Yeongjong shabu-shabu before a flight, peanut sauce: Pyeonbaek Hoegwan

Long time no post, everyone haha — a week ago I suddenly got the urge, booked a ticket, and went to Qingdao ㅎㅎ Now that I'm back from Qingdao I have a huge backlog of posts to write hahaha

The restaurant I'm introducing this time is!! Pyeonbaek Hoegwan Main Branch in Yeongjong! Our flight was early in the morning so we decided to stay near Incheon Airport the night before, and since it was the night before travel, I wanted something clean I could eat with meat and vegetables together rather than anything too greasy or spicy. While looking for restaurants near our hotel, I found a place where you could eat cypress-steamed pork all the way through shabu-shabu and kalguksu, so I decided on Pyeonbaek Hoegwan~~ Even though we visited late in the evening they were kind and welcoming, and there was more variety than I expected, so we left full and happy!

So here's the review of Pyeonbaek Hoegwan Main Branch, a Yeongjong shabu-shabu restaurant — let's start!

Where is Pyeonbaek Hoegwan Main Branch, and what about parking and waiting?

Pyeonbaek Hoegwan Main Branch is on the 2nd floor at 8-11 Haneulbyeolbit-ro65beon-gil, Yeongjong-gu, Incheon, South Korea. It's open daily 11am–10pm, with last order at 9pm. Free parking is available in the building, and if you park at Jinro Mart nearby, telling them your license plate at checkout gets you 2 hours free!

We visited around 8:30pm on a weekday and got seated right away, no waiting!

Inside Pyeonbaek Hoegwan: the dining room and the kids' playroom

The restaurant was bigger than I expected, with a good number of tables! Since we visited late, it was fairly quiet and we ate comfortably — the tables weren't cramped together, and there were seats big enough for groups, so it seemed like it would also work well for family outings or gatherings.

And on one side there's a separate playroom where kids can play! It's rare these days to find an all-you-can-eat meat place with a playroom too — definitely a plus point for families visiting with kids?!

Pyeonbaek Hoegwan's cypress steam apparently uses 12 kinds of medicinal herbs, and on one side of the restaurant the actual herbs used were on display like this. I've had cypress-steamed dishes a few times before, but this was my first time seeing one that also uses medicinal herbs, so I was a bit curious what it would taste like haha

What comes with the 41,800 won all-you-can-eat dinner set for two

What we ordered was Pyeonbaek Hoegwan Main Branch's all-you-can-eat SET dinner for two at ₩41,800! It was a course that included cypress steam + beef + shabu-shabu + rice-paper rolls + kalguksu + porridge + salad bar, all unlimited.

Honestly, given how expensive eating out has gotten these days, being able to eat this much variety for ₩20,900 per person seems pretty decent! And if you visit before 3pm on a weekday, the same set is available as lunch for ₩17,900 per person — so if the timing works, lunch is definitely the cheaper option!

The salad bar and the three sauces, including peanut sauce

While waiting for the cypress steam to cook, we first checked out the salad bar~~ There was more variety than I expected — vegetables for rice-paper rolls, plus napa cabbage, bean sprouts, mushrooms and more for the shabu-shabu.

There were also three kinds of sauce — chili, ponzu, and peanut — so you can eat according to your taste!

For my taste, the peanut sauce was perfect.

Rice, drinks, and even the kalguksu noodles were self-serve, so you just bring what you need. The meat is also self-serve, so it was easy to add as much as you wanted haha. But even though it's all-you-can-eat, don't grab too much at the start lol — I'd recommend bringing small amounts as you go!

Cypress-steamed beef and rice-paper rolls: why it felt light before a flight

Finally, the main event, cypress steam~~ It first comes out with beef, napa cabbage, mushrooms, bok choy and more neatly arranged inside a cypress-wood steamer. The staff set a timer, and after about 10 minutes it's ready! When you open the lid, steam rises up, and because the fat had rendered off the meat, it looked light and clean too.

Since it was the night before travel, I wanted to avoid anything too greasy or spicy, and steaming the vegetables and meat together made it not feel heavy at all haha. You can eat the meat on its own, but wrapping it with vegetables in rice-paper rolls means you get to eat a lot of vegetables at once too!

Loading the rice paper generously with meat and vegetables~~ and dipping it in peanut sauce was nutty and, personally, this combination was the best!

For eating the meat plain, dipping in soy sauce was clean and light, and having three sauces to switch between meant I didn't get tired of it as quickly.

Round two: katsuo broth and spicy mushroom broth shabu-shabu

Once we finished the cypress steam, it was time for round two — shabu-shabu proper! We chose katsuo + spicy mushroom broth. We brought over plenty of napa cabbage, bean sprouts, and mushrooms from the salad bar, and once it started boiling, in went the meat~~

The shabu-shabu meat came in two types, eye round and beef brisket, so you could pick according to your taste.

Having steamed it once with the cypress steam and now eating it again as shabu-shabu, even though it was the same meat, the different way of eating it meant I got tired of it less than I expected!

Finishing with kalguksu, saving the porridge for next time

We were already pretty full from the meat and vegetables, but you have to finish with kalguksu ㅎ. Finally dropped the kalguksu into the shabu-shabu broth to finish!

Since the broth had been simmering with meat and vegetables the whole time, it had gotten richer than at the start, and it was perfect with the kalguksu noodles added in. Adding peppers and mushrooms too made the broth even more delicious ㅎ. The noodles were chewier than I expected too, so we kept eating even while saying we were full lolol

Apparently you can also add rice, seaweed flakes, and sesame oil here to make porridge, but between the cypress steam, shabu-shabu, and kalguksu, we were already about to burst, so we held off on the porridge ㅎ

Next time I'll pace myself better and try the porridge too!

Verdict: is Pyeonbaek Hoegwan a good dinner near Incheon Airport?

This was our visit to Pyeonbaek Hoegwan Main Branch in Yeongjong for dinner while staying near Incheon Airport the night before a trip! Since it was the night before travel, I wanted to avoid anything too greasy or spicy, and starting light with the cypress steam before moving on to shabu-shabu and kalguksu meant we ended up eating more, and more happily, than I expected haha.

What I liked especially was that it wasn't just the cypress steam that was unlimited — the composition included meat, vegetables, rice-paper rolls, shabu-shabu, kalguksu, and porridge, so it never felt like eating the same thing over and over! You could also choose your shabu-shabu broth to taste, and take as much as you wanted of the two meat types, eye round and beef brisket, so there was fun in picking and choosing.

At ₩20,900 per person for dinner, it's not exactly cheap if you're just thinking about the cypress steam alone, but considering you get to eat everything from cypress steam to shabu-shabu to kalguksu in one visit, I personally felt the price was reasonable for what you get.

Above all, rather than an all-you-can-eat place where you just gorge on meat, being able to eat it cleanly together with vegetables made it feel like a good choice for dinner the night before a trip haha. Worth a visit if you're staying near Incheon Airport and looking for dinner like we were, or if you're in Yeongjong with family and want to eat a variety of dishes until you're full!