Shabu Shabu was named after the sound created when the ingredients are stirred in a cooking pot! And in two word for the ones that only read the first sentence: KEEP READING.
Yes, this place is definitely worth your time and I absolutely loved experiencing a different type of hot pot. And different for two main reasons! First it wasn’t just a place where you pick the food yourself to be weighted and then cooked in a broth - it’s very very different as you’ll see! And secondly this was a veggie hot pot! Yes, they have vegetarian and vegan options and you don’t necessarily have to have the traditional meat sets - and actually they have sets with seafood too!
We arrived at the venue around a somewhat dinner time (8pm) but they are open until 10.30pm so time was definitely an issue and we had plenty of time to enjoy everything and to experience the true hot pot spirit! We were very welcomed by the staff members and taken to a table in the Shabu Restaurant (like I have mentioned in another review, they share the space with their sister venue Gyoza Gyoza as the owners own different type of restaurants). The inside on the venue is very elegante and inviting for a cosy a wholesome meal. The light certainly set up a mood where you can trust are you’re going to have not just a good meal, but actually take memories with you for the rest of you food gastronomic adventures - yes, you won’t forget this place!
The waitress present is the menu and I have to highlight straight away how professional and just... kind! she was. Seriously, all the staff was incredibly speedy with the service and they provided not only advice but that genuinely wanted us to have a good experience here, as well as, the other costumers in other tables. Yes, I pay attention a lot to the little things and here while I just took a little tour inside to find the toilet (😂) I peeked at the other areas of the venue and could only hear the laughter and see the staff flying around between tables, making sure everyone was pleased.
This place is a Japanese nabemono hotpot venue where your food is cooked piece by piece by the diner at the table and you get to see it with your own eyes! I absolutely loved the concept and it’s definitely something that takes a bit of knowledge to know how much to order which ingredients to prioritise, and even how to cook and eat it. Yes, the whole experience is not just sitting and eating - there’s a lot more to it!
After a look at the menu, we saw we could built our own Shabu Shabu from scratch or we could choose some of the set menus that not only would be cheaper in terms of amount of food we could get, but also, it was a more friendly optioN if you’re not really sure how to built things for your meal. They have sets for 1-2 people and for 3-4 people and they feature different prices depending on the amount of people of the set and the dietary meal preference you have. They have a the traditional meat sets as well as seafood sets and even a vegetarian one! On each set you have multiple options to choose from from entrees to the soups and added ingredients too. You can also (and should!) get some sides because the whole menu is impressive and you surely don’t want to miss out!
Seems complex? Well, it’s really not 😂 but the truth is that if you’re doing it for the first time it surely can be a bit confusing with so many options. So I would definitely advise to pick one of the suggested sets and go from there. We were 3 people and we chose the 1-2 people vegetarian set for $89.90/set with a couple sides, and I must say that it’s definitely enough for 3 people! Don’t just ask that for one person 😂 it is A LOT of food, trust me.
Here’s what it came with the Vegetarian Shabu Shabu Set:
- Entrees: you can choose from two options in two categories. First you pick between edamame or kimchi. We chose edamame, the lightly boiled soybeans with sea salt, that were extremely pleasant and light! A very food portion too 👏 And then the second entree option that you have is choosing between Okra Tempura (deep fried okra coated with light crispy batter) or Wafu Salad. We chose the salad with Julienned carrot, radish, wake and a garden salad with yuzu soy dressing and we absolutely loved it too!
- Soup Base: when it comes to the soup that you choose, basically you’re going to pick the base where everything will be cooked and where the ingredients will be boiling in front of you! The set comes with a communal chopsticks to cook ingredients and serve. They have several options without any extra cost and if you want a more deluxe or premium soup, those ones are slightly more expensive. And you get to choose always 2 options as the cooking pot is beautifully divided by a wave metal pattern. We picked 2 of the normal range as they were recommended to us and for the ones that don’t really fancy much flavour at all, they can just go with soy milk base soup (which to be honest I’m sure it’s incredible too! But we certainly loved our soups and we literally just wanted to sip the whole bowl!). Plus I need to highlights that no matter the soup you choose, it also comes with some complimentary sides! We picked the Konbu which it is a light, vegetarian broth made is konbu, which is kelp, and water and it came with complimentary seaweed, Chinese cabbage and black fungus - this was a slightly sweet and very delicious soup and one of their top favourites! It was also my favourite 👏🤗👌 and the second one was the Tomato Sukiyaki, a more sweet and savoury base with tomato flavour that came with complimentary tomato, onion and himeji mushrooms. I also enjoyed drinking this one a lot! 👏 I have to say that it’s important to note that the soup is not too salty and I found it perfectly balanced, maybe because the base they use is soy milk and it gives a more wholesome flavour to it. And if you’re aonde which one to choose, I would definitely be bold here and pick one besides just the soy milk - it literally seems like your having one of your grandma soups! Just see with ingredients you like there most and go for that one 🤗
- Set Vegetables: the Vegetarian set already comes 2 picked vegetable options from the menu. One is the Japanese Shabu Shabu Veggie Plate (absolutely beautiful to see and definitely a great combination) as well as assorted vegetables plate of the day that in that case were Cos Lettuce, Crown Daisy Leaves and Chinese Cabbage, where the highlight here goes to the crown dairy leaves! Yes, those were so tasteful and such a pleasure once they were cooked! I don’t think I had tried it before and I absolutely am taking it to my list of favourite veggies! (Ridiculous I know 😂 but there are so many options when it comes to the Asian cuisine that it’s sometimes important to note what you like more for reference)
- Added Vegetables: not only does the combo already come with those 2 Items of vegetables but you also have to chance to add five items from the vegetable section. We chose the following: Lotus Root, Asparagus, Yuba, Tofu and Mushroom Plate. Here are the highlight goes to yuba, that for those that don’t know (and I also didn’t and had never tried it!) it’s tofu skin and it comes in some rolled shapes, somewhat like those wool rolls for knitting! The taste isn’t like tofu but more like noodles! Like a long large thin noodle - I loved it! The mushroom plate is also beautifully presented and it comes with a very good amount of assorted mushrooms. We also picked the tofu because it was a silky rolled tofu and I had never tried that silky version! It was absolutely fantastic, very VERY smooth and remarkably noting the characteristic tofu taste, but not in a bad way because sometimes tofu can be a plane, right? Not here - it was very interesting! The asparagus and lotus root were nicely cooked too and really delicious.
- Dessert: the final treat to finish the meal is a petite soy milk soft serve that you can choose from 3 options: matcha, mix or hojicha (that is roasted tea!). Usually comes with 2, but we asked for an extra one. The serving is, like the name says, small, so don’t be surprise when you get there just a small plate with a soft serve 🤗 but I have to say that it’s just right for such filling and nourishing meal! We shared the three petite serves and I have to say my personal favourite was the mix! The hojicha has a slight cacao/chocolate to me and I found it really good but the matcha was a bit too intense (although one of my friends loved that one more!) so I think if you’re unsure, a safe option would be to go for the mix!
Even though that you already choose so many things, there is something very important that I must mentions and that you too need to choose from - the dipping sauce! They say that you must get the dipping sauce set that comes with ponzu sauce, sesame sauce, soy sauce, spicy daikon, spring onion, special housemade Shabu Shabu, sesame seeds, dry minced garlic, coriander, fresh cut chilli, chilli oil. You create your own dipping sauce with the things provided and you dip the cooked vegetables, tofu, and other ingredients in the sauce you created! I personally loved the ponzu sauce and the sesame sauce and my favourite was the sesame sauce, a thick homemade sesame sauce with foie gras and miso, paired with dry minced garlic!
About the experience itself: the table where you seat is quite special and the pot (that can also be called donabe) is set up on top of a plate that is heated right in the centre of the table. There are some buttons on the side of the table and they control how high the intensity is. Some vegetables already come inside and the uncooked ingredients you chose are served on the side and once everyone is seated, you start cooking with tough vegetables and... basically everything you want! It doesn’t take much time because the soup has already been previously cooked for a few minutes, so you don’t start from scratch and I was told that the paper-thin slices of meat take only a few seconds to cook. The vegetables take a little longer and once you wait a few minutes you transfer things to your own bowl, then dip it in your sauce in another bowl and enjoy!
This was certainly an amazing experience and I absolutely can’t believe I haven’t tried this type of hot pot before! And of course we had also asked for some sides:
- Pan Fried Prawn Gyoza - their famous Gyoza from their chefs was an irresistible option and they you can find them with vegetables, meat or seafood inside! We chose to have the prawn ones and it came in a serving of 5, nicely presented and hot 👌 the taste is enjoyable and it seems to have minced prawns with some sauce mixed in. I think that next time I want to try the vegetable ones!
- Fresh Oysters - we chose you have a side of 3 fresh oysters and not only it came beautiful in a dish, seeming to glow, but actually the taste was outstanding! They were fresh and slightly salted and we squeezed the lemon on top of them, making the flavour very VERY good! Even one of my friends that doesn’t like fresh oysters that much, was astonished and will now have it more often for sure! Serving was definitely appropriate and we cheered while having them at the same time!
- Salmon Sashimi - it came with 5 wonderfully cut pieces, fresh and with amazing taste. Absolutely loved it! Very satisfying and such a delicacy! Also would recommend!
I had the most wonderful experience at such a welcoming place with warm and helpful kind staff, and I consider this an ideal place to have a wonderful Shabu Shabu experience very similar to what you can have in Japan, as well as, experience the modern twists of the Asian cuisine! Thank you for reading if you made if this far and I hope you get to try this amazing hot pot experience like I did. In one word: memorable!
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