Van Shabu & Bar

Love this place, every time we’ve been here the staff is extremely friendly and helpful! Hot pot, crab Rangoon and scallion pancakes mmmmmm plus free dessert when you pay with cash money whaaaat can’t beat that

I went here for all you can eat sushi and hot pot for lunch. The hot pot was good as I expected as it’s usually pretty hard to go wrong with that. I had plenty of smoked salmon sashimi which was standard, but good also. The rolls were quality, rice was correctly cooked, and ingredients were fresh. One of my favorites, sweet potato roll is unique here as it seems they use sweet potato fries for filler. This was actually pretty good. However, compared to other all you can eat sushi places, the selection of rolls you could order was limited to pretty simple ones. For that reason I was a little disappointed.
There were also hidden costs involved, which I didn’t like. If you don’t get house broth, it is an additional 2.95, so as we got two non house broths that was an accidental addition to our bill. Also, more wasabi and ginger costs extra too. They also charge mandatory 20% gratuity on top of the taxed price, this should be on top of untaxed price I think. I normally tip 20% but I was turned off my it being mandatory as that seems more like a hidden cost. Also, our server was friendly, just not very attentive to us. Wee there not hidden costs and a bit more roll selection, this would definitely be a 4-​star place

Went here with a friend to grab a bite to eat for dinner on a Monday night. Even though it was a Monday, this place had quite a few patrons, but we were able to be seated right away.
To start off the meal, we decided to split the dumplings and beef skewers. The dumplings were pretty good and came with 7, which was a good amount considering the price. They tasted fresh and went well with the sauce.
The skewers were also very tasty, but I felt like they were a tad overcooked, which made them a little difficult to eat off of the skewer.
For my main meal, I went with an order of a dragon roll and a spicy tuna roll. The dragon roll was very good – and a decent size. The spicy tuna roll was good, but not great as it lacked any spicy flavor.
Overall, the service was friendly and food came out pretty quickly. This place is a decent spot and worth checking out if you’re into hotpot and sushi.

It’s weird to have Chinese style hotspot and Japanese sushi served to you by a Vietnamese staff. I wasn’t wowed by the sushi but it wasn’t bad.
The hot pot was pretty good. They have a typical selection of meats and seafood for all you can eat. The food seemed fresh so I felt pretty satisfied.
It is on the pricier side of all you can eat hot pot but it is a one of a kind in Dorchester.

Last evening my girlfriend’s and I came in excited for hotpot. It was cold, it was raining, it was the perfect weather for it. Our excitement was quickly halted when we were told that they could not accommodate our request to sit in the middle section of the dining area due to ‘the owner’s policy’, despite the fact that nobody occupied the space throughout our entire meal.
One of the girl’s in the group only eats chicken and seafood. The other friend and I were planning on having red meat therefore the friend that only eats chicken and seafood would be limited to using just one of the broths. We thought hey, this an easy solution to solve. Why don’t we just sit at a larger table in the middle and ulitize two hotpot stations so the friend that only eats chicken can have both of the broth that she wants. And the other friend and I can use both of the broths. The waitress suggested that we sit at the bar to have an individual hot pots but we informed the waitress that it would not be possible because our friend wears a brace on her leg. The brace would leave her legs dangling which will result in discomfortable and providing very little support even possibly causing some pain. We were very disappointed to say the least at this point when they told us no we cannot move but that didn’t stop us from leaving because we wanted our hotpot. In addition to the lack of accommodation the waitress was pushy and kept checking in to see if we were ready to order. The waitress also mysteriously stopped being our waitress and another waiter took over. I thought that was a little distasteful.
Anyways! Enough ranting and raving. Let’s get to the food. The Canh Chua broth was delicious but a bit sweet for my taste. I didn’t think it had the perfect balance between sweet and sour as it should have. The Mongolian was spicy and had plenty of flavors to clear out any sinuses! The entrée combos for the hotpot was substantial and filled us up. We also got two rolls of sushi, a cocktail and hot sake. We were happy with the food and left w/​our bellies warm and full.
Unfortunately we will not be coming back to this establishment due to lack of accommodation for someone that is handicapped…