Shabu Shabu Bar

Reviews 5

A

A Private User

An Edgy new Shabu Shabu place hidden between a Chipotle on their right and a L&L Hawaiian BBQ on their left. As you walk in, youre shocked by the beautiful decor and hip music. The attractive staff and upbeat atmosphere makes this definitely the "IT" place to eat! 1st time Shabu Shabu guests are forever ruined by the fresh handmade spicy cheese gyozas, the high quality meats, large plates of organic vegetables, and delicious healthy sauces. Even their water is Bionic; filtered and pH-balanced to the water within our bodies. Experienced Shabu addicts would be surprised by their goma (sesame) sauce and may even confuse their sauce for watered down peanut sauce. On the contrary, guests are invited to grind their freshly roasted sesame seeds before goma sauce is added to the sauce bowl. Unlike most other Shabu places, they do NOT add any peanut butter to thicken their sauce. Their goma sauce really is strictly sesame sauce and their ponzu is truly a fresh citrus based soy sauce. In addition to their sauces, their vegetable plates are beautifully arranged and incredibly large! These vegetable plates include napa cabbage, bok choy, enoki and shitake mushrooms, tofu, spinach, sweet white corn, carrots, along with udon and clear rice noodles. Vegetarians would easily be happy with just that veggie plate, but there are special vegetarian plates that include even more... such as Japanese pumpkin slices, snow peas, and vegetable gyozas in addition to the standard veggie plates. Now for carnivores like myself, the ribeye is fantastic! However, Ive tried their Kurobuta - Berkshire pork which is equally tasty. Poultry and seafood lovers will enjoy the Jidori - free range chicken slices, white tiger shrimp, jumbo sea scallops, large mussels, and yummy catch of the day. For those high-end carnivores, you cannot miss the opportunity to enjoy some Prime, Japanese Kobe, and the exclusive Japanese Wagyu flown in from Japan! What makes this place even more unique is their RARE Sake Library that is hand-selected by their Sexy Owner who serves only the top 20% of the sakes in the world. Unlike most house sakes, Shabu Shabu "Bar" House Sake is smooth and delicious! On the rare occasion when a guest has a chance to speak with the Sexy Owner, youll find out that the name of this place is actually Shabu Shabu "Bar." Although their sign may appear with a large S and Habu Habu twice, the right half of the S symbol holds the subtle black bar where it gets their name. If you did not save any room for dessert, then you will miss out on their Green Tea and rare Kuro Goma (Black Sesame) ice cream. Mochi fans should not miss out on the assortment of Strawberry, Mango, Vanilla, Chocolate, Green Tea, and Kona Coffee mochi ice cream!!! What more could a guest want from a Shabu Shabu place? Whether your dining alone, as a couple, or in a party, the Shabu Shabu "Bar" team makes you feel welcome and special. For us average joes, its especially nice to get served by their extremely attractive servers! Unfortunately, I am unable to remember all their names, but Kat, Vivien, Sara, and Anne come to mind. The guys are good looking too; Geamore is simply hilarious! Before I forget, for those who love hot and spicy, you must try a "Hot Shot!" Apparently, it was created during their Grand Opening After Hours Party! Wish I was lucky enough to have received an invite to that party... Maybe Ill get invited to their next one... Until then, Ill just party with them during regular business hours.

---

JE

Jen H.

Review in 2010! The decor was definitely new and nice! There are plenty of seatings and there is a little lounge area to just have drinks and/or eat appetizers. It seems pretty chill. The food here is pretty good. I ordered the rib eye and my bf got the chicken. They were both good. The pot there cooks everything pretty quick! I like that! I also had to watch out how fast it was cooking my meat since I didnt want to overcook it! I did the first time and I had to watch myself from leaving the meat in the broth for too long. I was able to cook it where it was just tender and yummy! There was also a soup base that you get for your udon and its not bad, but not the greatest. I still like the California Shabu-Shabu soup base for udon and beef in Fountain Valley better. I also like their dipping sauce there better too. Whats cool about this place is that you get to grind your own sesame for your sauce or your waiter can do it for you before they poor in the peanut sauce. Pretty neato! Very friendly service and good food. They also use Pi-Water which is really healthy filtered top notch water that I cant even describe. Haha. That is a plus! I also like the fact that they serve brown rice here too! Healthy..yay!

---

JO

Johnson Kwong

Bookmarked this place for a while, but Ive been putting it off on going because of long lines Ive read about in the Yelp reviews. I finally went when I found out they are open now for lunch on weekends. Boy, I wasnt disappointed. I ordered the large ribeye for about $15. Add the veggies and the noodles, this meal was definitely just right for one person. I like how they have different options such as seafood alongside the traditional meats they offered (at an added cost, of course). The meats nice and fresh (not to mentioned marbleized to just have the right amount of meat-fat ratio). I like how the servers offered to make the noodle soup out of the remaining broth after I was done with all my meat in the end. It definitely was great customer service. Overall, great service and great food quality. Ill definitely head back to Shabu Shabu Bar if Im in the mood for this type of food in the OC. TIP: It turns out since they fairly recently started serving lunch on weekends, not much people knew about it. As a result, NO WAIT! In fact, the place was half empty when we went.

---

JO

John

Came here in December 2014 for dinner with my friend because she had been craving shabu shabu for some time now. Arrived right when the doors opened for dinner (6 pm, I believe?), and thank god we did because in about 30 minutes or so, the whole place was packed. Both sides of the restaurant filled up quickly! We ordered normal portions of the ribeye and the prime steak. Delicious. The sauces really make the food taste much better because, to be honest, I never really ever liked "hot pot"-style food in my life. But this place does it right. We asked for our broth to be made spicy, and the server came with habanero chili oil. Made the soup VERY spicy with 2-4 drops. The server we had was awesome. Timely, and covered our every needs. Very attentive and friendly! Overall, this place was great. It was super filling even though the meat portion seemed "small" i.e. the broth and veggies will fill you up! Make sure you come here on off-hours because it will be packed! I definitely recommend this place!

---

JU

Judy Juan

Three of us walked in and nobody greeted us, no hostess, but a bunch of waiters/waitress who saw us but didnt talk to us. It wasnt busy for lunch hour, there were a empty seats. Then after that, 3 groups of people came in after us, and finally 5 minutes later, the waiter came by and sat all the 3 groups of people except us. And let us wait for another 5 minutes. We were there ahead of those 3 parties. That didnt really bothered me, but when we got to the table, their service was really bad. And their free sake with the 20% gratuity already cost more than 6 usd. So basically, its not free. Their servings became lesser and I ordered the same meat as before, but they were tough in texture this time. The brown rice was so dry and hard to eat. I found the best shabu shabu place in diamond bar called PAPER POT SHABU. Anyone who loves to eat shabu shabu and doesnt mind the driving, try the recommended one.

---

---