Shabu Shabu King

This is the ultimate in Self-​serve dining.
Nothing fancy here. Just pick your broth (out of 21 different options!, most about $ 8.95 base price) and pick your protein ($ 3 — $ 5 more each), and then to to the fridge and pick your veggies and side plates. The plates are color coded by price range, from a couple of bucks to maybe double that. The cook it all.
They use newer, all electric hotplates, which heat up quickly and are pretty easy to control. No propanes here.
So the concept seems good, but some how, you don’t get the variety you might in a regular Shabu Shabu place, unless you have more people to share with.
You pick your dip sauces from a large variety over on a table. Not sure if they have straight Ponzu or Miso based, which are common for Shabu Shabu. BUt they had about 8 others.
We ordered chicken broth (I was a bit under the weather), Chicken and Beef, grabbed a plate of Udon and Spinach out of the fridge, had rice, juice drinks, and It came to about $ 15 each for the two of us. The female staff was nice and polite, not sure what background, maybe Thai?

Mine as well as my girlfriend’s favorite shabu shabu place. The sauces are great, and typically we don’t have to hunt for parking every time we want to eat here (bonus because parking is free). The food selection is pretty good and It’s reasonably priced too. However, there are some places with better dessert, but that’s somewhat negligable in my opinion. (Yours may vary). Come give these folks your business!

I went to have dinner the other night at Shabu Shabu King. This was my third or fourth time back. I’m finally writing a review.
Service: The waitress was very attentive and nice. However, there were times it was difficult to understand her (her English wasn’t too good).
Food: The broths/​soups were really good! We had a split pot — ½ Spicy and ½ Miso. The spicy was actually spicy — PERFECT! The food you can add to your broth (s)/soup (s) tasted very fresh and good the other night!
Note: I’ll definitely go back!

I’ve been here a few times and I’ve always enjoyed the food here! They have a good amount of items you are able to select from in the cold case as well as a good selection of broths!
I would suggest getting there ahead of time because parking is an issue!
Other than that, the food is pretty good!

Just an update. They are not open as late as they say they are. It’s 1115 and they’re lights are off too. Please update your open/​close hrs.

There is nothing better than coming across a good restaurant accidentally. True treat! Our plan was to have a decent hazelnut latte at Glazers Coffee in Honolulu, Hawaii. Shortly after walking out of the coffee house we stumbled across King Shabu Shabu. First time at this Japanese hot pot restaurant was a charm. Short of numerous broths to choose from its pretty cool to be able to choose most of the fresh prepackaged ingredients and literally cook the food on a hot plate right on our table. I believe this is probably the healthiest meal we had in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Shabu shabu king is one of the very best shabu shabu places. It’s super comfortable to eat there and the taste is amazing. They have a lot of sauces that makes the place even better.

Good food. Low key. Good value. Byob. Lots of sauces. Not sure why this place doesn’t have higher reviews

I came here with my experiences at other hotpot places in hopes that this place will also deliver an enjoyable meal. Their chicken broth was bland, also their refrigerated items were not as fresh as I hoped. They could try harder to be more enthusiastic in terms of their wait staff. I don’t think I’ll be returning any time soon.

I like Shabu Shabu King. I know what I am getting into when I go there. It is comfortable, easy, tasty, and I am not constantly reminded that I need to GTFO after being there for a certain amount of time like at some other places.
What I like:
Hardly ever a wait.
Good selection of broths, food items, and sauces.
Broth gets delivered to the table really fast.
Not constantly bothered by wait staff, but you can call on them at any time.
Free dessert.
Discount card
Things to know:
Its BYOB.
Its a family run business. You will see mom, dad, son, and or daughter working. During the slow times one of them may even be eating. It is quite common in other countries, so take down the criticism if you are looking at this through a Western lens only.
Use the sauces! Remember, you are basically eating boiled meat and veggies… to get the most out of it sauce it up. I personally like the fried garlic oil and ginger sauces with a little house sauce, cilantro and green onion.
Save the noodles till the end. When the broth starts to get low, throw in some noodles, crack and egg or two, and have at it. The noodles should pick up some good flavor as the broth has reduced and gotten pretty strong.
When it gets busy and everyone has a pot boiling it tends to get hot. Don’t be shame to ask the wait staff if they can turn on the fans.
Dessert is free, but it is not always the same. I love the shaved ice with all the different flavors and a pile of boba, and jellies, but sometimes you get the fluffy ribbon like snow stuff in green tea or strawberry with a little boba. I still like it over some other places stuff. The other places never put enough syrup and you just get a bunch of plain, no flavor ice in the middle.

Love this place and eat here on the weekly or once every two weeks! But there’s a few things that I dislike about this place I should mention.
First there’s a man who is presumably the owner that works on Thursday nights. This guy is the most unprofessional rude host of all time. He was drinking sake in the front of the restaurant behind the register and got pretty drunk.
It took 30 minutes to get my broth compared to the mere minutes it takes when the nicer aunty is working. Also the prices are a little steep and you have to carefully check your bill if the drunk owner is working because I caught him adding three bowls of rice and drinks onto my bill that I didn’t order then he denied it! My advice: avoid going on Thursdays!
When aunty is working this is a great eat! Fast quality service by a person who is happy to be there and not drinking in front of guests! Also don’t forget the free desert! I won’t ruin it for you since its a nice surprise!
Would be five stars but the drunk owner ruins it for me!

Yummy time! The fried garlic oil sauce is my FAVE!!! I could eat bowls of that stuff.
I got the kimchee w/​chicken and added in a bunch of other veggies. It was super tasty and very filling.
Be prepared to pay a pretty penny though, I forgot how expensive it is if you’re not sharing.
The parking here is a bit tight, but if you hunt there’s street parking available.
I really dont know what else to say about this place because its an experience, the sides and add ins are so yummy. It’s BYOB

Everyone has praises for this place. I’ve been wanting to try this for awhile and today I did. Arrived at 6 pm and there was plenty of seating. After being seated we immediately ordered our soup, seafood base and sliced beef as protein. I don’t know if the waitress was sidetracked or not but I had to point at the menu and say out loud 3 times what we wanted to order. Strike one on Shabu Shabu King. Next up was the food selection. Everything was available except for the tofu. What’s Shabu Shabu without tofu? I asked the waitress to check to see if they had any then she replied, when the other worker comes in, they will prep some. My thinking was, how hard is it to cut and plate tofu? Hard for her and her staff I guess. Strike two for them. Then the sauces. The satay was oily as were the house sauce and the fried garlic. The white sesame also was funky. It actually tasted like peanuts instead of sesame. The cilantro dish was empty and need refilling also. Strike three. Shabu Shabu King should now be demoted to a Queen or Jack but definitely not a King.
Summarizing, food just okay. Price little pricey considering the competition out there.

The fried garlic oil sauce thing is HORRIBLE…
HORRIBLE-​Y GOOD!
This stuff, this artery-​clogging, CHF-​causing sauce is why I have bumped my 3-​star review to 4. It reminds me of a more flavorful oil they serve at Korean restaurants; I could eat just that drenched over a nice, hot bowl of rice.
Oh, the shabu is decent too.
;)
Its standard lighter-​fare broth, as shabu shabu would be (not like the taiwanese hot pots, so don’t get it twisted.) I usually get the mixed mushrooms because I love enoki’s, so I can’t say how the others are just yet.
Once you walk in, there are tables flanking all sides. The fridge holding the glorious sides are in the back left corner (they got usual fare: ung choi, watercress, bok choy, mixed mushrooms, all types of noodles, fish/​beef balls, DIY meatballs, tripe, shellfish, crab, mochi, etc., etc.) The sauce station is strategically in a staggered formation to the right corner, next to the cashier (which they really need to organize that desk.)
There’s a 1-​staller unisex bathroom behind the cashier.
Prices are pretty good, and service can be great at times, while other times it can be downright «pull-​my-​hair-​out-​I-​just-​want-​my-​water-​refilled «service.
All in all, a nice little shabu joint. They also have a stamp card – free broth after you fill the card!

Dear Shabu Shabu King,
My children don’t like to wait. I would even venture to say that MOST children don’t like to wait. In fact, I think human beings as a whole generally dislike waiting, which is funny as I LOVE waiting because it gives me chance to get some reading done on my kindle. Long lines and bathrooms? OPPORTUNITY. Unless I have my children with me. Which I did. So it was fantastic that, upon arriving at your doors at 7pm on a Tuesday, there was exactly ZERO wait.
Our lovely friends, who insisted on treating us to hot pot, ordered the healthy broth and it was quite nice. Not particularly flavorful but rather pleasant.
It took me a few moments to get the hang of the sauce station. I am accustomed to strongly flavored tastebud-​tingling sauces and was a touch disappointed at the bland flavors. Garlic and oil tasted like just garlic and oil. Shocking. It was then that I realized I could mix things and suddenly house sauce mixed with the fried garlic in oil thingie made the meal YAY. Yes, YAY is a flavor. I even mixed it into my rice and my rice became YAY too. My husband LOVED the sauce station as he is what one would call a «concoction king» and spent the evening cheerfully heaping all sorts of randomness on his noodles and veggies while making sounds of ecstasy that probably made your other patrons uncomfortable.
As for your shaved ice, when it arrived I was mildly dismayed at the lack of toppings. It does seem a bit silly to complain about anything that is free, but SHC has set a ridiculously high standard for free desserts though, to be fair, it is probably more of an appeasement as their colorful, heaping grand mound of shaved ice means they are about to kick you out. I also soon realized you weren’t serving just any ol’ shaved ice, it was that flaky snow type stuff. That morphed it from lackluster to wonderfully exotic, and while my children weren’t keen on the green tea flavor I consider their rejection of dessert a big plus as it meant more for me. Because I am an awesome motherly mother.
Overall good food with wonderful company and wonderful conversation about acid and crystals and small children licking stranger’ bald heads. The food was not quite up to par with SHC, but we don’t even attempt going there with our children so when they are with us you super win. And they are almost always with us.
We will return.
Sincerely,
Angela

I’m a big fan of hotpot, and this place is my go-​to when the craving hits and I don’t want a lot of fuss. I’ll break down my review into two sections…
The good:
–They usually seat you right away and I have never seen it really busy. No hour-​long wait to get in, and no 90-​minute time limit to eat (I’m looking at you, Sweet Home Café).
–Decent selection of broth (personal fav is seafood and healthy herb). If you ask, they can make a lot of them vegetarian upon request.
–The sauce selection is tops. Lots to choose from, plenty of bowls available to mix and experiment with, and their house sauce is very tasty.
–The meats/​seafood/​vegetable selection is pretty large and affordably priced.
The could-​be-​better:
–Service can be slow at times.
–Only open for dinner, no lunch hours.
–Inconsistent offers. Sometimes we would get complimentary edamame, but not always. There is complimentary dessert but this also changes (sometimes ice cream, more recently a shave ice dish)

Nowhere near as good as Sweet Home Café (& sorry for comparing, but how can you not?!), but it does have its advantages:
1. ZERO wait time — We came in at about 7:30pm, and there were plenty of empty tables. When we were leaving at 9:00pm, we noticed a few people waiting outside to be seated. Perhaps people prefer shabu shabu as a later meal?
2. Comfortable spacing — vs. at SHC where you can hear the entire conversation of the people sitting next to you. Tables seem to be bigger here, which allows for more spacing between parties.
3. NO maximum dining time — which is the one gripe I have with SHC. Service is good in general, and shabu shabu itself seems to be a fairly quick meal, but I just don’t like feeling rushed to eat my food.
On the flip side, the flavors here seem to be milder. We got the spicy broth ($ 7), which was good, but could have been more flavorful (though I tend to like blander soups). The sauces also seemed simpler than those at SHC, but I did LOVE the fried garlic sauce in oil (and mixed it with the Vietnamese sate sauce for spice!).
Less variety of fridge items than SHC, but still had all my favorites (long rice, cabbage, lobster meat, enoki mushrooms). I also like how the chicken came in slices instead of chunks!
SPICY BROTH & FRIDGE ITEMS —
FREE SHAVE ICE DESSERT —
Prices seem to be aligned with SHC’s. Both restaurants offer BYOB and a free shave ice dessert as well. However, if you’re paying the same amount as SHC, it’s hard to justify coming here over there. Keep an eye out for deals though, we had a Hot Deals Hawaii $ 10 for $ 20 voucher here which made the meal a lot more enjoyable, thinking price-​wise ;)
(Rice is $ 1.30 per bowl — BOOOOOO! I hate paying so much for rice)
Despite its shortcomings in comparison to SHC, all in all, you can’t really go wrong with shabu shabu. It’s always a delicious and comforting meal, and I did enjoy my meal here. However, I probably wouldn’t revisit unless I had some kind of deal/​voucher.

Yummy hot pot joint. It’s always busy when we come for dinner! I personally don’t see any difference between this place and all the other countless hot pot eateries on the island. They’re all bueno.
I tend to order the Shio broth and grab ung choi, lobster balls, eggs, and spinach from the fridge. Everyone gets complimentary chili soybeans for appetizer. Staff is friendly and helpful. Their garlic oil is great with veggies and meats. And to top of the meal, they give free shave ice with toppings! BYOB for all you liquor loves. And after 5 broths, you get one free! :)

Shabu Shabu King
Been here a few times and cant believe I haven’t written a review for this place sooner! LOL!
Decided to come here the other night because we were in the area. Our server for the evening was Michael. He did a great job! He was very efficient and nice.
I really like how it’s BYOB =)
I like the variety of sauces that they have! They also offer free shave ice at the end of your meal. Honestly not as good as Sweet Home Café, but its still very satisfying to me.

OF COURSE I am going to compare this to Sweet Home Café, why wouldn’t I?
Came here because of a LivingSocial deal I bought ($ 6 for $ 12…fricken random). After reading the reviews on here I was skeptical of course; especially since everyone’s comparing them to SHC, one of my favorite places to eat. But I knew I had to find out for myself what’s up with this place. Some may think it unfair to compare this place to Sweet Home but they brought it upon themselves by copying a lot of SHC’s ideas. They have a «Healthy Herb» broth on their menu… hmmm sounds familiar… actually sounds EXACTLY familiar… At least come up with a different name if you’re going to steal someone’s idea! They’ve also got very similar fridge items, same exact colored plates SHC uses, and even the little plate pricing paper on the fridge is the same layout! ANYWAYS, here’s my comparison:
THE GOOD:
+ Free Rice~ SHC now charges for their rice :/​
+ Fridge items selection~ Their noodle selection is definitely one of the best parts of the items. The thinly sliced, wide and wavy noodles (I forgot what they’re called) were awesome! Also other highlights SHC doesn’t offer: beef balls, chicken gyoza, veggie gyoza, bacon, ramen noodles, and Okinawan noodles.
+ Free edamame
+ No wait~ We went in around 8:30p on a Friday night and was surprised we just had to wait for them to clean off a table.
+ Price~ It is SLIGHTLY cheaper than SHC.
+Broth Selection~ They have a nice variety to choose from like Curry, Tofu, Kimchee and Sake.
+ Stamp card~ Buy 6 broths and get one free!
THE FAILS:
— Sauces~ I found it difficult to find a single sauce I liked. Out of their wide selection, my favorite was a ginger green onion sauce, which is, yep you guessed it, a knock off of one of SHC’s sauces. The garlic sauce was good cause I love garlic but it was not a sauce. It was pretty much straight up minced garlic in oil; like those big jars you can buy at Costco. All their other sauces were boring or just meh.
— Service~ Sorry but SHC has awesome service that’s hard to beat. The owner at SSK wasn’t the nicest dude but I must say, one of the waitresses was really friendly and did provide good service. But overall their service wasn’t impressive.
— BROTH~ Their broth seemed very bland to me. We got the spicy and for one, it wasn’t spicy, and two, it had very little flavor. Even just by looking at it, it looked really watery and bland.
— Shave Ice~ Not really a fail but I definitely prefer SHC’s shave ice. These guys try to mix Hawaii Shave Ice with Taiwanese Shave Ice and for me, it just didn’t work out. They use Hawaii shave ice syrups but put toppings like grass jelly, mini tapioca balls, and blueberries? Well besides the blueberries, these are typical Taiwanese Shave Ice toppings. I was definitely missing SHC’s toppings like the puddings, mochi, and boba with their creamy syrup.
It may seem like there are a few more pros than cons, but the importance of those cons outweigh the good points of Shabu Shabu King. The broth and sauces are a huge part of the experience and I think SHC have just set the standards too high. I may be back here only if I’m really craving Shabu Shabu and Sweet Home is way too crowded, but honestly, I’ll most likely just wait for SHC.