Yeongjong buffet, doenjang chicken broth for two: Pyeonbaek Hoegwan

Today I'm introducing a Yeongjong favorite: all-you-can-eat cypress steam and shabu-shabu at Pyeonbaek Hoegwan Main Branch (편백회관 본점)!

Address: 8-11 Haneulbyeolbit-ro 65beon-gil, Units 202 & 203, Yeongjong-gu, Incheon Hours Daily 11:00–22:00 Last order 21:00 (Lunch 11:00–03:00)

Where is Pyeonbaek Hoegwan Main Branch, and how do you get there?

I was looking for somewhere to have dinner in Yeongjong and found Pyeonbaek Hoegwan Main Branch, where you can eat cypress steam and shabu-shabu together. I walked over from the Haneul New Town area, and since it's on the 2nd floor of a building, it wasn't hard to find. I'd heard it was all-you-can-eat cypress steam and shabu-shabu, so two adults went for a weekday dinner visit haha.

Pyeonbaek Hoegwan Main Branch is located at 8-11 Haneulbyeolbit-ro 65beon-gil, Units 202 & 203, Jung-gu, Incheon. It's in an area near Haneul New Town where restaurants are clustered, so it was easy to stop by while looking for dinner nearby. Once I went up to the 2nd floor, I spotted the Pyeonbaek Hoegwan sign right away, and even on a weekday evening there were quite a few people dining.

Inside Pyeonbaek Hoegwan: seating and the kids' playroom

Inside, there were plenty of tables, and I saw families eating together too. Being a shabu-shabu place, there was a separate salad bar and meat corner where you help yourself to what you need. Since it's a place where you eat cypress steam followed by shabu-shabu, food kept arriving at the table, but I could still eat comfortably throughout~

There's a playroom, so it's also good for visiting with kids. There's a separate space for children to play while you eat, so families can use it comfortably~ At shabu-shabu places you usually have to keep an eye on kids throughout the meal, but with a playroom the kids seemed to have a good time before and after eating haha.

The salad bar was also pretty varied. From vegetables like napa cabbage, bean sprouts, and mushrooms to add to the shabu-shabu, to rice paper and various vegetables for making rice-paper rolls, you could take as much as you wanted. Beef was also self-serve from the salad bar side, to add to the shabu-shabu as much as you liked, so you could keep refilling meat and vegetables~ Besides the shabu-shabu ingredients, there were other dishes to pick at in between, so it was fun grabbing a little of this and that haha.

How much is the all-you-can-eat price at Pyeonbaek Hoegwan?

Pyeonbaek Hoegwan runs an all-you-can-eat menu where you can enjoy cypress steam and shabu-shabu together. Weekday lunch is ₩17,900 per adult, and dinner and weekends are ₩20,900 per adult, with separate pricing for elementary schoolers and toddlers. We visited on a weekday evening and used the two-adult dinner option, which came with cypress steam, shabu-shabu, beef, and rice-paper rolls all together, so we didn't have to order several separate menus haha.

Starting at the salad bar: tteokbokki and fries

While waiting for the cypress steam, I checked out the salad bar first~ They had spaghetti, fries, and tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes) too, so I grabbed a little of each to try haha. I treated it like a light warm-up before diving into the cypress steam properly, and since it's all-you-can-eat, being able to enjoy these extra dishes too was great. The tteokbokki especially I couldn't pass up, so I grabbed a whole plate haha.

Cypress-steamed meat and vegetables with rice-paper rolls

We started with the cypress steam first. Once you're seated, they bring it out with meat and bean sprouts in a cypress wood steamer, and it was exciting waiting for it to cook~

Cypress steam is a way of eating warmly steamed meat together with bean sprouts — the meat was clean-tasting and the bean sprouts crunchy, so they went well together. It was good dipped in sauce, and also paired nicely with vegetables~

The salad bar also had ingredients ready for making rice-paper rolls. Wrapping the cypress steam meat and vegetables in rice paper felt different from just eating the meat plain. Since you take whatever ingredients you want yourself, you could load up on vegetables if you liked, or pile on plenty of meat if that's what you preferred haha.

Two broths for the shabu-shabu: katsuo and doenjang chicken

After eating a good amount of the cypress steam, we got into the shabu-shabu properly! There were several broths to choose from according to taste, and we picked katsuo and doenjang chicken~ Being able to enjoy two flavors at once was great for switching back and forth depending on the mood haha. The katsuo broth was clean and savory, while the doenjang chicken broth had that distinctive savory doenjang (soybean paste) taste, and both paired well with the vegetables and beef.

After setting up the broths, we grabbed a big pile of vegetables for the shabu-shabu from the salad bar. With mushrooms, napa cabbage, bean sprouts, and more to choose from, we picked mostly what we liked — and shabu-shabu really is better with plenty of vegetables~

And you can't leave out the beef at Pyeonbaek Hoegwan. The beef is also all-you-can-eat, so you can grab as much as you need to add to the shabu-shabu. Simmering the broth with vegetables first, then adding beef bit by bit and pulling it out right away, meant we could eat it hot and fresh. Having already eaten meat once with the cypress steam, then unlimited beef with the shabu-shabu too, made it a proper meat day haha.

Why the ramen noodles and porridge went untouched

Beyond the shabu-shabu and rice-paper roll ingredients, the salad bar had other dishes to pick at along the way. When you're eating shabu-shabu continuously, you start craving other food too, and it was nice being able to take as much as you wanted. We grabbed a little of this and that too, and at first thought — since it's all-you-can-eat — we should try one of everything. But once we'd gone through the cypress steam and into the shabu-shabu, we filled up faster than expected haha. So even though there were ramen noodles you could add at the end of the shabu-shabu, we never got to them. There was porridge ready too, but we skipped that as well since we were too full. There's this feeling that at an all-you-can-eat place you should eat all the way through to the last item, but that day we'd already had our fill of cypress steam, beef, and vegetables, and there was no more room haha.

Starting with cypress steam, making rice-paper rolls, then eating beef and vegetables through the shabu-shabu, two adults really had a filling meal. What I liked especially was not eating just one thing over and over — going through cypress steam and shabu-shabu in sequence meant we could enjoy different combinations without getting bored~

If you're looking for shabu-shabu in Yeongjong or a Jungsan-dong favorite, Pyeonbaek Hoegwan Main Branch, where you can also eat cypress steam, seems like a good option. It should also be easy to please different tastes for a family meal or dinner with friends near Haneul New Town, given the varied menu. We visited on a weekday evening and, after cypress steam, shabu-shabu, beef, and rice-paper rolls, ended up only looking at the ramen noodles and porridge haha. Next time, I'll try not to go too all-in from the start, so I can save some room for the ramen noodles or porridge at the end~