Shabuway- Japanese Hot Pot Cuisine
By
Carol & Joe Davis
Dining Detectives
We
have dined at many Japanese restaurants over the years
but had never experienced Shabu Shabu style. We knew that it was
becoming quite popular when we heard that Restaurateur Eiichi
Mochizuki had just opened his sixth Bay Area Shabuway
location on Geary Boulevard.
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Shabu
Shabu Japanese Hot Pot style allows the diner to flash cook thinly
sliced premium meats and vegetables in broths heated on in-table
induction cook tops at their table. Shabu Shabu actually means
swish swish which is all you have to do using your chop sticks
to dip and flash cook the cuisine.
We
ordered a House Hot Sake and a Shirakabe Premium
Cold Sake then chose Combination dinners, a broth
and got ready to swish!!
Combinations
include meats or just vegetables, white rice, a vegetable plate,
Udon noodles and ice cream for dessert. The thinly sliced meats
which we enjoyed included marbled American Kobe Beef
, savory Niman Ranch Lamb and our favorite the marbled
100% Berkshire Kurobuta Pork!
All
of meats were tender, juicy and flavorful and tasted quite healthy,
as they are all free of growth hormones and antibiotics. The seasonal
Vegetable Plate included fresh and delicious Nappa Cabbage,
spinach, carrots, seasonal vegetables, Enoki Mushrooms and tofu.
We enjoyed the different flavors from cooking in the Half
and Half Hot Pot of Basic Traditional Seaweed Umami Broth
and the Original Spicy Miso Broth made with miso, spices and vegetables.
We
swished our meats and vegetables then dipped them in sweet Gomadare
sesame sauce and a tangy Ponzu citrus soy sauce which we added
hot sauce to for a little more fire. The Udon Noodles
also get cooked by swishing them in the broth. They can be challenging
as they begin to slip off your chopstick, adding humor to your
dining experience, but once you get the knack of it they are just
terrific!
The
Black Sesame and Green Tea Ice Cream was the perfect
finish to our delicious dinner. Shabuway is a
healthy, fun and reasonably priced dining experience and we look
forward to returning soon.
Shabuway
5120 Geary Blvd.
San Francisco, CA 94118
415-668-6080
www.Shabuway.com