Nowon shabu-shabu lunch course at Hana Shabu Shabu, Seoul

Junggye Brownstone parking and location

Open daily from 11:00 to 22:00, with last orders at 21:00. There’s no break time, but please be sure to check Naver notices for closing days. I heard they’ll be closed on Chuseok day, September 25. Takeout, delivery, reservations, high chairs, and parking are all available ⭕️

You can park in the Junggye Brownstone underground parking lot, with 2 hours supported when using the restaurant 🙆🏻♀️ The entrance to the Junggye Brownstone lot is very narrow, so be careful going in 🚨 The spaces are narrow too, so watch out for door dings! Extra parking is ₩1,000 for the first/each 30 minutes, with a daily maximum of ₩10,000. If you’ve been to Junggye Brownstone, you know the route is incredibly confusing ㅠㅠ

Hana Shabu Shabu Junggye Main Branch (하나샤브샤브 중계본점) is in A-ZONE on the first floor.

Hana Shabu Shabu, a great shabu-shabu spot in Nowon, has an upscale feel right from the exterior. Since it operates without a break time, it’s easy to stop by whenever 💟 Write your name down manually for the waitlist, or reserve through Naver to enter right away without waiting.

Counter seats and a warm dining room

The moment you walk in, it feels cozy and warm. The wood-toned interior gives it such an upscale feel 🫧 There are two kinds of seating—counter seats and tables—plus wide tables and group seating, making it great for family gatherings, dates, or work dinners 🤍

Personally, I loved these counter seats so much. You take off your shoes before sitting down, and because you can sit side by side and chat while eating, they seem perfect for a date with your partner 👍🏻 There are four tables. Groups can use it too, so my mom said she’d come next time with her friends haha. Of course, I chose the counter seats ㅎㅁㅎ Every seat already had the basic setting laid out.

A sheet also explains exactly how to eat seiro-mushi (Japanese steamed dishes) and shabu-shabu. The owner’s care shines through even in little details. Apparently hana means “flower” in Japanese. They put their heart into high-quality meat and fresh vegetables, making everything as pretty and delicate as a flower—such a beautiful thought, right? I’m a T, but it still gave me all the F feelings 🌸 💗

Lunch shabu-shabu premium course

The two main menus are shabu-shabu and seiro-mushi. The basic set is meat + vegetables + udon noodles (shabu-shabu only); the course adds a meal and dessert; and premium adds marinated king prawns. There are rice bowls, extras, and a variety of drinks too, so it would be a lovely atmosphere for a drink at dinner 🤍

We ordered Lunch Shabu-shabu Premium Course for 2, A, with brisket and sirloin, for ₩54,000.

If there’s a wait on weekends or public holidays, dining time is limited. If you need anything, just press the bell in front of your seat 🛎️ They even served cool tea rather than ordinary bottled water, which was nice to sip throughout the meal 🫧

Cast-iron pot and a generous vegetable spread

After we ordered, they first brought over the broth in a pot—but it wasn’t the usual shabu-shabu pot. It was a cast-iron pot. They say its excellent heat conductivity and retention make the meat and vegetables taste deeper and richer. This cast-iron pot is handmade by master artisan Kim Jong-hun, whose work is designated Gyeonggi-do Intangible Cultural Heritage No. 45. Hana Shabu Shabu is on another level from the pot alone; I was already so excited before eating ✨

Then came the fresh, generous vegetables. There were napa cabbage, mushrooms, bell peppers, bok choy, fried tofu, fish cake, kabocha squash, quail eggs, and potatoes—such a varied lineup 🥔🥬🫑🍄🟫

They served a pre-meal salad first. It was cabbage drizzled with peanut sauce, with a gentle sweetness that was perfect for cleansing the palate 🥜🤎

There are three sauces—sesame, yuzu ponzu, and chili sauce—and they bring them after you order. The meat isn’t sliced ahead of time; it’s sliced right there as soon as you order.

Brisket, sirloin, and deepening broth

The brisket is on top and the sirloin is underneath. The visuals are insane.. My mom and I gasped when the meat arrived. Isn’t this meat quality you don’t usually see at shabu-shabu restaurants? The slices and portion were huge too 🥩❤️ It turns out they use Black Angus beef. Black Angus is carefully selected beef from cattle under 24 months old fed plant-based feed, and Black Angus sirloin is apparently used at Korea’s top hotels, including Shilla, Chosun, and Walkerhill.

Put the vegetables in first and let them boil away. Since it’s a cast-iron pot, it comes to a boil quickly too.

I took a sip of the broth first, and it was incredible. They make broth twice a day, morning and evening, simmering vegetables sourced fresh that morning for a long time to create natural umami and sweetness—and they don’t use artificial seasonings. The owner even looks after guests’ health; the best 👍🏻

As you’d expect from vegetables sourced fresh every morning, you can taste the freshness right away 🫧 Add the Black Angus beef and let it cook too. Once the meat goes in, the broth gets even deeper and tastes so much better ✨💛

The meat was truly fantastic. As you’d expect from beef used at Korea’s top hotels, it was supremely tender and clean-tasting, melting softly in my mouth. With the vegetables, it was the kind of flavor that made me wonder if my mouth was allowed to be this blissful..

Honestly, the longer the broth boiled, the more I kept reaching for it. My mom could not stop praising how delicious it was 👍🏻 Maybe because it’s a house-made specialty broth, its deep yet clean flavor sat so comfortably in my stomach.

Sauce refills through udon noodles

I usually barely touch sauces when I eat shabu-shabu, but Hana Shabu Shabu’s peanut and chili sauces were packed with umami—I honestly lost count of how many refills I had. Mix them up however you like, depending on your mood 💟 It’s even better to refresh your palate now and then with chili peppers and danmuji (pickled yellow radish). 🌶️ Spicy warning 🌶️

As a mushroom lover, I was so happy about the variety 🍄🟫 There were king oyster, enoki, oyster, and shiitake mushrooms, plus an expensive mushroom whose name I forgot. There was so much that even though both my mom and I eat a lot of mushrooms, some were left ㅠㅠ The fish-shaped fish cake was so soft, almost like tofu, that my mom and I kept asking whether it was tofu. In the end, yes, it really was fish cake 🍢

Why I turn into a mama’s baby bird. Since I was eating while taking photos, she kept refilling my small plate with only the things I like. And she did it often, in small amounts, so nothing got cold. Mom, hang out with me forever ㅠ! 🫧🤍

You can top up the broth yourself in between. There was so much, but we ate all of it.. because the broth was unbelievably delicious.

They’re also running an event where you get tataki as a service item when you post a Naver receipt photo review. Naturally, I absolutely had to do it ㅎㅁㅎ The owner asked whether I handle spicy food well, and when I said I like it and do, he even coated the meat with sauce before bringing it over. Tataki made right in front of us—what an amazing performance ~~ 🫧🤍 Eaten right away, the warm, tender tataki melted softly in my mouth ㅠㅠ ✨💛

They bring the udon noodles when you’re nearly done. Hmm, I’m getting full now.. can I eat this..? But when carbs appear, your stomach just makes room on its own. What a pointless worry lol.

With bouncy, chewy noodles and Black Angus beef on top, it’s a flavor that makes you clap 👏🏻

Kabocha squash and potatoes are included too. Put them in from the beginning and eat them at the end for perfectly soft squash and potatoes 🥔 Near the end, I turned off the heat and ate a quail egg that I naturally assumed had cooled down—but it was a nuclear-level, lava-hot quail egg. In the frenzy of eating, I forgot that cast-iron pots retain heat incredibly well. I was puffing out steam like Charmander 🔥🔥

House-made ube pudding to finish the course

Because we ordered the course, it ends with a meal and dessert. We were so, so, so, so full that I only started to say, “If you haven’t prepared the meal yet...” when the owner asked first, “Would you like to change it to an à la carte item?” Such amazing thoughtfulness.. thank you.. They said the course is so plentiful that even men can find it hard to finish. Maybe they had already noticed how full we were haha ㅠ

But then they casually left dessert for us, saying it was on the house haha. It was house-made ube pudding 🫧💜 Maybe because it was homemade, it was extra bouncy, with a not-too-strong ube flavor. Dessert was perfect too 💟

For the restroom, use the shared restroom inside the building. There’s no toilet paper, so make sure to grab some before you go! The men’s and women’s restrooms are separate 🚽

With fresh, generous vegetables; Black Angus beef used at luxury hotels; an elegant, warm atmosphere; and an owner who was kind and attentive, Hana Shabu Shabu was a Nowon shabu-shabu restaurant where even the time spent there felt happy. It was the most delicious shabu-shabu place I’ve visited recently. It’s a perfect space for a date or gathering, so I’m reserving my regular-customer status in advance 💸 Owner, work less and earn more 💸 💛 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 💛