong Station

Nahonsha is a solo shabu-shabu restaurant in an alley near Hapjeong Station, set up for dining alone from the interior to the ordering system. On days when you crave a hot, hearty broth... shabu-shabu somehow feels like a hard thing to go to alone, right? So today I'm telling you about Nahonsha, a solo shabu-shabu spot in Hapjeong, for all my fellow solo diners!

Isn't the name just adorable? I think it's short for "na honja shabu-shabu" (shabu-shabu by myself), haha. Nahonsha sits in an alley near Hapjeong Station, and it's clean with big glass windows, so it doesn't feel stuffy at all.

What are the interior and solo seats like?

You can tell a lot of effort went into the interior at Nahonsha, and the seats are widely spaced and separated like partitions. I couldn't help exclaiming when I stepped inside. The care put into the decor was obvious, and it's not easy to find a restaurant with this kind of atmosphere in Hapjeong.

The mood is so nice that it looked like a good date spot too! Above all, the gap to the next seat is very wide and the partitions separate you, so you can focus on your own meal without worrying about other people's eyes. A real solo-dining place in Hapjeong.

The mini fridge bar at every table

Each seat at Nahonsha has a personal induction cooktop, a tablet, and a mini fridge bar on one side of the table that keeps sauces and water cold. And this is one amazing detail that totally won me over!

It's the mini fridge bar (?) set into one side of the table. Cold air rises from a stainless steel slot in the middle, and inside are various freshly kept sauces and chilled water. You never need to call a staff member, and you can have as much cold sauce as you like. What a great idea!!

Nahonsha menu: the spicy and tomato broths I ordered

Nahonsha's broths come in quite a range: clear broth shabu, spicy broth shabu, miso shabu, tomato broth shabu and mala shabu, plus a sukiyaki option, so choosing is half the fun! I visited with a friend, so we ordered one spicy broth and one tomato broth.

Once you order, the meat arrives with a big bowl piled high with fresh napa cabbage, bean sprouts, bok choy, sweet pumpkin, mushrooms, dumplings, fish balls and more. And the ingredients were really fresh!! Even for one portion, the quality and amount were excellent.

Is Nahonsha's tomato broth sour?

Nahonsha's tomato broth isn't sour or harsh. It's light and mellow. You'd expect a tomato broth to be tangy, but not here! The tomato flavor is less intense than I expected, and it feels smooth.

The broth is slightly sweet with a deep savory richness, so it doesn't overpower the charm of shabu-shabu, and I think almost anyone could enjoy it.

How spicy is Nahonsha's spicy broth?

Nahonsha's spicy broth tasted like the hearty, easygoing shabu-shabu broth you'd typically imagine!

The longer it simmered, the more the meat and vegetables flavored the broth, and the finish was very clean.

Meat texture, sauce pairings and fish balls

The shabu-shabu meat at Nahonsha was tender, not tough, and went well with the sweet chili and peanut sauces. Meat at shabu-shabu places is usually chewy, so I liked how soft it was here. It pairs nicely with sweet chili and peanut sauce too!

My favorite ingredient was the fish ball: springy outside and silky inside, so good! You can also add individual ingredients at Nahonsha, so top up whatever you love!

Finish with noodles

After finishing the meat and vegetables at Nahonsha, I dropped noodles into the richly reduced broth and wrapped up with some chewy carbs!

Wide, comfortable solo seats, and a table fridge bar that keeps things cold! If you want a relaxed, high-quality hot shabu-shabu near Hapjeong without feeling self-conscious, give Nahonsha a visit. I recommend it as a solo dining spot in Hapjeong and Sangsu :)