Pork belly and shabu-shabu in Suyeong, Busan: Geobugi Dongne

After work, I went to Geobugi Dongne Busan Namcheon Branch (거북이동네 부산남천점) for pork belly. I occasionally come here because I remembered enjoying meat and shabu-shabu together with friends before.

Is it close to Namcheon Station? Is there parking?

The restaurant is right in front of Namcheon Station Exit 1. There used to be a parking lot across the street, but there was no dedicated parking when I visited this time. We came from the neighborhood without a car, so we did not need parking.

When the original post was written, the hours were daily from 11:00 AM to 10:30 PM. You can have meat for lunch, and I would come here after work on evenings when I did not feel like making dinner.

What can you eat with pork belly?

Along with meat, there were shabu-shabu and jjageuli (a thick Korean stew), so you could have a set or focus on meat. I felt that having meat and shabu-shabu together was not too costly. Once we ordered the meat, they took it out nearby, trimmed and weighed it, then served it right away.

We were told to dip the shabu-shabu in hot sauce and teriyaki sauce. At first, I was disappointed because I wanted chili sauce, but the teriyaki sauce was tasty too.

What is at the self-service bar, and is it convenient?

You bring your own side dishes and ingredients from the self-service bar. A staff member asked whether I had visited before; since I was returning, I did not receive a separate explanation. They explain how it works to first-time visitors.

There was beer and coffee as well. Draft beer was available, but the friend I usually go with prefers bottled beer, so we usually drank bottled beer.

There were fish cakes, sujebi (hand-torn dough flakes), and rice cakes for shabu-shabu or stew, plus potatoes, sausages, and zucchini to grill.

The lettuce and perilla leaves among the wrap vegetables were fresh. I usually prefer pickled radish wraps to wrap vegetables, but I ate a lot of lettuce and perilla leaves that day.

There were onion and seasoned scallion sauces, too. Bringing things myself felt inconvenient at first, but once I got used to it, it was actually convenient because I could take only the side dishes I wanted. There was gat kimchi (mustard-leaf kimchi), rather than napa cabbage kimchi, and children's tableware was also available at the self-service bar.

How did I eat the pork belly and thinly sliced Korean beef?

The shabu-shabu came as a set with meat and kalguksu (knife-cut noodles). That day, I had thinly sliced Korean beef and pork belly together.

I liked that I could choose from several meats besides pork belly. The sound and smell of the meat cooking made me hungry, and I enjoyed it again this time.

We also grilled pink sausage with the meat.

I also tried grilling the thinly sliced Korean beef meant for the shabu-shabu. To my taste, it was better grilled than added to the shabu-shabu.

How did I finish the shabu-shabu and dessert?

Once the shabu-shabu came to a boil, I added the meat and ate it, then added the kalguksu later. It had several kinds of mushrooms, and the water parsley and bean sprouts made the broth refreshing. Eating from the meat through to the kalguksu made for a good finish to the meal.

I also picked up ice cream on the way out. I could have put it in a paper cup, but I wanted to eat it in a cone.