Shabu Hyeung: like a Choose Your Own Adventure book for food!

Restaurant: Shabu Hyeung
Type: Vietnamese Food, primarily Shabu Shabu
Location: Bunpyeong-dong, on the ring road near Dino Meat, on the second floor
Price: 13,000 won per serving, 10,000 during lunch

Shabu Hyeung is an Vietnamese style shabu shabu restaurant located in Bunpyeong-dong on the ring road. It has been there for years now and rightfully so, they are my personal favorite spot for shabu shabu in the city. The bright, sunny interior has a modern feel where similar restaurants are more traditional. You are not required to sit on the floor either, which is a big bonus particularly if you are bringing a little one along with you. The restaurant is much larger than most other places you can go to; making it easy for large groups or just a couple of people out for a meal. Cooking all three of the courses takes about an hour altogether, so this is not the type of food to have if you’re in a rush. The quality of the meat and vegetables at Shabu Hyeung is unmatched in the city. This is what really separates them from the competition.

Vietnamese shabu shabu is quite a bit different from the Korean shabu shabu some of you may be more familiar with. Like Korean shabu shabu, the first course is served with thin slices of meat which is boiled in a broth. Unlike Korean shabu shabu, it is also served with an array of vegetables which is wrapped into a rice paper you soak in hot water at the table. A note of caution, the water is extremely hot when it is first delivered, don’t burn yourself! Some people find it tricky to use the rice papers on their first attempt, but Shabu Hyeung has several TVs with an instructional video on how to get wrapping!

Vietnamese shabu shabu is broken up into a three course meal, much like Korean shabu shabu. Broth is placed on a gas range at the table. You start by adding sprouts, lettuce, and mushrooms to the broth.

The first course, as previously mentioned, is served with thin slices of meat and an assortment of veggies and other fillers: two types of mushrooms; thinly sliced red and white cabbage as well as white onion; shredded carrots, cucumbers and beets; chopped perilla leaves; spicy sprouts; and pineapple chunks. This gives you a lot of choices of what you want to have in your wrap and has a lot of options for everyone. If you run out of something, don’t be afraid to ask for more or restock it at the mini-salad bar. Everyone receives three sauces to dip the wrap in. Once again, you get to choose! I like the clear sauce with all the little colorful specks in it while my wife swears by the brown sauce. We get to finish each others sauces so it’s a pretty good arrangement!

For the second course, simply add the dish with the rice noodles to the broth, wait 30 seconds, and you got yourself a soup! Dish it out accordingly, but keep in mind you want to have a decent amount of broth left over for the third course. By this time, the broth has had a chance to really soak up some flavor from all the meat and veggies you added at the beginning. This is one refreshingly tasty soup! It is a good idea to lower the heat once the rice noodles are cooked so the third course doesn’t burn.

Onto the third course, assuming you are still able to eat and not entering a meat coma, you add the last dish which has rice and a small ball of pumpkin in it. Give it a hearty stir and now you have rice-pumpkin porridge. I know you may be say to yourself, “I dunno if that sounds like something I want to eat, Joe.” Well, it is. They add some kind of seasoning to the mash pumpkin ball that makes it amazing, and don’t forget all that flavor the broth has been soaking up. So just give it a shot.


Hours of operation
Open everyday - 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.

Hey Mason! You want some shabu shabu? Oh right, you can't cause you don't have teeth, cause you're a baby. Ha!