237B Grand St
New York, NY 10002
(212) 431-0998
Reservations recommended for large groups
Shabu shabu / hot pot / Asian fondue … whatever you call it. It’s not a complicated thing to offer; just have individual heating plates set into the tables, and put a pot of broth for each person… bring some veggies and meat, and there you go.
It’s not hard to offer, but it’s easy to mess up.
Quickly Shabu Shabu gets it just right (for a restaurant- I much prefer doing this at home, but hell, if you pay and go somewhere, no cleanup!).
Starting at $12.95 for their dinner sets, you have choices for your main meat (beef, beef & pork, beef & chicken, etc.), your standard plate of stuff, and a drink is included. You can also add on other a la carte items, which is great if you’re a big eater – or if you’re a small eater, because then you’re not left with loads of stuff on your plate.
To start, you choose your type of broth- Japanese dashi, Korean kimchi, or straight up spicy. If you choose spicy, they give you these really cute cubes of spices? cut in the shape of a heart to add to your broth to make it spicy. Since I don’t like spicy food, I didn’t try this, but my friends were kind enough to let me take a picture of theirs 😛
The veggie plate is pretty standard, your usual spinach, various “balls” (seafood, shrimp, fish, beef, etc.), pickled veggies, Chinese cabbage, shiitake mushroom, taro root, tomato wedge, etc. Of course there is also vermicelli/glass noodles; the thing that struck me was the inclusion of a bit of udon, and the removal of the egg. For those that like the egg- you can still have them, they just don’t automatically give you one, which is probably because not everyone uses it, I would think.
There’s your standard “bar” area to the side for sauces, and this is where they have a basket of (raw) eggs for your own choosing. For those unfamiliar with this type of cuisine, basically, you mix yourself a sauce; some people dip their (raw) meat into the sauce first, then toss it into the pot to cook quickly- these are very thinly sliced pieces of meat- and others dip the cooked meat into the sauce afterwards, to cool it down quickly so they can eat it. Some people poach their eggs; some people hard boil them; and others, such as myself, put the raw egg into my sauce. Supposedly the meat is hot enough when it comes out of the pot to quickly kill any germs that may be around- you can use pasteurized eggs to quell any fears you may have. I personally grew up putting the egg into my sauce, and dipping after I was done cooking the meat, though lately I’ve been doing both, alternating between before and after.
beef & pork combo // sirloin in the foreground, beef & tripe in the background
I ordered the sirloin, and this was really good. Very tender when cooked (lightly) and flavorful but not too fatty. It was also only $14.95 in the set menu. I also ordered a la carte udon, since I didn’t know the plate came with some udon. One thing I did NOT like here was that they brought my order of udon “communally” on the same plate as another person in my party who was at my table- same plate as their order. Not a huge deal, especially if you go with just your boyfriend/girlfriend or close friend, but if you go with, say, a large birthday party and don’t know everyone that well, it can get a lil awkward. Oh, and the order of udon is really small. See picture.
I did, however, appreciate the fact that space is limited on the tables, so perhaps that explains giving us one plate for our two orders. Our empty plates were cleared away very quickly, and they had this ingenius style of serving the plates themselves. These little “towers” for both plates, so you could easily and quickly access your veggies and/or your meat. I’d never seen this at a shabu shabu place but now think it should be the de rigeur for all places with limited space.
And last but not least, the bubble tea that came with the meal. I ordered a fairly standard black tea with tapioca balls, and it was good, not overly sweet which a lot of places tend to do, and the tapioca was perfectly chewy but not overwhelming. There’s a huge variety- I believe over 90 different types in all- of drinks to order from, however, so experiment until you find your favorite drink!
I was pleased with the service- prompt and attentive, despite our crowd of 11 people- and polite at all times. I had one complaint besides the two-orders-of-udon-on-one-plate, though- their sauce bar lacked hoisin jeung (“seafood sauce” literally, the sweet, thick, dark brown sauce). If it wasn’t that sauce they were missing, it was another that I like, although they did have the normal Taiwanese BBQ sauce, soy sauce, peanut sauce, peanut oil, scallions, etc.
My friend’s boyfriend had his own complaint to add: the seating was very low, and pots were kept far from you, so you were constantly leaning forward to reach everything, which can get very tiring very quickly. Other than that, however, we were all pleased. As this is a new place, I expect most things will get better with time as the staff grows accustomed to its duties.
Yvo says: If you like shabu shabu, get your butt over here!!! Seriously, this is good stuff, and inexpensive. I’ve read other reviews that say there are long lines during peak times- we went on a Saturday night, pretty early, but we also had reservations, so it wasn’t bad at all. They’re very accomodating, we were calling them to change the number of people a few times and they weren’t at all upset. And- my b. doesn’t really like shabu shabu but I’d bring him here because I genuinely think he’d like this shabu shabu place. Happy eating!! (This type of cuisine is best enjoyed in cold weather, imo… so hurry up!)
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