Shabu Village

it’s closed

We just found out today that this restaurant is closed… We liked it though. :(

I really want to try this again.
Because when I visited my first and only time, I was impressed by the immaculately-​cleaned space, loved the various menu choices, was happy enough with my service (it took awhile to have someone tend to us at first but the issue seemed to resolve itself), and didn’t think the food was bad at all.
So I really do not know why I left feeling weird about it.
I should have adored this place. Seriously. It was the kind of food I enjoy greatly, and everything seemed to work well. It should have been one of my top dining experiences ever. Yet I haven’t returned.

I love this place. The owner and the waitresses are really nice and are always smiling. The food is exactly what I expect every time (I go there about every other week). I love their broth and their homemade dumplings. I’ve been to two other places in Chinatown and found that the service was slow and the food was more expensive for the same quality. I’d pick this place over ShabuZen any day.

Shabu Village honestly doesn’t deserve all the Shabu praise I have gleaned from the reviews below.
The service is pathetic. We saw for more than 15 minutes before the waitress thought to ask us if we wanted water. While we watched the waitress speedily deliver the various hot pot ingredients to the table that arrived after us, my husband and I were left with a pot of broth to watch bubble. Luckily, we ordered the kimchee broth so we were able to eat a bit of the cabbage.
When I saw the waitress make a third round to the other table, I asked her if our order had been forgotten. Suddenly everything appeared! Our dumplings and veggie plates, which at their service rate, I felt they had just plucked from the garden. The food was good, but the Shabu Zen veggie plate has a larger assortment of veggies and a larger quantity.
For my bet, deal with the parking issue and head to Chinatown for Shabu Zen!

I thought shabu shabu is hard to fail as the cooking part is left to customer. But having eaten at this place, it made me reevaluate that thoughts.
I found that broth tasted a little bland and weak. Quality of the meat was good. Even for the cheapest meat I ordered.
But to be fair on the broth, it could be a personal preference and also this is the part where it requires fine precision on tuning and balance.
You want to impress the customer with the first sip of the broth, hence you might want to add more flavor to it.
But if you simply do so, flavor gets overwhelming in the middle of the meal because food the customer cooks adds more flavor to the broth.
But at the end, it still tasted bland. However, this really could be a matter of personal preference.
Their home made dumpling was really good. We ordered «chives, shrimp and pork dumping». It was very tasty and flavorful. It was steamed. I wish they also serve them fried. I like fried dumpling.
I was leaning to give 3 stars because of the blandness, but their prompt and friendly customer service and cozy, small-​family –run-​business atmosphere adds 1 more star.
It wouldn’t be a waste to try this place. Price is reasonable (actually exactly same as others such as Kaze and Shabuzen. There must be some kind of treaty going on). Less crowded than those two joints.

My friends and I call this «The Hot Pot Place» because we’re heathens and uncultured in the ways of Shabu-​Shabu.
Whatever you want to call it, this place is really excellent. It’s perfect on a cold night in Boston (are there warm nights here? I can’t even remember at this point) and it’s a great way to feel really good about eating out. You’ll leave feeling very full (so many wonderful veggies!) but not that «oh GOD why did I eat that??» full. Which is pretty good in my book.
Anyway, I don’t know why I don’t come here more often. This place is great.
Also, I strongly recommend the vegetarian option, comes with wonderful veggies and really tasty tofu.

Shabu shabu is Japanese food. This shabu place is owned by Taiwanese people. Just like how Lemongrass (the Vietnamese restaurant) is owned by Thai people and Ginza (the Japanese restaurant) is owned by Chinese people.
Asian food in Boston is a lot like musical chairs.
That said, Shabu Village has REALLY great Taiwanese-​style dumplings. Apparently, they’re revamping their menu to include Taiwanese eats. We went in for shabu shabu, but ended up ordering hand-​made dumplings (one plate of fried and one plate of steamed) and some cold, marinated cucumbers. Cucumbers were so-​so, but the dumplings were just like mama’s. Everything from the wrapper to the filling is made from scratch, so if you’re in the mood for scrumptious dumplings, Shabu Village will do you right.

I love this place. After going to Tokyo for a few days and discovering the Shabu cooking style and getting addicted to it I had yet to find a nice place which offered the same type of healthy comfort as I had found so far away from Boston… Well this place is great. It’s modest and serves up great Shabu Shabu… almost as good as the one in Tokyo… It’s very fresh and tasty and yet so healthy too. You just feel so good after you eat that, and you feel cleansed almost, and to add to such a healthy meal, the hot jasmin tea they serve is also delicious.
Their menu starts at like ⁶⁄₇ bucks and you can upgrade the cut of meat to get leaner slices for a small price which is worth it.
I love coming here and bringing friends with me and giving them business. Their staff is very friendly and welcoming and they are quick and efficient at what they do.
Great value, great price, great place! Love it!

Update: OUT OF BIZ! guess im back to shabu zen lol
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Update: Have gone here four times now and it seems that quality has been slipping a little. The veggie platter this time contained no watercress or mushrooms (my two faves) and the meat was sliced so poorly and excessively thinly that every time I picked up a slice, it broke into shreds. Hoping this was just an isolated incident, though.
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I’m so glad I decided to give this place a try today. Even though their lunch time had already ended, the owner let my boyfriend and I in. It was frigid outside and we were hungering for some fresh shabu, steaming jasmine rice, and delicious hot broth filled with flavor of the meat and veggies cooked in it.
The lunch shabu menu is a good deal. I always get beef. For $ 7.50 you get a platter of thinly sliced meat, your choice of rice, vermicelli, etc, and also a platter of assorted veggies. I go to Shabu Zen a lot and I would say that I got a larger meat plate at Shabu Village, even though it was the lunch special. I always recommend getting the rice, because the assorted veggie platter here comes with a little vermicelli.
A la carte prices are pretty much the same as the Shabu places in Allston and Chinatown. I think I will prefer going to Shabu Village from now on because it is more cozy than those chains. I also agree that the owner is very friendly. It makes the dining environment there a little more personal!

Once in a while I feel the urge to move my lazy ass from Kenmore to this little place on Harvard Street for some awesome Shabu. I’m not Japanese/​Chinese so I’m not giving it 4 stars for ‘authenticity’. I just love the darn food! The tea they serve (jasmine) is lovely on a cold cold day in Boston. Like the shabu too. I usually order the chicken and I think its big enough for two people, well. unless you’re a guy maybe?! OR one of my girl friends who have a bottomless pit for a stomach lol.
4 stars NOT 5 because sometimes service is slow. The owner talks a lot to you if she likes you he he. Try it!

I am not rating for their Shabu. I heard about their Taiwanese breakfast, so I went there today to try it out.
I guess this place is really owned by the Taiwanese people. They advertised their smelly Tofu (steamed or fried) to be just like the way in Taiwan.
From my ratings you can tell I am not excited about their food. First of all, they only service the Taiwanese breakfast on weekends. I went on a Saturday which is the first day of the two-​day weekend. I arrived at 1:15PM, ok, let’s say at 1:30 the latest. They were open from 11:30AM. They already ran out all their soy bean drinks long time ago and their congees. That’s very interesting because when we were there, no other new customers came and there were only one other party there. I think they didn’t stock up their stuff. I was put off by that.
We ordered the Tofu Vege shreds. The trick of the tofu shreds is to make them tender instead of chewy. The tofu shreds at Shabu Village is only a tad short from tasting like rubber bands. The seasoning was not right too. They put too much sesame oil.
We ordered the fried smelly tofu. It smelled right, but it didn’t taste right. It was not crunchy on the outside (somewhat mushy) and the inside was rather empty. It smelled much better than when I actually had it in my mouth.
The other dishes we ordered were all mediocre at best.
The layout of the restaurant is not very appealing. The cooking is in plain view wtih all the tools and buckets and sauces placed here and there at the Shabu counter. Plus, since the Shabu counter is rather low, I can see more of the disarray. I had the feeling of eating at a cafeteria instead of a nice restaurant.

Love this place! January, the owner, is a true entrepreneur who loves chatting up the customers. She’s got an elephant’s memory. I go there about 4 months apart, and every time, she remembers me, my job, and my home situation, and inquires about them all with the correct details about our last conversation. Beyond her, the food is excellent, with great broths and excellent dessert. It’s become one of my favorite spots to go have a quiet, long dinner with either my wife or my business associates, for an off-​night.

I love Shabu. When it’s freezing in Boston and you think that it will never be warm again Shabu is the answer. Warm Japanese comfort food. This is a great meal to have when you want to relax and have nice chat with a friend.
Shabu Village is my favorite of the Shabu restaurants in the greater Boston area.
#1 Its always clean in the retaurant.
#2 The food appears fresh (I’ve had spiders pop out of my vegetables at Shabu Zen in China town)
#3 I really like the hostess. She is always friendly and kind. She lets people linger in the restaurant and doesn’t rush people out.

Yeah, it’s cute, and the locations is OK, I guess, but I was really not impressed by this place. The waitress was flaky and very slow, and the food was OK but nothing special.
I agree that for what it is it’s expensive.
I would suggest that you hit one of the nearby sushi bars if you’re looking for light Asian in Brookline.

Hmmm… I question whether to even bother giving this place that ONE star… maybe just ½ a star.
Ok, there were many things wrong with this «shabu» spot that should not even be an issue if you’re going to a hotpot restaurant. First of all, they offer 3 base soups, which is fine, but they were out of the kimchi soup! So thus, we were left with either the sichuan spice or the chinese herbal. My friend wanted the kimchi, but asked for plain chicken stock since the last 2 weren’t too appealing to her. This is a staple that should be on the menu, but not listed as a choice. I chose the spicey soup because I wanted a kick to my broth… it was «ok»…it was only spicey because of the chili oil that was floating on top, otherwise, the soup could be just a soy base. Nothing special.
Second: there wern’t alot of choices, just the basic meat and seafood platter selections. The a-​la-​cart list wasn’t impressive either, the same selection from the platter side of the menu, plus a few shellfish (which I’m pretty positive are FROZEN, not fresh) choices like clam and mussel.
Third: The service is very slow. The staff included only the manager/​hostess/​part-​waitress, 1 waitress, and 2 «chefs» — whose main job is to just arrange your raw platter and throw whatever frozen slab of meat in the slicer. HOW HARD IS THAT? But it still took a while to get our «frozen» chicken (and there were only 3 tables there)
Last of all, our hotpot table wasn’t functioning correctly. The dial which to turn the table-​top burner was missing. So when our waitress had to adjust the heat, she stuck a butter knife in there. OMG! Therefore our hotpot was either a rapid boil — which evaporated too fast, or didn’t bubble up at all (which is somewhat important if you want cooked food).
Btw…my «udon» that came with the order wasn’t real udon… it was a shanghainese linguine. I’m still bitter about that.
*sigh* I won’t be going back anytime soon.

Shabu Village is a solid choice when one’s craving for the swish-​swish of meats, tofus, & veggies in broth. The menu and prices are comparable to those of Shabu Zen and Kaze Shabu in Chinatown. One advantage Shabu Village has over those other places is its location — easier to park out there than it is in Chinatown, if you have a car. It’s located halfway between Coolidge Corner & the Harvard Ave T-​stop on the green lines (C & B, respectively). I feel like the portions at Shabu Village are a little smaller than Shabu Zen or Kaze Shabu, and the lighting was a little dim for my taste. One thing I didn’t like about Shabu Village was the standard broth — too vegetable-​y and light, though others may find this attractive, particularly if they are vegetarians.
One overarching complaint I have about all the shabu places in Boston is that none of them offer make-​your-​own sauce bars; you’re stuck with the standard condiments offered (sacha sauce, shoyu, garlic, scallions, green onions); other places that I’ve been to in Hawaii and New York have more sauce options.
I’d visit Shabu Village again, if only to not have to visit the Chinatown places so regularly. The homemade fish paste balls here are great, but it’s $ 4 for 4 balls — which is a little pricey for me.

I had never heard of anything like shabu-​shabu but my friends were all claiming how wonderful it was so we went to go try a shabu restaurant nearby, this being Shabu Village.
The whole concept was unusual to me to say the least. The idea of having to cook food yourself? What? I thought that is why we were going out to eat! Still I decided to give it a try. I was pleasantly surprised.
The broth smelled delicious. It was not greasy at all. The meat (we had sirloin and lamb) looked so fresh and was sliced so delicately. It was beautiful to look at. We ordered the mushrooms too and were given a very nice variety, not just one kind! We also had some udon which were very fresh too. It all tasted so good! Not at all what I expected from boiling food. The thing I liked best was that you could cook the meat to your liking. I like mine very rare and it was great to have super rare meat but then your friends could cook it more if they wished.
I’m giving it four stars because it isn’t super cheap and the portions of meat are not big, we needed to order more then one platter for the four of us. Otherwise it was delicious! Try this place out for a completely unique experience.