Seoul Station shabu-shabu for 3 with butter jangjorim rice: Yunseul

I visited Yunseul, a shabu-shabu restaurant in Grand Central in front of Seoul Station. These days, with autumn mornings and evenings getting a bit chilly, shabu-shabu naturally comes to mind whenever I crave a warm broth — and this time I really wanted something spicy and fiery, so I stopped by.

Where Yunseul is: 1st floor of Grand Central by Seoul Station

It's close to Seoul Station, so it's a convenient meeting spot, and being inside Grand Central made it easy to find. It's on the 1st floor, right above Tim Hortons!

Window seats with a Seoul city view

The restaurant's atmosphere was really great. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, downtown Seoul's cityscape spread out beautifully, keeping my eyes busy throughout the meal. I imagine you'd get an open view during the day and a nice city mood in the evening.

The clean, stylish space seemed like it would work well for family meals out, gatherings with friends, or dates. Getting to enjoy tasty shabu-shabu along with a great view of Seoul made the meal even more satisfying.

Spicy mushroom broth shabu-shabu for 3: mushrooms by the variety

We ordered the spicy mushroom broth shabu-shabu for 3. Broth really matters in shabu-shabu, and this one had the spicy, fiery style I like, grabbing my appetite from the first sip.

What stood out especially, true to its name, was that the mushrooms came in a variety of different types.

I usually like adding a mix of vegetables and mushrooms when I eat shabu-shabu, and instead of just one kind of mushroom, having several types to choose from made it fun. Each mushroom had a slightly different texture, so they each felt different once dropped into the broth, and they went well with the spicy soup.

With shabu-shabu, I think the fun is in cooking ingredients bit by bit as you eat rather than dumping everything in at once. Cooking the meat until tender and letting the mushrooms and vegetables soak up the broth before eating them together worked really well. Since it was a spicy mushroom broth, the mushrooms' clean flavor blended nicely with the fiery soup. It wasn't overwhelmingly spicy or harsh — more of a clean spiciness that kept me reaching for more.

There were 3 kinds of sauces too, so I alternated between them!

The side order: spicy beef tendon salad

That day I didn't just have shabu-shabu — I also tried the spicy sujeb muchim (spicy seasoned beef shin cartilage). While shabu-shabu centers on warm broth, the sujeb muchim brought a chewy texture and spicy seasoning that worked well as a side to nibble on between bites. The distinctive chewiness of sujeb gave it something to bite into, and the spicy seasoning helped perk up my appetite. Ordering it alongside the shabu-shabu made the meal feel a bit more full.

Butter soy-sauce jangjorim rice, then kalguksu noodles

Personally, the dish that stuck with me most was the butter soy sauce jangjorim rice. The familiar soy-sauce base combined with butter's savory richness made it easy to eat without feeling heavy. Mixed with barley rice, the texture came alive even more — the little pops from the barley made each bite more enjoyable than plain rice alone. Eating a rice dish after the shabu-shabu broth definitely left me feeling full.

We finished by adding kalguksu (hand-cut noodles) into the shabu-shabu broth. Since the broth had already simmered with plenty of mushrooms, meat, and vegetables, it tasted even richer than at the start. Dropping the noodles into the spicy, fiery broth made for a hearty way to end the meal.

Is Yunseul worth it for a group meal?

If you're near Seoul Station craving a warm soup dish, this shabu-shabu spot is worth a visit. Its location in Grand Central makes it easy to access, and the menu is set up well for sharing among a group, so it suits gatherings or meetups too.

Best of all, the meal didn't just end with shabu-shabu and kalguksu — the butter soy sauce jangjorim rice rounded it out, keeping me full to the last bite. Between the spicy, fiery broth, the variety of mushrooms, the chewy sujeb muchim, and the texture of barley rice, it was a meal that let me enjoy a whole range of flavors and textures at once!