Shabu Bar

We went there on a game night so it was our expectation we’re gonna find this place extremely busy. It was not. But hey, that was before the game (we were obviously not watching it) even started, so maybe their spikes are when people are leaving hungry after the match or before heading to the stadium. Although who would be that hungry after all the hot-​dogs and crab sandwiches…
But back to shabu. This place looks really neat and clean and the selection of meat or the other things you can boil (seafood…) is decent, if somewhat standard. They have like 4 or 5 different broths to choose from as well, so you can customize your experience as much as you like. As there were four of us we settled on the top 3 meat plates from the menu and a seafood plate, for a change.
Meat was quite fresh and tasted really good with the peanut butter sauce. What was nice as well, was that all of the plates arrived one by one, with some time in between, so we had enough space on the table to get rid of one plate before the next one arrived. Good timing on the staff part. Though as mentioned before, it wasn’t a very busy time for them overall (there was maybe one other or two other small groups apart from us).
Overall I think it was a standard shabu thing. Nothing too special, but the veggies and meat were fresh and tasted really good.

Standard shabu shabu place that was very filling. We got lamb, pork, and rib eye. We each got a platter but probably could have two people share one order. All the meat was good. We tried all the broths and as a purist, I liked the ginger chicken broth. The curry was too much overpowering flavor for me.
The service was very nice, friendly and efficient. Cool spot that I’ll prob frequent. I really liked the green tea ice cream for dessert.
Quick tip: If you’ve never had shabu shabu, it’s easy. They don’t really give you a tutorial (but I think they would if you ask) so here’s a quick lesson– once the broth is boiling, throw in your desired veggies or noodles. When you’re ready, take a piece of meat and swish it around for a few seconds (that’s all it take!). Then you can dip it in sauce and eat with rice, or cooked veggie goods.

3.5 Stars
Broths are decent (not too salty, not too herbaceous) and like that you can have two different ones
Quality of the meat is solid (good marbling, flavorful, tender)
Basket of vegetables was well presented and fresh
Rice was on the drier side and became an unwanted addition
Space can be tight for large parties unless you make a reservation
Overall Thoughts
I could see myself returning again for dinner

Shabu bar food 3/​10, service 0/​10, which is what you probably expect from a restaurant on King and 3^rd. The biggest problem is that on any given night, there is only one person waiting on the entire restaurant who is overworked and tired. We came in on a cold night hoping to warm up and enjoy some hot pot. The only waiter was so busy and angry that she ignored us for about 15 minutes and then after she took our order took another 20 minutes to bring us any of the food pieces. After we finally go our veggies and meat we had a cold pot because they never turned it on (Cold Pot). Final nail was when we had multiple times for rice and got it half way through our meal. The only positive was being in a warm room on a cold night.

To be fair, I don’t know much about Shabu. The only other shabu experienced I’ve had was a horrible one in Japantown where we were given a hot pot full of unflavored seaweed water and a bottle of soy sauce to pour in our bowl. So my impression of shabu was you dip meat in plain hot water, dip it in soy sauce, and you eat it. How boring, uncreative, and unsatisfactory to the taste buds is that?
Planning where to eat in SF last minute on Saturday night is such a Herculean labor to me so we decided to go here since it’s a few blocks from where I live.
For $ 32, you get all you can eat. For $ 42, you can get all you can eat and drink. But the drinks are limited to beers. We chose two hot pots divided to four different soups. We were given cheap meats that claimed to be Kobe, ribeye, lamb, and pork. For a second time shabu experience, it wasn’t bad. I enjoyed the curry broth the best and we were given ponzu sauce and a peanut buttery sauce (maybe miso?) to dip in. They were generous when we asked for more veggies and noodles.
Service was a little slow due to one server manning the place and the place was smaller than I expected when I walked in. Luckily we were seated within ten minutes.
Four stars may be a generous rating for this place as I’m sure there’s better shabu places out there, but I’d come back again soon due to proximity and overall pleasant experience.

Our group of 10 made reservations on a Friday night. We did all you can eat. I thought their service was good. They were attentive. We only had to wait a little in between next rounds of meat. I enjoyed their rib eye beef, pork, and lamb. We also got an extra bowl of udon.
I would come back here again.
Remember the meters are still on until 10pm on Friday!

Ew! This place managed to ruin one of the easiest meals to get right!
The reason I gave this place three stars is because their ponzu sauce is disgusting. Its not real ponzu sauce! Its sugar soy sauce. I couldn’t eat my meal. If you don’t like ponzu sauce, you might be able to enjoy this place.

Dinner review.
Soup options — ³⁄₅
Meat options — ³⁄₅
Portion size — ³⁄₅
Need to come back and see how they handle the all you can eat option.
Overall, great location. Has potential. «A-​OK.»

I had low expectations, but this place really hit the spot on a cold SF night! We came in on a Sunday night and only 3 or 4 tables were taken. My group of 3 was seated immediately. Only one girl was working the front. She was our hostess, waitress, server, all-​in-​one go-​to-​girl and she was very friendly.
We ordered the kobe beef, the lamb and the pork with spicy miso/​ginger chicken broth. The kobe beef and the lamb were large sized (worth it for the slightly higher price). All the meat looked fresh and tasted great!
The broth came out immediately, then the vegetables and the meat. I wish they gave us separate utensils to touch the raw meat, but I guess the broth kills off any bacteria.
The green tea ice cream at the end was the perfect conclusion to the feast.
My only other note was that they didn’t close the front door even though everyone in the restaurant kept their jackets on. To me, that’s a sign that the patrons are cold, so close the door! Other than that, I can’t wait to come back!

I am so disappointed in the service. I was expecting so much more, or at the very least basic courtesy. The woman who greeted me was very cold, said no to two table requests despite the restaurant being entirely empty aside from one other guest. I was very nice regardless. When asked what was good she almost laughed at me so I had to revise «what do you recommend… this is my first time dining here».
I opted for a hot pot and continued on my meal. The food was pretty good but I felt uncomfortable the entire time after her first reaction. Before all courses were served she came up and left the check on the table. I was pretty sure ice cream came with the meal. When I asked if it did, her reaction was strange. I think she intentionally skips that portion to get people out of her restaurant faster. I didn’t get a: «oh, sorry I’ll get that» or «oh yes, that does come with it and I’ll grab it for you.» Instead she said: «does green tea work?» which she slides on the far edge of the table en route to someone else a couple minutes later.
I just don’t get it. I was as pleasant as possible to make sure I wasn’t projecting anything at her. I don’t think I’ve ever left a zero tip at a restaurant before but I couldn’t make myself leave $.01 after how she made me feel. I’m not sure even that will make her realize how she’s treating customers.

Shabu Bar continues to be one of my favorite restaurants near the area. They’ve added a few more options for broth (although spicy miso is classic and great; curry and spicy wine are new and very good too), and are currently running a $ 32 all-​you-​can-​eat, or $ 42-​all-​you-​can-​eat with beer, special. Great value.

The rice in the place its fine, not perfect, but fine. The vegetarian chop main its fine, a little bit salty but you can mix it with the rice so you meal will upgrade drastically.
I loved the tv programing, on one side you have football 49ers match and on the other mexican soup opera.

Like:
— Kobe beef and rib eye (much better than other types of meat)
— Spicy wine broth
— Ginger chicken broth

The «American koby» beef was okay at best. The pieces were big and the amount of vegetables was great, however, the quality could be improved upon. We were given one tiny saucer of kimchi for 3 adults and our water was empty for most of the night until we asked for it ourselves. The rice was very sadly prepared (dry and still hard) and the soy sauce tasted weird. The Ponzu sauce was also a little off. It was too sweet for my taste. The best part was the TVs where we watched the Giants game.

I was scared of coming here since it had 3.5 stars on Unilocal,but was pleasantly surprised! My friend and I shared a half spicy miso/​half ginger chicken broth and both ordered the regular kobe beef platter for dinner. They are pretty generous with the vegetables and the beef, and I left extremely stuffed. The broths were both super tasty and I liked both equally. They also include ice cream in the meal, so it was a nice way to finish up.
Total cost was $ 20 per person plus tip and tax. Service was super quick and efficient as well. It literally look them less than 5 minutes after we ordered our food to have everything on the table. Solid 4 stars and I would definitely come back.

What happened? I am back to update my review because we just ate there Sunday night and it was terrible! We had ribeye, kobe, pork, and seafood with ginger chicken, spicy miso, spicy wine, and curry soup bases. All the meat was «rough» We also got slightly sick. Never. Coming. Back. Ever.

OK, I admit, I may have been overly harsh when writing my last review. My expectations were just too high! I love shabu shabu and I waited months for shabu bar to open since hearing about the restaurant in planning/​preparation phase.
For the convenience, I think shabu bar is decent. I just don’t think it’s as amazing as shabu house or shabuway out in the richmond area. If you have time to drive out there, I would but if you’re looking for a quick shabu fix, Shabu bar does provide you with an adequate experience.
That ponzu sauce (the black one) is still way too sweet though!

So the saga of being a neighbor is that you will come back to the surrounding businesses, not because they’re top notch, but because they’re convenient.
I have to admit, after being here a dozen times, it’s gotten better. Each experience has been unique from the others but here’s what I’ve noticed:
1-​Service has been more attentive
2-​Sesame sauce was still watered down — maybe add peanuts for thickening?
3-​Vegetable portions are fair
4-​Meat is still on the thick side, but portion is fair
All in all, they’re pretty nice and they’re a new business. I will support them and continue my patronage as changes for the better are apparent. Hoping to give them another star here soon!

Do you know how to Shabu your Shabu? Well, that’s the big presumption the servers here made when Jamie W. and I tried this new spot in Mission Bay. I guess they took one look at me and concluded I don’t need a tutorial, but what about Jamie? His mom didn’t make him sing «Shabu-​Shabu, Shabu-​Shabu» as he poked a pair of chopsticks into a boiling pot of water. I just think shabu shabu is exotic enough to amp up the service with some dialogue with your customers, but they served it like it was dim sum… drop it off and forget it until we’re ready to pay the check. We were seated at the high top communal middle table that we were sharing with a loudish Asian family who were here for Sunday supper.
We didn’t peruse the one-​page menu very long since there are only four meats, two broths and two appetizers to choose from (photo:
). Like most first-​time customers, we both went for the $ 21.95 Combination Shabu Shabu with a Half & Half Soup Base. That meant sampling slices of American Ribeye, Kurobuta Pork and Lamb (photo:
) and dipping them in a split pot of Spicy Miso and Ginger Chicken Broth (photo:
). That was probably the most reasonable choice for a shabu shabu virgin like Jamie. Before the meat arrived, we decided to share the $ 4.95 Spring Rolls which we felt weren’t even as good as bargain basement Chinese takeout (photo:
). Greasy with the kind of hard crunch that comes from leaving it in the deep fryer too long.
As the broth duo started bubbling, the Napa cabbage, tofu, udon noodles, baby spinach and assorted mushrooms arrived for us to test-​drive our shabuing skills (photo:
). We kept letting the spinach leaves and enoki mushrooms slip through our slippery sticks, so we were making quite a kelp bed at the bottom of the pot. The meat finally came on a platter in deli-​thin slices, and honestly they were so thin as to become interchangeable in flavor. Meanwhile, servers would buzz by with no evidence of curiosity about our level of satisfaction. We weren’t quite done, but our bowls of Green Tea Ice Cream came, so we switched gears (photo:
). Perhaps they didn’t like our duet of «Shabu-​Shabu, Shabu-​Shabu» which amazingly Streisand didn’t include in her Partners album.
FOOD — 3 stars… not a very distinctive take on shabu shabu here, depends on whether you want to try it for the novelty value
AMBIANCE — 3 stars… not too cozy in here and rather hectic
SERVICE — 2 stars… speed seems to be the priority with a modicum of indifference
TOTAL — 3 stars… if you’ve never had it, proceed with caution… if you have, you may want to go back to Shabu House or Shabuway

I think this is one of the better quality shabu places. I like nabe and I think this place is slightly better but they do not have the zosui.
The meat slices are giant.
Had the American style Kobe which was good for the price and the meat combo plate which comes with rib eye, pork, and lamb.
They have ginger chicken broth which I haven’t had at a shabu place before and I thought it was nice and light when u want to add some flavor to your veggies and noodles.
The plates come with ice cream. The green tea ice cream was not that great.
Limited meter parking in that area.
They also have tvs.