Shabuya Shabu Shabu

No, I'm not being paid to promote Palate (available free with your AMEX Platinum card! Get yours today!). Seriously, I had a pleasant time at this restaurant, but have some issues with the prices they charge.

This restaurant is located next to Tajimaya, both being run by the same group. Both are participating restaurants in Palate.sg, which allows signficant discounts especially if only 2 people are dining (do visit their website for more info). The seats are comfy, and the only grouse I have with the ambience is that the steam from the boiling soup does cloud your vision of your dining partner - don't bring your first date here! (unless you happen to have some big zit you don't want him/her seeing...). Service was actually fine, contrary to what I've heard/read.

Tried the wagyu beef and kurobuta collar, and although I feel the wagyu was actually sliced too thinly, that's probably just a personal preference - the quality of the meat is definitely there.

There are non-shabu-shabu items on the menu as well - had salmon sashimi, soft-shell crab tempura, and inaniwa udon, all of which were decent. I particularly like their wafu salad, with its refreshing sesame dressing and addition of seaweed on top of the vegetables, which adds a nice aroma as well. The inaniwa udon is very good too - like an al dente pho.

Total bill came up to about 114 for 2 persons, which after discount was about 61 dollars (ow! No seriously I'm not being paid for this!).

Definitely worth a repeat visit if you have a hankering for good shabu-shabu in comfortable surroundings, AND have the palate membership. If not, there are more worthy places out there.

Buffet Shabu Shabu.... woooooo yum yum MEAT!!

Well, they serve a nice choice bits of meat for their shabu buffet during their weekend brunch.

$39.90++/pax, 1 hour time frame.

All you can eat wagyu beef, black angus, pork collar, pork belly, chicken thigh.

Tuna/salmon sashimi,

Shitake mushrooms, other types of mushrooms, and vegetables which I didn't bother to order...

Ok I stayed purely on the meats. 

The sashimi was a nice way to start the meal. Pretty good. Just the nice amount.

Then came the main course, MEAT!!! (yea if you didn't realise I love my meats.)

What could go wrong with all you can eat wagyu beef, black angus and other nice bits of pork.

I stayed mainly with the meats. Really good stuff. Can't really find anything bad about the meats although some people may like to other the other stuffs. But I came mainly for the meats so I really had my fill. 

Of course you'll have to know how to cook them. U know just lightly dip them in the boiling water, learn to control the temperature, shake the meats in the boiling soup for a bit, place them with the peanut sauce and YUM YUM YUM.... you get the picture. 

It's really a good place. Service is pretty good too. For the types of meat and the price... well, I'd say... I've paid more for less/worse, definitely a worthy place to visit.

Ratings

Yummy-ness of food : 5/5

Pricy-ness of food : 4/5

Overall Experience : 5/5 (I'll be back.)







For more information, please refer to http://myfoodramblings.blogspot.com/2012/03/shabu.html

Rang recently on a Sunday for a table, to be told they were fully booked and would I like to consider coming Monday night instead, I said no, since we wanted to eat Japanese for dinner then, and instead rang another Japanese restaurant at Vivocity, and was told they didn't take reservations, but it was not busy and we could come down. When we reached Tajimaya, I was surprised it was actually next door to Shabuya which we had called earlier, and the girl at the front actually was responsible for welcoming guests to both. We asked if we could go into Shabuya, and she said yes, so you can imagine my shock when we went inside and found it was half full. The food was served relatively quickly and all in all it was a pleasant meal, and I thought good value until I received the bill and paid with my AMEX but received no discount which I had expected as part of Palate program. I queried this and was told that set meals ($138 set meal is not really a set), did not qualify for the discount and this was in the terms and conditions. So I perceived it to be expensive then for what it was. There was also too much food for 2 people and we couldn't eat it all despite our best efforts. The bbq could have been cleaner. I don't understand them saying they were full when they clearly were not.

For pictures and more, visit my blog at ms-skinnyfat.blogspot.com

Shabuya Shabu Shabu set lunch ranges from $15.90 - $23.90 and the second person gets the same set at a mere $9.90! Such a bargain. Seriously, $23.90 for Wagyu Beef shabu is darn cheap but $9.90 is simply mind blowing.

Our set ($23.90) came with Wagyu Beef, Chicken, salad, vegetable platter and rice/udon. The beef portion is not a lot but surprisingly we were pretty satisfied. A typical Wagyu Beef set (without the lunch deal) would be $33.90 but i suppose they will give you more beef? 

The other lunch sets include the normal beef shabu, chicken shabu and kurobuta pork shabu. While eating, we figured there is actually no point in having wagyu beef shabu because the meat is too thinly sliced and will be boiled in soup anyway. Tip to eating Wagyu beef is to have it in steak form or for yakiniku. You can never go wrong with BBQ wagyu beef. Most decadent bbq you can have EVER.

The stock is very simple, a pork broth and another soy sauce stock. The pork broth wasn't flavorful at all and was in fact pretty bland. We ended up cooking most of our meat in the soy sauce stock to give the food some additional flavoring. The ponzu sauce was pretty mild. I would like mine with more tang. Would be good if there are other sauces available for dipping as the meats can be quite bland. 

Quite a lot of stuff in our vegetable platter. Mushrooms, cabbage, corn, raddish etc.

Shabuya also has other items on their full menu i.e. Seafood steamboat, Sashimi, Tempura, Dons and the usual Japanese desserts. It's not a bad place for lunch for you working peeps in the area (since it's so cheap). I was thoroughly stuffed after the meal but we still managed some space for ice cream! So yea, it's ok to give it a try if you are sick of your usual options. Go for the normal beef shabu for extra savings.

The service wasn't as bad as what the other reviews stated. 

Food: 3/5 Average (will eat this if i don't have a particular craving and if i'm in the area, then again, i think i'll just head over to jpot.)

Service: 3/5 Average (they did attend to my requests adequately)

Ambience: 3/5 Average (what a typical restaurant should have)

My reservation is this weekend, already made prior reservation. I called to add another pax to the party.

Sharis (reservationist) had a very very bad attiude. She kept saying: "OK thank you" to cut off the call (becoz she is on break) without confirming the reservation, which in the first place was she able to find my orginal reservation with her mispronouncing my name? 

I insisted her to call me back and she quickly responded: yes we will, OK thank you. But she did not find my orginal reservation, how would she know my no? She replied: we have call display, OK thank you.  WTF????!!!!

I will update again when I visit the outlet this weekend.

Service does not start when you step into the outlet.

 

 

On 6 Nov 2011 (Sun), my wife had strongly suggested the Shabu Shabu at Vivocity being recommeded from TV show & knowing it's my favourite food. We made our way & managed to locate the outlet @ 12.30pm. We were greeted by a kimono dress girl (whisper in soft tone, where you can hardly hear her slang and body keep moving around, as if she's dancing ) and we expressed that as it's still too early for our buffet choice, we would want to be back at a later timing. She suggested that we can be back @ 1.30pm (suggesting that it should be good timing for their next round of serving). We had stated of our intention to make reservation but was being turned down being they will only entertain walk-in.

We returned @ 1.15pm & there were 3 groups (comprises of 2-4 persons) in front of us. (Note: the Kimono girl still at the entrance) .After more than 10 mins wait, we were informed by another staff that we'll have to wait for another 1 hr 40mins for the next round serving.

The only explaination from the staff of our wasted 10 mins wait as she needs to get confirmation for the arrangement. My next question being, so if they don't accept reservation, am i going to stand in the queue for next 1 hr 40 mins to taste their "super wonderful food" ?

Goosh, what a silly / stupid management style!

 

Had been raining for 2 straight days over the weekend. So steamboat was the best choice for a rainy day.

Had lunch there with family and tried it out for the first time.

Service was ok as it wasn't crowded or full house. And tried out most of the items on the menu such as wagyu beef, tiger prawns, angus beef, ika (octopus) balls and fish balls amongst some other usual stuff like cabbage, needle mushrooms, shitaka mushrooms.

nothing fantastic to crow about since it's just steamboat.

i still prefer chinese style steamboat especially at Coca where the chili sauce is just so delicious, if you ask me.

Tiger prawns are delicious and juicy but even more tasty when bbqed.

 

Got together with colleagues for a dinner, someone had suggested Shabuya and had heard about it wagyu beef and all. Had shabu shabu in Tokyo and it left me hungry - had to eat a bowl of ramen after that, and that meal cost me US$150 for 2 pax !!

Food: Jap hot pot is all about presentation, beef and veg came stacked up neatly, induction cooker wasn't working very well, boiling and then stopping, then boiling again - soup was hot then cooled down then hot. Vegs were OK but lacking in greens, pork was frozen, beef was wagyu but could not taste the refined fat in these cuts - probably cheaper cuts.

Ambience: Not very comfortable seating but aircon was OK to overcome the steam from the hotpot. Couldn't even see the view as we were given an inside table.

Value: Poor

Service: Had to call to top up water, top up soup, top up peanut sauce.

I first tried their Shabu Shabu set menu on a weekday night and thought the food's not too bad. Found out that they also have a weekend Shabu Shabu Brunch buffet and went back on a weekend to try. I was impressed with the wagyu beef and pork belly. There's also sashimi like salmon and sword fish on the buffet menu. Very fresh as well. The ice-cream they serve for dessert was also good, especially the green tea ice-cream. Very strong green tea flavour. Also tried the malt beer on their a la carte menu. Liked that too!

Updated 2 Aug 2009

Went back for the buffet again and this time right, it is disappointing. They ran out of items on the buffet menu such as pork ribeye andgreen tea ice-cream. The sashimi is not as good as before. They have taken Australian beef off the menu too. Anyone knows where else serves nice Shabu Shabu?

Walked by this relatively new place and decide to try it. It is right next to a teppan place which I believe is under the same management. The teppan place served mainly beef so this became our choice.

For 2 of us, we ordered the seafood combo ($49.90), Kurobuta Ribeye ($16.90), Vege Platter ($9.90). The seafood combo had crab claws, salmon, scallops, clams, prawns and fish paste. The vege platter had cabbage, tang orh, white radish, 1 cob of corn, tofu and mushroom. Each pot contains 2 different kinds of broth, one is a clear broth and the other is a light sukiyaki broth. The sukiyaki one goes nicely with the pork slices. The dip provided is light and has a sour note.

Other orders included Sashimi Moraiswase ($32), Ebi Tempura ($10.90) and Garlic Fried Rice ($3). The sashimi was fresh enough but dun expect premium. Didn't like their tempura...thought the flour/batter was pretty yucky. The garlic fried rice has a sweetish taste. I like mine savoury with lots of garlic, so this just did't cut it.

Ended dinner with Black Sesame and Peach Mochi. For $4.90, you get 2 mochi per order and you can't mix the flavours.

Overall, the place may only be good for a one-time experience. Food is fresh but dun think it justifies the price. I am sure there is a better shabu shabu place out there somewhere....