I ended up at Saerijae almost by accident. We’d spent the afternoon at Shinsegae Centum City looking at appliances, and by the time my feet hurt and my stomach was growling, I just wanted to sit down somewhere quiet. The basement food court was packed, so we wandered up to the restaurants on the 4th floor instead, and a plate of flame-grilled meat with warm hotpot rice sounded exactly right.
Saerijae (서리재) serves grilled meat along with steamed egg, soybean stew, and stone-pot rice, all on one tray. Being inside a department store, it’s calm and tidy — the kind of place that works well if you’re treating your parents or older family to a proper meal.
Saerijae Centum City: the basics
- Address: 4F, Shinsegae Centum City Mall, 15 Centum 4-ro, Haeundae-gu, Busan
- Hours: Daily 11:00–21:00 (last order 20:30)
- Closed: On the department store’s regular closing days
- Phone: 051-745-1936
- Website: http://justbutchers.co.kr
- Parking: Shinsegae Centum City parking (first 30 minutes free; free hours scale with how much you spend)
📍 View Saerijae (서리재) on Google Maps →
The restaurant is on the 4th floor of the mall. The department store and the mall are linked by sky bridges on the 3rd and 4th floors, so it’s an easy walk over from the shopping side. Follow the connecting passage and you’ll spot it, with a big menu board out front so you can decide before you sit down.
Waiting and ordering
I went on a weekend evening, so of course there was a wait. You punch your phone number into a kiosk by the counter and they call you when your table is ready, so I registered and browsed nearby for a bit. About 20 minutes later we got a seat. The wait can get long at peak meal times, so put your name down before you’re starving.
Once you sit, you can order straight from the menu.
The menu splits roughly into flame-grilled hotpot-rice set meals and everyday Korean dishes. Here’s what I saw, with prices:
- Chadol doenjang-jjigae sotbap jeongsik (brisket soybean stew with hotpot rice) — 13,900 won
- Pork kimchi-jjigae hotpot rice set (돼지고기김치찌개솥밥정식) — 14,900 won
- Chadol yeongyang-buchu deopbap (brisket and chive rice bowl, 차돌영양부추덮밥) — 15,000 won
- Seolleongtang (ox bone soup, 설렁탕) — 14,500 won
- Hamheung naengmyeon (cold noodles, broth or spicy, 함흥냉면) — 13,000 won
- Jikhwa jeyuk jeongchan (flame-grilled pork, soy or chili, 직화제육정찬) — 23,500 won
- Hanu neobiani jeongchan (Korean-beef patties, 한우너비아니정찬) — 27,500 won
- So-bulgogi jeongchan (beef bulgogi set, 소불고기정찬) — 28,500 won
- LA-galbi jeongchan (LA-style short ribs, LA갈비정찬) — 36,500 won
Most plates come as two-person sets by default, but the jeongchan (set meals) can be ordered for one, so I saw a few solo diners too. For the grilled sets you can split the seasoning half soy and half chili, and there’s a small surcharge to swap the plain hotpot rice for gondre (dried-herb) rice or to add cold noodles for dessert.
We went with the flame-grilled soy pork and chili pork split half-and-half, plus the brisket soybean-stew hotpot set.
The flame-grilled set
Order a grilled set and the side dishes and lettuce wraps arrive on a woven tray. It’s not a huge spread, but everything you’d want is there — pickled onion, seasoned bean sprouts, soy-braised beans, kimchi, and ssam lettuce. If you run low, just ask a server and they’ll refill.
The meat came in a single pan, soy bulgogi on one side and chili pork on the other. They light a small solid-fuel burner underneath to keep it hot. It started a touch lukewarm and then heated up fast, so stir it now and then while you eat or the edges can catch.
The soy bulgogi (간장 돼지불고기) is sweet with a nice smoky note — good enough to eat with plain rice alone. It reminded me a little of the charcoal bulgogi I used to eat as a student, that homey, familiar kind of flavor.
The chili pork (고추장 제육) has a kick but isn’t aggressive, and it was even better wrapped in lettuce. One thing to flag for visitors: Korean “a little spicy” can land hotter than you expect, so if you’re not used to it, take the chili side slowly. Ordering it half-and-half meant we got to try both, which I’d recommend if you can’t decide.
Stone-pot rice and the crispy finish
The real draw at Saerijae is the dolsot-bap (돌솥밥), stone-pot rice. I think rice makes or breaks a Korean meal, and this freshly cooked pot went down easily even on its own.
There’s a method to it. Scoop most of the rice into your bowl, then pour the warm barley tea into the empty pot and put the lid back on. By the end of the meal you’ve got golden nurungji (scorched rice) and sungnyung (the toasty rice tea) waiting.
The steamed egg that comes with the rice was soft and pudding-like. It looks plain, but there’s a savory, slightly salty edge to it that made it a perfect bite alongside the rice.
The doenjang-jjigae (된장찌개), soybean-paste stew, is loaded with tofu and tastes deep and gently sharp. It didn’t taste like a generic stew — more like something a grandmother would simmer at home. On its own it could carry a whole bowl of rice.
The brisket soybean-stew hotpot set we ordered on the side comes with chunky brisket and potato in the stew plus its own pot of rice. On a day when the full grilled set feels like too much, one of these hotpot sets is plenty filling.
And of course you finish with the nurungji. A bowl of warm sungnyung at the end leaves you cozy and comfortably full.
Parking, payment, and tips
Use the Shinsegae Centum City parking garage. The first 30 minutes are free, and after that your free hours scale with what you spend — roughly one hour for 10,000 won, two hours for 30,000 won, three hours for 50,000 won, so keep your meal receipt for validation. On weekends the department store lots get busy, so leave a little extra time.
A couple of practical notes for foreign visitors: nearly every restaurant in Korea takes cards, and an internationally accepted card will be fine here. There’s no tipping culture either — you don’t need to leave one, and staff may actually be confused if you try. Ordering is easy even without Korean; the menu is laid out clearly, and you can point to what you want. For getting around, Google Maps is unreliable for walking and transit directions in Korea, so I’d use Naver Map or KakaoMap instead, and KakaoT for taxis.
Honestly, being inside a department store, the prices aren’t what you’d call cheap — the two-person grilled sets start around 45,000 won. But between the smoky grilled meat, the stone-pot rice, the steamed egg, and that deep soybean stew, it’s a generous, well-rounded meal, and a solid choice when you want to treat family or guests.
How to get there
Saerijae Centum City connects directly to Centum City Station on Busan Subway Line 2. It’s near the sky bridge on the 4th floor of Shinsegae Centum City Mall — come up into the mall and head toward the connecting passage and you’ll find it quickly.