Cheongna shabu-shabu salad bar: handmade tangsuyuk and chicken at

Today I visited Shabuway, my go-to shabu-shabu spot in Incheon whenever I'm in the area. I've actually been back more than five times now, and honestly I don't think anywhere beats Shabuway for shabu-shabu.. Let me introduce it right away!

Where is Shabuway Ruwon City Cheongna Branch? Hours and parking

It's located on the 2nd floor of Ruwon Top Plaza, 11 Yeomgok-ro 464beon-gil, Seohae-gu, Incheon, a 5-minute walk from Exit 4 of Gajeong Station. Hours are daily 11:30–21:30 with a break time of 15:30–17:00, but there's no break time on weekends and holidays! For parking, you can use the Ruwon Top Plaza underground lot, free for up to 2 hours.

All-you-can-eat and weekday lunch special prices at Shabuway

Here's the price list. There's everything from all-you-can-eat to a weekday lunch special, and the lunch special also includes the unlimited salad bar. I heard the weekday lunch special menu is new! Honestly the salad bar items are so good that next time I'm going to order the special menu instead.

Inside Shabuway Cheongna: seating and baby chairs

The owner really seems to care a lot about the interior.. Of all the shabu-shabu places I've been to, this is the cleanest and most stylish, perfect for family gatherings too.

There are also plenty of baby chairs available.

What's on the salad bar at Shabuway Cheongna?

From fresh salad to various kimchi and pickled vegetables, every single ingredient that goes into the salad bar looked fresh and carefully prepared.

Perilla oil pasta, mala xiang guo, ratatouille, chicken, tangsuyuk (sweet and sour pork) — apparently they make every single one of these by hand. I'll get into the taste details below.

The vegetables that go into the shabu-shabu are super fresh too, and this time they had new items — whole tofu pouches and Chinese glass noodles. I recommend the whole tofu pouches in either the spicy broth or the mala broth haha.

Drinks and ice cream are also all-you-can-eat, and there's raw chocolate you can top your ice cream with — it's delicious!!

Must-try salad bar dishes: handmade tangsuyuk, pork ribs, chicken

What I brought over is handmade tangsuyuk and pork ribs. Wow.. it's not easy for salad bar items to taste as good as the main dishes, but these were genuinely amazing lol. The tangsuyuk especially is better than most Chinese restaurants. The meat is generous and the batter is chewy glutinous rice batter — highly recommend!!!

And another dish I highly recommend is the chicken!! You see chicken at buffets all the time, but Shabuway's chicken is on a different level. If you visit, you absolutely, absolutely have to try the tangsuyuk, pork ribs, and chicken!!!!

How does the mala xiang guo taste?

This is the mala xiang guo. If you like xiang guo, you'll definitely love this! Personally I'm not a fan of xiang guo so I only got a taste, but the mala flavor wasn't too strong — just moderately spicy and savory.

Rice-paper wraps with perilla leaves added

These are the rice wrap ingredients. Adding perilla leaves gives the rice wraps a nice fragrance when you eat them.

The three meats included, and hanwoo from the review event

This is the Korean beef (hanwoo) I got from the Naver review event. The all-you-can-eat meats are fresh too, but make sure to write a receipt review and claim your hanwoo!

These are the vegetables and meat given as a base. There are three types of meat, including pork and pork neck (mokshim). The mokshim shown here in particular has just the right amount of fat and a nice nutty flavor — recommended haha.

I prepared a table completely packed with food. The side dishes especially were so good that I refilled them two or three times and ended up not eating that much shabu-shabu ...🥲

Why the broth keeps the writer from other shabu-shabu buffets

The main reason I don't go to other shabu-shabu buffets is this broth. There's nothing to fault about this place, but the broth especially had none of that typical buffet seasoning-powder taste — it had a clean, mushroom-scented flavor that I loved.

Dessert at Shabuway: right down to sapphire grapes

For dessert I grabbed a bit of fruit, and they even had sapphire grapes!!! With a clean interior, a salad bar as good as the main dishes, deep and clean-tasting broth, and fresh all-you-can-eat meat — this Cheongna spot was flawless. I strongly recommend Shabuway!!