Seoul Station shabu-shabu restaurant with prime beef: Yunseul

I visited a shabu-shabu place near my office. Maybe because the weather has gotten colder, I was craving something warm.

Getting to Yunseul at Seoul Station Grand Central

Yunseul Seoul Station is a three-minute walk from Seoul Station Exit 4; go half a floor up from the main entrance of the Grand Central building. It is open daily from 11:00–15:00 and 17:00–21:00, and reservations are available through Naver and Catchtable. Grand Central parking is free for two hours.

(A little aside: I feel like I've been seeing the name Yunseul a lot lately. There's Mok-dong Yunseul Xi too. Anyway, I think it's a pretty name.)

Its location by Seoul Station is excellent. It is close to the Line 1 side of Seoul Station. I sometimes go to Grand Central for lunch, but I had no idea there was such a stylish shabu-shabu place here.

I was briefly flustered while looking for it: the map says first floor, but it is not quite on the actual first floor. Take the escalator by Tim Hortons and come up half a floor.

A shabu-shabu space with tall ceilings and full-height windows

There are no private rooms, but the generously sized tables and comfortable seats stood out. The ceiling is also very high. It is shabu-shabu, but it feels like you've come to an upscale shabu-shabu restaurant. They seemed to have lowered the blinds because of the sunlight, but the full-height windows give the interior a lovely atmosphere.

The seats directly in front as you enter look out through the windows, so they feel very open. I arrived first and was waiting for my girlfriend, and I could see her diligently making her way over.

I kept finding myself looking out the window.

You order on a tablet. (Oh, there was also a Naver receipt-review event, even though I did not take part again. It isn't clear in the photo—was the reward a drink?)

This is the menu board photo I took at the entrance.

Ordering the clear anchovy-broth set for two

Set for two Shabu-shabu (clear anchovy broth) Prime beef chuck roll Kalguksu Bulgogi kimchi fried rice / gondre porridge Minari roe jeon Total ₩59,000

Since there were two of us, we ordered the set for two. This is the two-person set with no extra charge.

These are the side dishes and sauces. There was cabbage, kimchi, and, unusually, braised beef tendon. The braised tendon was not spicy, pleasantly seasoned, and delicious.

They prepare the basic broth with minari (water parsley) and bean sprouts already in it. They bring the extra mushrooms, vegetables, meat, and kalguksu noodles first.

The variety of mushrooms caught my eye. They gave us loads of minari, and since I really love minari, I was pleased. The vegetables and mushrooms were extremely fresh.

We threw in plenty of everything and brought it to a rolling boil. There were three shabu-shabu sauces: the soy sauce on the far left and the chili sauce on the far right were familiar flavors. I do not know what the middle sauce was, but it was the best one. I dipped a lot into that orange sauce in the middle.

From minari roe jeon to kalguksu and rice

As we ate, they also prepared the minari roe jeon. To be honest, I do not usually love fish roe, but it was unusual so I ordered it. And I think I prefer roe grilled like this to putting it in soup. It loses much of that squishy texture and is nicely savory, which suited my taste better.

After we had eaten for a while, they added minari and kalguksu noodles. The noodles here were a little unusual. They did not seem to be entirely wheat flour; they were slightly translucent, almost like potato noodles. They were pleasantly chewy and tasty.

Once you've had noodles, you have to move on to rice, right? The bulgogi kimchi fried rice comes in a stone pot. You just mix it up in there and eat it. It is straightforwardly tasty kimchi fried rice.

When just a little broth remains, they make gondre porridge with it. We had already eaten rice as kimchi fried rice, but noodles, rice, and porridge are all different foods, aren't they? It would be a shame not to eat it.

By the time you get through all this, you are incredibly full—like you might burst. There are lots of shabu-shabu buffets these days, but whenever I go to one, I wonder whether I actually eat enough to get my money's worth. I liked being able to eat my fill of fresh ingredients like this. The neatly prepared food and comfortable, stylish interior were great too. Above all, the staff were exceptionally kind. They refilled the broth right away, and their gentle manner made me feel good. I would very much visit again!