18 Shabu Shabu

3.5*** decent ayce around bensonhurst. nothing too spectacular. if you’re around the area and craving hotpot this place hits the spot.

3.5 stars to be exact.
I wanted to try out new hot pot places in Brooklyn. I decided to take my girlfriend out here for dinner to see if it was good or not.
It is $ 16.95 from Monday-​Thursday and $ 18.95 Friday– Saturday. It’s the cheapest price for Hot Pot around New York City.
Upon walking into the restaurant, we noticed that this is a really simple restaurant. The decorations is plain. Not many tables either. There are 3 big tables and about 4 – 5 small tables. We were fortunate to get a small table, so we didn’t have to share.
The menu is very simple as well. There are probably more hot pot items at other hot pot places than this one. They do have items that will get you through a meal. Pretty much the standard items. I guess that is what you pay for with that kind of price.
You check off the items off the menu and your food will come in a tray. You can definitely get refills.
We each got our own little hot pot. I got the tomato soup stock and my girlfriend got the herbal stock. The soup stock itself is simple. Nothing eye opening. My girlfriend needed more salt in her stock. My stock was bland, but I figured all the hot pot items I put in will flavor up the soup.
The sauce station is limited and small, but it has the main popular sauces to get through a hot pot meal.
All together it was pretty okay hot pot meal. For the price, I really can’t complain.
At the end of the meal you do get free shaved ice or vanilla ice cream. The meal also comes with a pitcher of cold herbal tea which you can get refilled.

Very nice staff, excellent food, great laid-​back family type atmosphere. What more is there to say? ;-)

There’s so many shabu establishment popping up all over NYC that it can be a daunting task trying to pick one. But we came here at the suggestion of my sister with some local Brooklyn friends. There was a great variety of food to choose from and everything was clean. The presentation wasn’t superb, but it’s a little mom and pop shop so they get a free pass. The service was phenomenal — a mother and daughter duo running back and forth taking orders and checking on us. The meal also comes with an ice dessert which was surprisingly refreshing. Great place with great people.

The free shaved ice and made-​on-​the-​spot cotton candy was what really caught my husband’s eyes. In fact, everyone is talking about the treats more than the food here itself. And to be honest, it was the best part of our meal. Nothing beats free.
Very small place. Plus the place doesn’t have any décor, but décor doesn’t mean the food isn’t good (actually stole this line from the husband). Other than judging your own cooking, what you can really talk about are their soup bases, and how fresh their stuff is. I mean, it is hot pot, after all. Have to be honest, the flavors of the soup isn’t the boldest, but the DIY sauces did the trick. The options for the hot pot comes with all the standard goodies, including hearts of chicken, baby octopus, and homemade dumplings.
Everything (except for vegetables, and thinly sliced meats) you checked off on your list comes on a half sheet tray, which stayed on our table throughout our meal. We happen to order seconds, and thirds, and those refills came on a little plate, then dumped onto our tray. That’s the first. I really didn’t mind the cross contamination since all that was going to be cooked through in the pot of soup that I had control of setting to a rolling boil. Oh, did I forget to mention cold, bottomless pitchers of herbal tea? The lady who served us today, was a bit overly friendly, but none the less nice and super attentive. She treated my kiddos to cotton candy and kindly showed them how she worked her candy machine. It was definitely the smartest idea to get these kids to finish their dinner, for once. Just hoping they will be able to sleep tonight, though.
I was really hoping for their Milk Tea Snowflake Ice. Apparently, their free dessert changes daily. Guess I have to test my luck. I am a hot pot fanatic. AYCE hot pot for a great great low price. Yes, $ 16.95 (Mon-​Thurs), cheapest I have ever paid to any hot pot place. So, I will be back.

My son took me here as an introduction to Hot Pot style of a restaurant. I must say it was a great experience. The waitress was the best she explained everything very clearly. I like the idea of having my own broth mix that all I had to do was add what meat, seafood, veg, that I wanted. There were several different flavors of broth to choose Hot, Curry, Herbal, I choose the hot. The idea that everyone controls their own broth temperature is awesome I kept mine on high the broth was bubbly hot. The meats and veg, cooked within a min, or 2 and there was in my opinion a large variety, the waitress kept bringing more & more ingredients I would defiantly return and be a regular good fresh food and reasonably priced

It’s hot pot awesomeness
Friendly staffs and owner
Good selection of hot pot goodies
Good eats
Happy pooping

Meh. This place is super low maintenance. It was not decorative, white/​gray walls, some lights hanging on one of the walls, and a big mirror on the opposite side. When I walked in, I felt like I walked into some restaurant in China. haha. It’s a pretty small and cheap AYCE hotpot place, but I guess you get what you pay for. There are three big tables that seats 6 people & three small tables that seats 4 people.
On the weekdays it’s 16.95 $ per person & $ 18.95 on weekends. Pretty cheap, but the varieties of selection is probably the reason the why. It’s probably half of 99 Flavors’s selections, no kidding. Even the sauces selection is minute. I have more sauces in my kitchen cabinet then they have… haha. I was speechless.
However, they provide desserts at the end of the meal and I would say that is the HIGHTLIGHT of the entire meal. They have shaved ice and something called «snowflakes» which is made out of super thin layers of shaved ice. I read other reviews about all the different flavors they had. but they only had pineapple, white chocolate, and chocolate when I went. Super sad ;(I definitely wanted to try some exotic flavors like milk tea or HK milk tea. I ordered the pineapple snowflakes and it was delicious! I would definitely come back for the SNOWFLAKES!
As for the shaved ice. I was not really a fan of. haha. It was literally a mountain of ices then just two toppings which I choose mangos and herbal jelly. Therefore, it didn’t have much flavor. I ate all the toppings and left the mountain of ice.
This place deserves three stars because the owner of the place is absolutely sincere. She has a sense of humor and super duper nice and patient. The service is great here. Also, because their snowflakes is absolutely amazing:)

Very cozy shabu shabu joint. Went on a Saturday with a few friends, price wasn’t bad for all you can eat shabu shabu. I think its $ 20 on weekends and $ 18 on weekdays. Staff was very friendly and attentive, always asked if we wanted more food. We were definitely stuffed by the end of the night.
The included dessert (Shaved Ice) was great too!
Overall, it was a nice quiet place unlike the other bigger ones around here. I would go back.

SO and I are hooked on their tea, lovely selection of soup, meats, veggies and accompaniments and dessert. Owner is a lovely woman who makes her own dumplings! Veggies are always fresh and meats are freely given.
For less than $ 20 this is a favorite AYCE hot pot place amongst friends. The free shaved ice that follows each meal is much welcomed, my favorite being the mango and HK milk tea.

Great place for hot pot. The ingredients are fresh, the condiments are great, and a range of soup bases from herbal to spicy are available.
Family owned business, excellent service, homey vibes.
Air conditioned so definitely ok in the summer.
Complimentary dessert with shaved ice/​cream that rivals Snowdays.
All for $ 17/​person!
Highly recommended.

It’s a great little joint close to my house ! The selections here is not huge. And price is just average but their sincere, friendly attitude has won me over as their future regular!
Me and my kids just ate and ate and ate. Now waiting for desert!!! OMG taiwanese shaved ice!!! I am Taiwanese and I am trying not to be too excited… Taiwanese shaved ice in Brooklyn? LOL
Their fatty beef is very good, baby octopus is very good, veggies are all good and fresh!
Support little Restaurants like these!!!

Great service, great food, great dessert. Will definitely return.
Trek out here based on Unilocal reviews, thank you for not disappointing!

I believe they might have just gone under new management or in the process of changing up the interior. It was a bit hard finding since the sign had another name but decent menu selection, friendly service, fresh meats, fish & veggies. My clear broth was very tasty. Small sized restaurant for shabu though. The herbal tea was awesome and the desserts were complimentary and delicious. I had the Green tea snowflake. The manager or owner and her helper/​server was so nice and attentive. Keep up the good work and may your restaurant gain more business soon.

Insider tip: come here on your birthday and your entire meal is free. Your guests will have to pay for their meal though (to which you can rub in their faces, haha just kidding.)
As the birthday celebration continues, I had a craving for hot pot thanks to the bipolar spring weather we’re having.
When you’re coming here, look it up based on the address because the name is something else. It does not say 18 shabu shabu on the sign.
When I walked in, I thought I entered some hole in a wall in China. The place was kind of ratchet. I stayed anyways since it was late and where else can you get AYCE hot pot for $ 16.95?
Like other reviewers have said there’s always a family eating here and a friendly server who chats with you time to time to check up on you. A teenage girl was serving us the whole night, it was her first day and she had some trouble taking our orders and explaining the food to us.
Just to put it out there, service isn’t the best here but you get what you pay for.
Each person is given their own burner to cook their personal hot pot. I really liked this concept because it allows everyone to get what they want and not worry if someone doesn’t like the soup base chosen for cooking and so and so forth.
For $ 16.95 you can choose up to 4 different soup bases for free. Some are a dollar extra or so. We got a curry one, hot and spicy and herbal soup.
The selection of meat is pretty limited, it’s just lamb, beef, pork belly and chicken. The seafood menu is nearly non existent. The fish is an extra $ 2. Skip the regular fish balls and just get the fuzhou fishballs. The fuzhou ones took me by surprise with the inside. Skip the shrimp as well because it’s not fresh at all.
Food cooks pretty quick and you can adjust the burner to your liking.
If you’re mostly looking to have a meat/​veggie hot pot I’d recommend coming here. The menu is almost ¹⁄₃ of the size of what Mister Hotpot offers. I give them credit for the variety of broths though.
Free shaved ice and cotton candy at the end of your meal so that’s always a plus. Food is passable but the service is why there’s a lack of stars. We had to flag down our server many times to get more food and it was kind of annoying when some of the food wasn’t available. They have a sauce station which you’re suppose to retrieve yourself (so much for having a server).
For the lack of an atmosphere, mediocre service and passable food, 3 stars.
P. S. The shaved ice machine broke so they’ve been serving mountains of ice instead of the HK style of layered shaved ice, just giving a heads up so you don’t get disappointed like I did.
Don’t forget cash because their credit card machine is conveniently broken.

Pretty decent hot pot. They don’t have liquor license so you can BYOB, which is a plus for me
You get individual hot pots. I got the hot and spicy one and my husband got the curry one. Both of us were happy with our broth.
All the items we ordered were pretty fresh. But their portions are incredibly small. I understand it’s all you can eat but it’s annoying to keep having to flag down the staffs for more food. So they definitely need to improve on that.
Service was decent. I won’t say it was incredible like some other reviews. And the shaved ice at the end was nice.
Overall a decent place. Cheap. I would not make out of my way for this one tho

This lady working here is very friendly and full of smiles like everyone else had said. The place lacks in décor. It’s not one of those trendy and modern looking shabu shabu places. You get individual pots and you can choose different soup bases.
Some soup bases are a $ 1 extra. I had the hot & spicy soup base. It wasn’t as flavorful as I would like it to be. Usually the spicy soup base will flavor the ingredient, but their soup base flavor wasn’t strong enough and I had to make my sauce to dip the cook food in.
But it was the perfect spiciness. Not overly spicy. You get a pitcher of diluted herbal tea with the right amount of sweetness included in the all you can eat price. I came on a weekday and it was ($ 16.95), Friday to Sunday is ($ 18.95).
Tax is added, which bumps the price up a little. The selection of ingredients seems kind of little. Quite a lot of items are crossed out from the menu. The beef that we got wasn’t that fresh. Some parts were brown. Other than that the other ingredients were fine.
We also got free dessert at the end of the meal. They have two types of shaved ice that you can choose from and there are many toppings. I like the shaved ice more than the hotpot. I would come here again for their dessert, but not for the hotpot.

Great service, excellent interaction with my group of friends and I, and fast servings of food. The ambiance of the restaurant was clean and roomy. It was very welcoming the moment we walked in.
This was individual AYCE hotpot. The selection of food was impressive. They had everything every hotpot place had and more, such as crab stick, squid, and baby octopus. They even had a larger variety of soup-​bases to choose from. The amount of fatty beef they pile onto their serving plate was outstanding. It was piled to the brim. I love how they organized and put everything together. The food was fresh. The food tasted great and the atmosphere was casual and friendly.
The selection of sauces were insanely good. I loved the sauces. The flavors and choices were delightful. I combined 1 – 2 sauces for every sauce plate I had. I had three sauce plates and none of them disappointed me. I tasted the special sauce, sweet chili, sesame oil, sriarcha, vinegar, and topped it with their freshly cut chives/​cilantro.
The part that stood out was the drink. It was cold, herbal tea they served from the beginning. The cold herbal tea matches very well with the hotpot and boiling hot food. Consuming the cold herbal tea allows your body to maintain the balance in your body. This way your body isn’t overpowered with the hot.
They even had dessert (shaved ice). How many hotpot places have that?! The flavors my table ordered was soy milk, Hong Kong milk tea, and red bean. My goodness they were delicious but I like my soy milk flavor shaved ice the most.
Even though we were the last table there, they didn’t try to rush us out. The staffs were even joking and communicating with us which was great. They took great care of my table, asking if we need more food, drink, or anything else. They even told us that we don’t have to rush. They offered great recommendations as to what to eat for dessert. The staffs were really caring and tended to all our needs.

I definitely prefer individual hot pots to a larger shared one so this place is already better to me. The food was fresh and the woman who was pretty much working the front alone is super nice and sweet. She was clearly overwhelmed yet was always very nice to all the customers. I also love that they have Taiwanese ice. We had the Hong Kong milk tea flavor, which was delicious!

I’m not a huge hot pot or shabu shabu person. Probably cause I get hungry right after. This place is not fancy at all but it can accommodate large parties at a short notice. Staff is really friendly, maybe a bit too friendly. I think she had a 20 minute conversation with us when we wanted our check. But it’s all good. She let us make cotton candy for free. This place is decent for its price. Some of the vegetables weren’t that fresh but that’s expected. I probably won’t be back– must stay away from buffets but it’s a good find.