Junggye-dong shabu-shabu restaurant with a tadaki torch show: Hana

My husband and I were looking for somewhere for a quiet weekday lunch date and ended up at a proper shabu-shabu spot in Junggye-dong! We wanted something clean and easy on the stomach instead of anything too heavy or spicy, so we headed straight there haha. This is my honest review after trying it myself and falling for it.

Where is Hana Shabu Shabu Junggye Main Branch, and where do you park?

Hana Shabu Shabu Junggye Main Branch is at 29 Dongil-ro203ga-gil, Nowon-gu, Brownstone Junggye Unit 101, and is open 11:00 - 22:00. If you use the Brownstone basement parking lot, you get 2 hours free.

Parking hassles can stress you out before you even get there when you're driving, but here you can just pull into the building's basement lot and head straight up, which was really nice. They generously give you a full 2 hours of parking when you pay haha.

Inside Hana Shabu Shabu: the counter seats and the mood

Hana Shabu Shabu Junggye Main Branch has warm wooden interiors, so the moment I walked in it felt like stepping into an upscale Japanese restaurant. There's a range of seating from counter seats great for solo diners to spacious regular tables, so it seemed perfect for a date or a family meal too.

We ate at the counter seats! Haha I prefer sitting side by side rather than facing each other — how about you?

What comes with the weekday shabu-shabu lunch course

Here's the menu for you :) We went with the shabu-shabu lunch course, which is only available at weekday lunch! There are basic à la carte options too, but the course comes with a rice dish and udon noodles as well, so it felt like such a solid deal we didn't even hesitate haha.

After ordering, a fresh pre-meal salad came out first and really got our appetites going. The crisp, fresh vegetables put me in a good mood even before the main dishes arrived.

There are three sauces prepared: sesame sauce, yuzu ponzu, and chili. Just dip according to your taste :)

Finally, the star of the show arrived — black Angus sirloin and brisket, plus a mountain of fresh vegetables like mushrooms, bok choy, and napa cabbage!

Isn't the variety of vegetables and mushrooms amazing? Fish cake, quail eggs, lotus root, fried tofu, potatoes... it was packed with vegetables I love, so I was excited before I'd even taken a bite haha!

The meat portion was generous too — 150g each of brisket and sirloin! Having two kinds meant it never got boring, and sirloin turned out to be more my style haha!!

The tadaki torch performance at your table

Midway through the meal, a staff member came over and put on a tadaki performance, searing some of the meat on the spot with a torch — it was amazing! Watching the flashy fire show unfold right in front of us was really fun, and the meat with that subtle smoky flavor was absolutely delicious. (I wanted more...T_T)

How the broth and the three sauces tasted

Hana Shabu Shabu's broth wasn't overpowering but had a deep savoriness that never got tiring. As the sweetness from the vegetables and the savory juices from the meat slowly melted into the broth, the flavor grew richer. The thinly sliced sirloin stayed tender even with just a light cook, and dipping it in the special sesame sauce doubled the nuttiness. The tangy ponzu sauce cleaned up the aftertaste nicely, making the meat and vegetables come together perfectly.

The course originally includes udon noodles as standard, but after the meat, vegetables, and rice dish, we were so full we couldn't finish the udon and had to leave some behind T_T Make sure you save room to finish the udon too...

Is the Junggye-dong shabu-shabu lunch worth it?

This was a fully satisfying review of Hana Shabu Shabu — enjoying high-quality meat to your heart's content in a refined atmosphere! This Nowon shabu-shabu restaurant let us enjoy a premium course at a reasonable price, so it was a choice that couldn't go wrong. I genuinely recommend this Nowon shabu-shabu spot to anyone wanting a clean, filling meal haha. Next time I'm thinking of bringing my parents along!