All-you-can-eat Japanese Hot Pot
Who doesn’t love All-you-can-eat??!
Shabu Shabu is a popular cook-it-yourself hot pot. Most restaurants have a stove top in the middle of the table, let you choose a flavour of broth and the meat cuts/grades of meat!
Shabu Shabu translates to something similar to ‘Swish Swish’ in English. The reasoning for this is that the meat that is cooked in the hot pot has been cut so thin that the meat cooks completely with only a few “swishes” in the broth.
We tried the very popular all-you-can-eat Shabu Shabu chain Nabezo! They have 19 locations spread out across Tokyo, 4 of which are located in Shinjuku!
We went to their main location in Shinjuku (Sanchome) and it was packed! We walked around the block to the branch in the Rainbow Village building and it was such a difference. Thankfully they were so close to each other that we didn’t need to wait!
When we arrived we were given a booth, an English menu and the server also explained the options and how it would work. We ordered the standard Nabezo Course for ¥2,800 per person (Roughly $37 aud each) in the basic Shabu Shabu broth.
This was their entry level course and included Beef Chuck Roll, Pork Boston Rump, Beef Flank, Pork Spare Rib, Vegetable buffet, Rice, Noodles and Ice Cream all-you-can-eat for 100 minutes…100 minutes!
The buffet of vegetables included an array of sprouts, cabbages, mushrooms, potatoes, eggs, herbs, onions, tofus, rice, noodles, dumplings, meat balls and tones of sauces.
We had a fantastic time; everything was fresh and delicious. The meat was beautifully tender and we ended up leaving after 1 hour as we ate much more than we could handle!
Nabezo also offer an all-you-can-drink option for ¥1,500 which is a fantastic deal for any drink on their menu, otherwise, individual drinks are fairly cheap!
We cant wait until we go back to Tokyo so we can eat here again!
You can find their locations and menus in English here
Tom shows us how to Shabu Shabu