WE went to Shabu Shabu to see if we could have Japanese food and still keep it under $200 per person. I promised I would not order sushi or sashimi - I ended up ordering a roll of California maki but, as we all know, that's not really sushi.
Shabu Shabu is a new restaurant on Hillwood Road, a small, busy street just one block south of Austin Road in Tsim Sha Tsui. I noticed it a few months ago while dining at one of my favourite sushi haunts, Kotobuki, located across the road. Judging a book by its cover, I said I must try Shabu Shabu one day.
Opened around Christmas last year, Shabu Shabu is a Japanese restaurant specialising in - shabu shabu, or Japanese hot pot. It also has a sushi bar and about a dozen booths. The menu isn't extensive, but if you're into shabu shabu, it has more than 30 types of meats, vegetables and other edibles you can throw into that boiling pot. Being newly opened, Shabu Shabu is clean and neat, and the booths are fitted with electric burners in the sunken portion in the centre of the table. No messy fires.
If you're not interested in Japanese hot pot, I suggest you do not try this place. Other than shabu shabu, it's pretty slim pickings on the menu. You have a choice of set shabu shabu dinners or you can do your own creation and choose from almost three dozen choices of ingredients.
We opted for the Japanese beef hot pot set at $160 per person. For $160 you get enough ingredients for two hungry people, so there's no need to order these set dinners for two. In addition to the shabu shabu, we ordered a few extra dishes and called it a meal.
The choices of set courses are Japanese beef and seafood hot pot ($180 per person), which include Japanese beef (Kobe or elsewhere), seafood, vegetables and tofu. Then there's the one we ordered, which is the same as the $180 version but doesn't include seafood. Or you can try the other version of Chinese beef (from Shanxi province) and seafood (same price as the Japanese beef). The final choice offers Japanese pork in lieu of beef and goes for $160. You get two dipping sauces: a great sesame paste sauce and a soy-based sauce.
They bring you the boiling pot and plates of thinly sliced meat and a plate of ingredients. The ingredients were two enormous Japanese mushrooms, tofu, udon noodles, green vegetables, cabbage and two large slices of Japanese radish. Three of us chowed down together on this comfortably. However, I would say there's really only enough for two.