G Cube Cafe – Shabu Shabu and Lounge

Decent prices and the food was good. Instead of ordering AYCE, we went a-​la-​carte. The staff was very kind and honored the check-​in offer even though the offer was specifically for second time diners.

My favorite Shabu place! Always with great service, even though my New Year’s Eve dinner and Karaōke night there. Must try their tomato soup base, tofu and fish tofu are always the best friend with it !! Beef always sliced perfectly, veggies are always fresh. Love their Spicy Kurobuta sausage. Nice and trendy environment. G cube has became our favorite gathering Shabu place. Yes! AYCE always the best deal but they also have the option of set dinner if you don’t eat much.

The sunset district is littered with all you can eat and drink shabu joints. I’ve frequented most of them, both Chinese and Japanese. G Cube sticks out for a number of reasons.
1. G Cube offers the standard Japanese shabu options, plus some kitschy bonuses. Miso /​spicy miso broth options, but they also offer a tomato broth and a curry broth. The tomato broth is pleasant and not overpowering. The curry broth is good if you like curry, but overpowers the meat; it also just seems like they tossed curry powder in the miso broth.
2. Meat options. Standard pork, Kobe beef, and lamb. You can also get rib eye beef, which I honestly prefer. Kobe beef is also reliably good.
Added bonuses are some cheap Chinese hotpot options. A very nice and welcoming addition to the familiar Japanese hotpot options. However, I’m sure they’re there to take up precious meat and alcohol room.
3. Alcohol. I’ve strayed away from the always enticing option of all you can drink, but G Cube offers Asahi black as an option. This is the first shabu place I’ve patronized to offer dark beer as part of their AYCD. Other alcoholic AYCD options are standard Japanese beer and cheap house sake.
A decent discount off your check if you’re here before 7pm. Parking is not bad if you’re here before 6.

I was looking for a comfortable place to have hot pot for a group of friends and came across this place after failing to make reservations a few other locations. I was happy that they were able to accommodate my party.
Upon arrive, were greeted by friendly staffs and I was very pleased with the first impression. However, it was down hill after ordering AYCE Kobe beef set for my party. They brought out two platters of meat with a two bowls of veggies/​noodles that’s fit for 3 – 4 people tops (we had 11). The food was gone within 10minutes and we were waiting for staffs to come over for ordering the next round… That took another 20minutes.
The second round arrive with the same portion sizes another 10minutes after ordering. The night wasn’t exactly a full house… at this point we’re starting to feel like they were throttling our rounds in hopes to make profit from us not being to order too much before the time limit of 2 hrs.
To add to this game of waiting, we had one pot that was on a propane stove that was not hot enough to boil the soup after 30mins. After repeated request to replace the stove, they finally replaced it with another unit. This time the unit inited to blasted out a ball of flame, giving my friends by the table scare. This unit, too, was replaced.
At this point my friends were getting really frustrated with the quality of the restaurant and demanded that we just have the next 10 plates of beef brought up back to back without request to get rid of this waiting nonsense and we have to proceed to ordering sides every meets were brought to the table to keep the flow of food steady.
Pro:
–friendly staff
— clean
Con:
— Throttling the rate of food when ordering AYCE
Redemption: The staff did make an effort to brings things out after us showing our frustration at the rate they come around to us. They also gave us a bottle of soju on the house to make up for the «inconvenience»
I would have only given 1 star based on my initial 30 minutes here. However, due to their attempt to make up for the slowness and them actually bringing out food at stead pace after our repeated request I give 3 stars.
It looks like people are way better off at this location if and only if they are coming here with smaller parties and AYCE is something that I would say is «order at your own discretion».

I came here the other day with some friends and it is absolutely wonderful here. The service was great and the food was great. The waiters were all very prompt and they were very smiley throughout our meal. The only time we had to wait on them was when we needed to pay. It’s usually the opposite at other places.
The curry broth is the best! My group ordered the Traditional, Curry, and Spicy Miso. The traditional is a bit too plain and the miso a bit too spicy. The curry mixed with the spicy is just right. We realized our mistake with the traditional and decided it wouldn’t hurt to ask if we could switch that broth. I’ve worked at a shabu place and I know that is a pain especially with split pots but they were willing to do it!
The only complaint I would have is that the gas stove is not as reliable as the electric. In the beginning of our meal I guess our gas canister was running low so our pot was not boiling as much. Half way through the fire went out and the server switched out the canisters and our soup finally reached a full boil. Definitely go for the electric stoves if you can!

This place was pretty disappointing.
The spicy miso broth was good when I took a sip initially, but after I swallowed it the spiciness kicks in and my lips started to burn and my stomach started to feel it. I kid you not, when I was eating the ice cream at the end of the meal I felt like the ice cream gave my stomach a cooling sensation because the broth was just that spicy!
The menu said the assorted vegetables that comes with my set meal (I got the kobe beef) comes with spinach along with a bunch of other vegetables and noodles. Well, yeah it came with spinach — 2 spinach leaves to be exact. o_​O Why even bother listing that on the menu when you’re only going to give me 2 leaves?
The kobe beef didn’t taste like kobe beef (Shabu House is way better). The sesame sauce was watery (again Shabu House has better sesame sauce). The spicy miso broth is also better at Shabu House.
They were out of rice when I went. How do you run out of a staple like that? But they did substitute it with more noodles.
They served their ice cream with a ceramic spoon which made it really hard to scoop my ice cream. I think using chopsticks would’ve been easier.
Next time I’m craving shabu, Shabu House is the way to go and not G Cube.

I honestly will not come back again. It’s a decent shabu place but I’ve had better else where. I love hot pot, I love shabu. I’ve tried many places around the Bay Area. This is by far the worse. Soup base is flavorless, and their AYCE is a few bucks off from other places. Not to mention, they messed up on our bill by charging extra! There are only two workers but I suppose it makes sense because they’re not even busy. I went there during dinner around 6 ish and place is empty. I shrugged.

Basically we came here because it was one of the places that was opened around the area that sounded good, but I’m sooo happy we got to check it out! IT IS SO GOOD!
I’m generally not a huge fan of Japanese style hot pots because I always found it to be plain, but the broth here is so flavorful! We did the seaweed broth and the spicy miso and of course a bunch of sides. The spicy miso is ACTUALLY spicy! Take it from a girl who loves and can definitely handle her spice, it’ll make your tongue tingle for sure! AND best part is, ice cream comes with your meal! Yay
Our waiter was sooo friendly! I forgot what his name was but dude, you’re a rockstar! Our food came out really quickly as well. mostly I think it was because they were going to close in like 45 min.
I will totally make the drive to come back here again.

Awesome food and sweet service. We had the all u can eat deal which was $ 35 per person. It was worth it. We had spicy miso (which was so good) and tomato broth. Don’t get tomato unless u like cooking ur meat in watered down tomato soup.
We ordered ribeye, kobe, this one other pork, and lamb. Ribeye was dry but the rest of the meat was amazing and savory. My only negative opinion for this is the meat was very thinly sliced.
I also had some sausages and gyoza. Both were so good!!!
Service was amazing. I’m coming back for more.

hungry at 930pm and craving shabu. get in the car and frantically calling every shabu place to see if they’ve done their last call yet. this was the only place that would take us
this place isn’t the best but not terrible either, im so glad they were open and seated us. they fulfilled our shabu craving that night and now know they’ll do in a pinch

My bf and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary here for dinner a week ago. I’ve tried hot pot at Chinese restaurants before, but was never that into it. I’ve never tried a Shabu Shabu place though, and this was one of my bookmarks.
Bf made reservations, but upon arriving, there were plenty of tables open. We went with the ayce option along with a bottle of mango soju. Everything was pretty good. Of all the meats, Kobe beef was definitely the best tasting. Can’t believe how super thinly sliced are the meats?! Crazyyy. Haha.
Service was friendly and very attentive. I would definitely return back whenever it’s like chilly weather and I’m wanting the hotness of Shabu Shabu.

This is our go-​to Shabu place because its never crowded. We always go with a big party and they never give us any problems when we make a reservation. We can make reservations the same day and still get in fine.
Large parties are always long tables, so talking is hard to do when you’re on the other side from someone. We have kids though, and its spacious enough for highchairs. They don’t have boosters though.
Their sesame sauce is yummy to me, but ppl in my party prefer the ponzu and so we always trade.
They always have happy hour specials, Kobe beef instead of regular beef if you get your order in before 6pm. If you’re getting all you can it, thats really worth it. With all you can eat, you get unlimited side orders as well.
If you’re not getting all you can eat and you check in on Unilocal/​facebook– you get a free appetizer and/​or soda.
There’s karaōke in the back, but I’ve never used it. You can see from the TVs up front that its the real music video with lyrics, rather than the fake karaōke videos that some places have. Lots of tvs up front, so if you want to watch a game or something, its probably going to be playing.
Only one caveat — which I find at MOST shabu places, is the lack of efficient or sufficient servers. We are constantly asking for stuff over and over again. It is weird though that I see that at most shabu places. Its like Shabu = not enough servers, ever. Unless, you’re the only ones in there.

I love this place! The waiters are super nice :) great customer service goes a long way!
We ordered the pricy miso soup which was delicious, perfect amount of flavor! We ordered the set dinner which came with a variety of vegetables — Napa cabbage, enoki mushroom, Crimson mushrooms, three kinds of noodles
The meat was cut VERY thinly, so thin that it was piecing apart when I grabbed it with my chopsticks. It comes with ice cream at the end too! Yummmm!
Also if you do 3 check ins here, free appetizers! I suggest the potstickers (comes with 6)!
The environment is a nice date spot. There are tvs playing and music in the background which gives a great ambiance!

I came here with a friend for dinner on a Monday around 7:30pm. Only half of the restaurant was filled so there was no wait. I got the regular set dinner/​beef since I wasn’t very hungry. My friend got the large set dinner ($ 18, a couple bucks more) and it came with a lot more meat!
The spicy miso broth was kind of bland, not very flavorful. All the set dinners come with a big veggie platter (Napa cabbage, spinach, mushrooms, udon, ramen, glass noodle, and tofu), rice, and a scoop of ice cream (over 5 different flavors to choose from!!!)
The interior design of the restaurant is very hip and clean. They have a lot of long tables that can serve large parties (something that is hard to find at Shabu places in SF) The service is good; the workers were very polite. Will most likely come again if I’m in the area!

Service is terrible. The first time we came, we were left waiting for 20mins with hella open tables. Ended up leaving because no body paid attention to us, even after we told them «table for two». Came back last weekend and I was not impressed.
Ordered a large order of the lamb and a regular order of the pork. Portions could have been larger. There were like 8 thin slices for the regular order, about 12 for the large. Obviously not enough for me and my BF, even with the bowl of veggies. We ordered an additional large plate of the beef. Overall, meat quality was good. Had some good fat on it and wasn’t too bad. Soup base was spicy miso. wasn’t that spicy. It was OK. I prefer Shabu House over this place, though I am intrigued by the AYCE + drink. Next time, perhaps!

Amazingggggg service!
I came here a few months ago with my boyfriend and it was pretty slow for a weekday night but it got gradually busier and there was only one server around. He was very nice and gracious and apologized for the slow service, which I didn’t mind at all since I’ve worked at a restaurant before.
The food itself is pretty good, and there’s a wide variety of food that you can choose from. LOVE ME SOME LAMB! yum.

I came here on a Saturday during dinner hours (from 6−8pm) and the place was packed, but still had a good number of seats available. We waited at the front for about 10 minutes until we had one person come up to seat us. The place was not too busy, but it was apparent that they did not have enough people waiting each table.
We took a few minutes to look at the menu, but waited another 15 minutes until our waiter came in to take our order. He seemed rushed but still was helpful in taking our orders. He came back 2 minutes later after we asked for our utensils to let us know that they ran out of rice and asked if we would like to get some extra udon instead. Aside from that, we didn’t get much meat even though we ordered a large plate. During our meal, our waiter still didn’t give us our extra udon and wasn’t found for the remaining time. It wasn’t until the end of our meal when we finally see him and asked about our extra udon. He told us that he thought he already gave us the extra udon and rushed over to get it for us. Towards the end, he quickly placed the bill down and rushed off.
We left the place still hungry and unsatisfied with the quality of meat, food, and the service. I don’t blame our experience completely on our waiter since it seemed they were completely understaffed. I saw about two, maybe even three, people waiting tables for the entire room. Seeing that it was during dinner hours on a weekend, I would expect them to prepare for large number of parties during these hours.
I would probably give this restaurant another try to give their food another chance, but maybe on a weekday.

As a huge fan of shabu, the food here is good and does not disappoint. The quality of the food is above average for sure. With the unlimited option, you can get as much meat and veggies as you’d like. Plus they have a lot of different goodies to add to your mix like gyoza, fish cakes, beef balls, fish balls (my personal favorite of the night!). The spicy miso is, well, spicy! But you could ask the servers to add some regular broth to your pot to even out the spice level. They also give you ice cream at the end of your meal which I personally loved!
Really, my only qualm was the service. And it wasn’t even that the servers were rude, they were all actually quite nice and pleasant. But it was clear that the service was not as efficient as it could’ve been. It looked like there were three people working the floor, but this somehow still wasn’t enough (probably due to the demand of the AYCE service).
Tables continually went unbussed. I remember a time when there were about 6 or 7 parties waiting, and there were at least 3 tables just sitting there waiting to be cleaned, for at least 5 minutes. I could tell people were growing impatient with the wait. Once I was actually seated, it was sometimes difficult to flag down the staff. And when we did ask for things like water or refills, the staff would sometimes forget completely, probably because they were taking so many orders from so many different tables. This happened at least 2 or 3 times throughout the dinner. My friend and I eventually only directed our questions to one waitress who was consistently helpful and very friendly to us.
Again, I feel a bit guilty giving a bad review since I did enjoy the food and the staff was sweet. As much as I wanted to LOVE this place, I did get very frustrated, both waiting for the dinner, and waiting for service during the dinner.
I would come back again, but I would be sure to come back at an odd hour when the restaurant is much emptier! I would avoid coming to this place at a busy time.

A guy who’s willing to cheat on you is merely a boy you can totally dump like how you would dump the veggies and delicious marbled meat into the hot pot. Dump in the boiling water and never look back. Unless you’re gonna eat it all up, that is. Am I right or am I right? Take it from me. I’m no relationship expert but I am a somewhat food enthusiast.
Broths: spicy miso, regular miso, plain clear broth. Can do halfsies!
$ 28 for all you can eat (not including Kobe beef, includes side dishes)
$ 34 for all you can eat (including Kobe beef/​side dishes)
They also have a variety of set dinners ranging from about $ 15.
: came with two different sauces. One was kind of a peanut butter texture tasting like sesame oil and the other was harder to tell but I think it’s ponzu?
I found the beef and fish tofu mochi thing the only things that stuck out to me.
At the end of the meal, it came with one complimentary ice cream scoop, HAYYY GREEN TEA, LEMME HOLLA AT YA!
If you’re not that hungry, just go with the set dinners.
Great staff, not too crowded on a Sunday night. They provide you with enough tools to fish out those goodies. Always checked up on us every 15 min probably because there weren’t that many people there. Always kept our cups filled. Was not stingy about how much they gave us on refills. Had decent filtration, air was not too stuffy.
A little pricey for the limited meat selection, but what can u expect, it’s SF.

Pretty good shabu shabu place. Good broth, meat, and price. Service was just alright. It took a while for the guy to get us the check.
½ spicy miso broth and ½ regular miso broth.
I really like how the spicy miso broth here is actually spicy.
Kurobata Pork Dinner Set
The dinner sets come with a plate of meat and a bowl of vegetables/​noodles. We got the regular Kurobata pork dinner set, which was $ 15 — a pretty good deal for shabu shabu (though I did feel that their vegetable/​noodle bowl was on the small side when I saw it, but it’s enough to fill you up).
Dinner Set Vegetables/​Voodle Bowl
Comes with each dinner set. The ramen noodles were a bit hard even though the other noodles were done.
Special Kobe Beef Dinner Set
Pretty good beef, but you can’t really tell that it’s kobe when it’s sliced this thin.
Coffee and Sesame Ice Cream
You get ice cream at the end of your meal, they didn’t have green tea today so we opted for coffee and sesame. The sesame taste is interesting, reminded me a lot of the sesame paste that came as part of the meal.