Shabu Square

I completely agree with Sarah L. I love shabu and I love trying new shabu joints. Shabuzen is my favorite with Kaze coming close behind. That other Shabu place near Shabuzen in Brighton isn’t so bad either.
I was left speechless after this place. I’m not exactly sure why they even opened a shabu place. You can probably make it better at home.
1. Everything was salty
2. Broth tasted like chicken broth cubes with extra salt.
3. The meat was tough for shabu
4. Soy sauce was too sour. Perhaps too much ponzu.
Everything was just wrooong. We also ordered a Chicken Roti (or however it’s named) and the skin was extremely thick, oily, and unflavorful.
Not worth the 1hr we spent looking for parking!

New restaurant fail-​they are now closed. :P

I’ve eaten here a couple times since I wrote my initial review, and I’ve decided to drop a star because they aren’t as great as I first thought they were. I think it’s the atmosphere — the servers are nice, but the place has a homely feel to it. And now with Shabu-​ya down the street, there really is no reason to come here anymore, except for the mango and sticky rice dessert (which is very yummy).
Sorry, Shabu Square.

The inspector isn’t letting them use the shabu tables to cook shabushabu?
WHAT? This is why I came here! Better change the name quick. I felt misled.
Food was otherwise good… I give it one star for the rouse.

I LOVE THIS PLACE!
If you hated it, you should probably just stick with TGI Friday’s or Cheesecake Factory.
I just went last night and it was AWESOME. I studied up before I went, though. Check out YouTube for a primer on how to properly enjoy shabu shabu and it might enhance your experience.
Three of us. We got the Shabu Sampler appetizer (11.95) and it was full of tasty fried things: chicken satay, shu mai (SO GOOD!), dumplings, spring rolls, fish cakes. It came with 3 sauces: peanut, sweet and sour, and the yummy sweet one with diced cuke-​carrot-​red onion floating on top.
Then the main course: shabu shabu! We chose 2 broths (one pot with a divider down the middle): thai tom kha (with coconut milk, very mild spice, tangy lime maybe?) and korean kim chi. Both were delicious. Next time I want to try miso and chinese spicy broths.
We each chose beef: regular beef (11.95), sirloin beef (13.95) and boneless short rib beef (14.95). I had the short rib beef but we all shared. It’s totally worth the extra buck because of the extra marblyness. The texture was buttery-​beefy tender. So good.
Each came with a giant pile of crisp, fresh greens, veg, mushrooms: bok choy, chinese cabbage, broccoli, carrot, enoki, tofu skin, corn, taro slice, spinach, at least 2 other greens i didn’t recognize. I ate every bite!
PLUS, you get a choice of steamed rice, vermicelli, or udon noodles. I got brown rice, which was great. I think I’ll try udon next time.
The staff was very attentive and extremely nice. If they don’t hold your hand through the process, it’s probably because they don’t want to insult your intelligence and expect you to ask questions, if you have them. They were very gracious when we had questions, not at all pushy, though. Take some initiative and teach yourself before you go, if you don’t know how it works. Jeez.
For 3 people who ate a TON of food, our bill was about 68 bucks, before tip. TOTALLY WORTH IT.
Truly a feast of deliciousness. I can’t wait to go again!
Before my next trip, I want to ask if you are allowed to bring in a bottle of wine, though. While I didn’t miss the booze, it might be fun to have a little wine next time.

Oh the yuckiness of this place. where to begin? Since it’s a shabu-​shabu joint, let’s start with the broth. Our large-​ish group ordered 3 different broths, all of which looked suspiciously the same — like cloudy dishwater. The overwhelming flavor of each was salt. I think they dissolved some bouillon cubes in some hot water and served them as miso, regular, and a third variety that I’m blanking on at the moment (perhaps because the memorable flavor was … salt!).
That ought to be enough to put you off this place. But in case you still think Shabu Square might have some redeeming qualities that could merit checking it out in person, please allow me to further disabuse you of that sadly mistaken idea. Their spring rolls were hard and tasteless (again, all I remember is saltiness). Their lighting is harsh, they don’t serve alcohol, and their waitstaff, while friendly, has such a poor grasp of English that ordering will be a tortured process of repetitions, menu pointing, and wondering if you’ll get what you actually tried to order.
In short: Do Not Go! Instead, go to Shabu-​Ya around the corner. A world of difference.

As Shabu virgins my friends and I weren’t sure what to expect. The experience was nothing short of ridiculous hilarity as we tried to subtly coach ourselves through the art that is hot pot.
Needless to say the waitress was less than helpful. She did at one point as if we had even had hot pot before when we clearly looked perplexed. But what we got was a fast-​paced briefing that went something like this: «Put this in the pot then this in there and do this with that and put that on the bowl with this on top.» What? We could have benefited from a portion suggestion and cooking tips but we figured it out… or something.
After our vegetarian plate came out chock full of veg and tofu we dumped it into the pot of broth. The one cup of Udon noodles (1 cup for 3 people who were clearly sharing?) also got tossed into the pot. Then the fishing began… We realized at this point we needed to save all the tofu for Kamala, the vegetarian, before we went tossing in our chicken and lamb.
Laughing so hard we had tears streaming down our faces, we dug out all the tofu and all the noodles we could, filling every empty bowl we could find on the table. By this point we had come to assume we were not doing this right. The waitress looked at us curiously when we asked for two more cups of noodles, probably unaware of the fate of the first cup. After subtly observing the tables around us, we finally figured it out. (Cut to Bettina: «those people still have vegetables on their plate and so do they! And they didn’t put their noodles in!»)
Lets talk flavor: The Chinese Spicy broth was definitely the way to go! SO good! The lamb I ordered a la carte had no flavor and was pretty dry, I wouldn’t order it again, maybe beef or chicken next time. We got the fried dumplings and spring rolls for apps and loved them, we even considered getting more when the hot pot situation wasn’t looking good.
Now, lets get to dessert…2 words: Custard Fondue. I’m going to call this one a «Theory v Practice» situation. In theory, the prospect of dipping delicious fruit and cookies in a warm yummy custard sounds relatively appealing. In practice it amounts to warm green goo with equally warm soft Wonder Bread to dip in it. For those of you who may remember early Nikelodeon TV, the «custard» closely resembled a «You Can’t Do That on Television”-style green slime. This disgusting color over shadowed a potentially good flavor. It didn’t help that the custard color matched the Fiesta-​ware style plate it was served on. And really, WonderBread? At least give me some options: fruit, some ladyfinger type cookie, something with substance. B and I ordered this mess and ended up force feeding Kamala just so she could join in the experience. It almost seemed like they didn’t actually expect anyone to order it and thus had to throw it together at the last minute and added the color to the custard only so it would not match the beige of the bread.
Over all: Hotpot — great. Service — eh. Apps — great. Dessert — horrific mistake. We plan on giving the hot pot another, more experienced, try.

After having read a decent amount of the reviews, I had wanted to check out Shabu Square for myself, as the reviews seemed kind of up and down about the place. Luckily, I happened to have an expert with me while checking it out (Roni), so I was able to take in a full Shabu experience.
It’s definitely a different Shabu experience than some of the other Shabu places I’ve been to around Boston. It’s not necessarily as spicy, though it can most certainly have a kick if you use the more interesting-​looking sauce option.
Food was very good: Edamame was good, and then I appreciated the fact that I got my own veggie plate, something that I didn’t see at Shabu-​Ya. Furthermore, I liked the way they did their fish: the less prep I have to do, the more appreciative I am :)
Service was also very good. We were running a little behind, but the server was nothing but nice, and incredibly courteous the entire meal. That may have been because we were there during non-​peak time, but it was still nice.
A few other general thoughts: they have single settings at the bar in back. Nothing too fancy, but it looks like one could do their own from there for a single meal. However, I don’t see this place being conducive to larger parties in the way other Shabu places are, as the largest tables seem to fit 4 (5 if you put a chair on the end, as noted in other reviews), and the set-​up is primarily booths, making moving things impossible.
Overall, it’s a decent deal within Harvard Square if you’re with a few people and have some time on your hands (of course, Shabu is never for those needing a quick bite and go). On my personal Shabu hierarchy, I’d probably put it third, behind Quincy’s Shabu Restaurant and Chinatown’s Kaze. But it’s still a good, filling deal if you’re willing to sit and cook good food.

Despite the massive amounts of spelp in here… as the Shabu Whore, John, or whatever you want to call me… I actually enjoyed my linner (lunch/​dinner) here with John L. before the Unilocal Elite Event at Noir.
Yes, the style is certainly different. It’s more Thai/​Vietnamese based than Chinese based which is what most Shabu places around here are. The Chinese Spicy broth was a clear broth with hot chili peppers and actually herbs that my mom used to use to make soups in the house, which was kinda fun in reminiscing about and brought back memories. So, yes, the broth is different, but still got some spice to it. Actually it’s more the type of spice you get in your throat rather than the initial taste. The beef used was definitely a bit tougher than I’m used to but again I think this is because it is Vietnamese style, similar to Phở 88 in Lowell.
So the next time I’m here, I’ll be sure to keep to the pork which was just what I expected.
If you’re used to your typical shabu condiments, be sure to ask because they will bring it out upon request. I needs my garlic and peppers, yo! But the house sauce they had was actually pretty tasty and had a kick to it, which was a pleasant and unexpected surprise.
What Shabu Square has that gives it an advantage over Shabu Ya is that they have a normal sized vegetable plate that comes with your meal. No sharing of a plate between 2 people! Woo! I LIKE MY GREENS! More greens please!!!
My perfect Shabu in the Square would be to take Shabu Square’s veggie plate and combine it with the rest of the meal at Shabu Ya. But then again, if you just moved Shabu Restaurant in Quincy into the Square you’d see me there everyday.
Oh and I never saw any of that green goop everyone has been talking about…

Aight so l first went to this restaurant at its grand opening and have been there a bunch of times since. Once inside the ambiance and décor was very nicely done… vibrant colors, well lit, spacious with plenty of tables, fish tanks (bonus) everywhere and music; you can tell the intent of the restaurant was to provide a very calm and serene eating atmosphere.
The thing I like about this place is it ain’t all about Shabu… they have plenty of other Thai dishes on the menu as well. While the group I was wit ordered shabu (and thoroughly enjoyed it) I ordered the Chicken Panang Curry which was fantastic. The food came out in a relatively short amount of time and the portions were just right. The waitress was very informative and had a very positive and genuine (aka not FAKE like some places) attitude. Although there is NO alcohol served there, they make up for it with smoothies (watermelon) which are a refreshing alternative to the norm… and it tasted excellent. Pricing seemed adequate with the quality of the food and I enjoyed the whole experience.
Ive been back a couple times and have also tried the chicken curry and the beef burgundy… all equally as good as the first dish i tried.
I would recommend this place to anyone looking for shabu or good thai food in the Harvard Square area.

We ate here just a couple weeks ago and it was an awful experience. The staff never asked if we had been there, or if we understood how it worked, so we sort of winged it.
We didn’t realize we should have got one of the special broths because the plain broth is just that. Very plain. The vegetables were all old, wilted and I pretty much opted for things like carrots and turnips that seemed to have a little shelf life. The meat was dry and flavorless. My husband had the seafood and felt it was beyond sub-​par.
Definitely won’t be returning here… there are so many wonderful places in the Square where you can go instead.

The last review was from early December and maybe this place has improved — the kimchi broth was excellent, very homemade-​ish (I make kimchi soup often) and the tom kha was ok — too much lemongrass! The quality of all the vegetables, especially the mushrooms, was excellent, as was the beef and pork. My friend had the yaki soba, which she devoured. I ate everything except for the greens, which I didn’t like. The service was fine, although our waiter needed to raise the volume a bit. On a cold day like today, I was perfectly happy to boil my mouth and fingers with some hot cabbage broth.
Now I want to go to Shabu Ya!

At the end of the day, nothing about this place appeals to me. I generally love unique restaurants with more than the usual burger/​fries fare. Here is why I gave it one star:
* Drinks: the coconut juice was watery and the glass was primarily ice. For $ 3, I expected far more.
* The Shabu pot was sub-​par. Being a vegetarian, I ordered the veggie platter. For $ 12, we got a medium sized plate of veggies and a little bit of tofu and only a tiny fistful of udon noodles. Very disappointing. Thankfully, they did have vegetarian broth.
* The service was really poor. Most probably the restaurant is being run by family — but the servers could not communicate clearly and were slow to refill our Shabu pot and refill our water.
I may return some day to try their non-​Shabu dishes (like noodles), but I’d rather try other restaurants first.

As Shabu beginners we were left lost. The menu should come with more of an instruction manual. The staff were unable to communicate much about the process or the options. On the good side, I did eat a lot of veggies. Although now reading the reviews it seems they would tastier with a better stock.
We ordered both a meat and seafood dinner. While we ordered pork and lamb for the meat, they looked identical. Sometimes tough, but that may have been in the cooking. The seafood was uneven.
The servings were large. It would be very crowded with four people at the booth we were at.
The dessert, however, was disgusting. Wonder bread with a glowing lime pot of goo. The thought lingered on way longer than I wish it had. And when I think of Shabu Square I think my first thoughts will be of green goo and wonder bread, and then I will think of another place to eat.

This was decent.
Sure, it may not be entirely authentic, but I don’t always require authenticity from restaurants. The restaurant was clean, the staff was friendly, and the food was decent (if a little skinny).
I do think that for the amount of food provided with the platters, the prices are a bit steep.
The dining area can feel a bit claustrophobic when the tables fill in, making it difficult to sneak past to use the restroom in the back. One saving grace, though, is the back exit/​entrance allowing a better flow of foot traffic.
I enjoyed watching the fish in the aquarium by our booth; they, in turn, enjoyed watching me. All of them. At the same time. They were all watching me with great interest and concentration for quite a long time. I did feel a little self-​conscious, but then I assured them that I wasn’t even eating any fish! They were still stalking me, though.
Perhaps the most amusing part of the visit, though, was the sign in the ladies’ restroom, written in pink highlighter and taped over the commode: «Please do not put famine produce in the toilet. Use mininum toilet paper». I tried to get a phone photo of the sign, but the lighting combined with the light color of the pink highlighter on bright white paper made that a sadly futile endeavor.

This place is not an authentic shabu shabu. Definitely the Chinatown shabu restaurant is far better. Here the meat is sliced pretty thick, portions are really small (btw we ordered the dinner entrée version). Rice was on a plate? as opposed to a rice bowl? I have never experienced that.
Service is VERY SLOW. I literally asked the waiter «why is it taking so long when you are not even cooking anything?» (We were waiting for raw meat and raw veggies for 45 minutes, and this was during lunch and only 25% of the tables were occupied.) The waiter was confused by my question because he couldn’t answer (and I was being super polite). Plus these guys pre-​cut the meat and freeze them, as opposed to cutting frozen meat — where taste quality fails.
Clearly this place is not an authentic japanese restaurant. Food is of low quality, food presentation is horrible, and service is bad.

It breaks my heart to give this review. I was so excited that a shabu place was coming to Harvard. But the fare was so awful that we actually left about three bites into the meal, and I have never done that before. I’ve eaten shabu many times, most often at spots in Chinatown or Allston/​Brighton, so this review is not out of ignorance.
Sushi: the salmon sashimi was cut wrong and from the wrong part of the fish. It was mushy, floppy, and had too much of that gray fatty skin on it.
Shabu: The meat was awful (chicken dryer and beef way way tougher/​chewier than at other shabu spots). The broth was NOT broth, but plain old fatty chicken stock. This gave the veggies and meats a bad flavor. The dab of soy sauce/​tsuru was way too salty — it should have been much less salty and served more liberally.
Service: They clearly don’t have their game down. The meal came out in fragments — the meat came out about 10 minutes before the veggies, and the «broth» had been boiling away for some time when we finally got to start cooking. They gave us a single «broth» pot, rather than one with a divider. We asked to switch, and they did so right away. There were more servers than customers, and yet service was still slow, and a bit clumsy.
Layout: The tables don’t seem quite big enough for shabu. There were just 2 of us at a table for 4, but the food was cramped and took up the whole table, so we were reaching across the boiling pot and hotplate to reach the meat and veggies. Not sure how it would fit 4 people.
Management: They were very concerned when we asked for the check, and asked lots of questions. We certainly appreciated the concern, and they actually didn’t let us pay though we wanted to. After hearing what we thought was wrong with the meal, they explained it by saying that «they serve Chinese shabu, this is Thai shabu.» But given that shabu is Japanese, we weren’t really convinced.
Goodness, I hope they get it together. I will be dropping cash here once they do**.
—
**Update: I will now be dropping cash at Shabu Ya, the other new shabu shabu joint that just opened up in Harvard Square. Take heart, shabu fans!

Shabu Square takes the place of the old Café Paradiso in Harvard Square, a well located space surrounded by windows that’s easy to spot. I never went in when it was Paradiso, but I decided to check out the very new Shabu to see what all the fuss was about.
They’ve rearranged the space to include mostly booths with hot plates at each table for their signature Shabu-​Shabu (or «hot pot») meals. While the space feels very clean and minimal, it’s also boring and non-​traditional. There was no charm and I’m sure I won’t remember the décor in an hour.
It was rather empty during our entire lunch hour, and I would soon understand why. The service was slow, the waitresses (there was 1 for every customer) didn’t really seem to know the menu at all, and our food took forever to arrive. In fact, 2 of our dishes came out and it was almost 10 minutes before the other 2 arrived. I decided on the Yum Yum with chicken, which sounded delicious from the description, but turned out to be very unimpressive. The noodles were bland and almost dry with a slight spice to them, and the chicken was much like Shabu’s décor: forgettable.
All this lack of excitement came at a price, which was around $ 12 per meal, not including any drinks. For that much money, you’re better off going up the street to Wagamama, where the food is better, the service is faster, and the atmosphere is more fun.
I know Shabu Square is new, and they’ve got some things to iron out, but I left with a terrible first impression and I’m not sure it’ll be worth giving them another chance.

Thai Shabu comes to Harvard Square. It’s a very nice room with a modern décor. The hotplates are electric and they heat up quickly and have a precision heat control. I tried the Seafood Supreme which included jumbo shrimp and clams. The Spicy Chinese broth was a little lackluster out of the gate and it took awhile to get some flavor going, even after I dumped all the chopped green chilies they gave as a side it was not very spicy. The red apparently, Szechuan peppers were not packing a punch and I suspect they were not the Chinese peppers. The greens were not exactly fresh and I used only the Napa Cabbage and the watercress. There was a generous portion of assorted mushrooms and I ate all of those. The mussels were not in the shell, not sure what that was about but the clams were very fresh and tasty. They also did not give me a utensil for placing the seafood into the pot. Chopsticks or preferably tongs would have been nice. They, the staff, was a tad over anxious but helpful. It’s a nice addition to the choices for lunch and dinner, I will go again but, right now it’s a 2.875 star place for me.
* Misses the mark as a pure Shabu play
* I’ll probably stick with the Phở and the Thai menu.
* Pricey for Shabu, and yes pricey in general even for
HS.

So, I was pretty pumped to see they were opening a Shabu shabu place in Harvard square since I’m so close by. I was delighted to see it open today with a shabu enthusiast friend coming to the area for lunch.
First impressions: it’s clean with a lot of booth seating. Very well lit with sunlight. I find that to be a big plus because every shabu or asian restaurant for that matter I go to is so drab and dark. The help seemed a little confused like they had hit the floor running. We ordered kim chee broth that was almost given to another table but they caught the mistake in time. These are little things that will probably be corrected in time.
The food was good. Fresh vegetables and cooked udon. The beef was a little thicker than normal but I almost didn’t mind this. The presentation for it was a little weak though. Normally shabu places have these elegant slices that are neatly curled and placed. This seemed a little slapped on in comparison. Still tasted good though. My friend informed me that the barbecue sauce was a little too tangy but I don’t normally use any dips other than the soy. The broth also wasn’t that spicy but was good never the less.
They also served us this weird dessert after the bill was paid. (good pricing btw less than $ 30 for 2 people) It was warmed slices of white bread that we were suppose to dunk in this delicious green coconut custard. That was probably the best part of the meal since it was such a delightful surprise. The container the bred was placed in proved a challenge for the server to open but she got help from another employee.
All and all, I will definitely go back. Beats trekking out to Chinatown or Allston. Although I would love to see another shabu place with as many flavors as Kaze for the broth.