Shabu Shabu House

"Let's go to Shabu Shabu House! Let's go to Shabu Shabu House!", was about all I heard from J. after I linked her to some stellar reviews from yelp.com about this J-town (aka Little Tokyo) joint. After two weeks of repetitive "Shabu Shabu House" propaganda from J., I relented in hopes to try and appease her craving.

Located in the shadows of the downtown skyscrapers, Shabu Shabu house sits in the Japanese Village Mall (which is practically all of Little Tokyo). Parking was a bit unorthodox. You pay the attendant at the booth 5 bucks prior to entering the lot, but get reinbursed with validation (2 hrs worth). Dinner starts at 5:30, but it's not unusual for people to show up an hour early to place their names on the 'list'. The place is small and sits about 20 or so guests, so the wait can be looooong. We tried to arrive early, but LA traffic on a Friday evening...forgetaboutit! We got there around 5:35 to an already packed restaurant and signed our names onto the list, behind 10 or so other waiting diners. The waiting list also asks you to place your order as well. The choice was limited: medium beef (10 slices, $12.xx) or large (15 slices, $15.xx). After we marked off 1 medium and 1 large, we decided to walk around the plaza since neither of us had actually been to Little Tokyo before.

Cuts of beef proudly displayed by the entrance.

After 15 minutes of visiting various shops, we decided to head back in fear that our names would be skipped. We waited another 15 minutes outside before the owner, an old Japanese man, came out and called off a few names. They were not present, but we were, so in we went pass the trophy cabinet (pictured above), right by the industrial meat slicer and to our seats.

There was no lag time between seating and eating. We had our own individual pot of water in front of us already boiling. The vegetables, udon, tofu (all included with your plate of beef), sesame and ponzu sauce were already set as well. The meat, freshly sliced, was brought out seconds later and just like that dinner began, before we were even able to seperate our disposable chop sticks.

I don't think there's a conventional method on how to eat shabu shabu. I instinctly took a sip of the ponzu sauce like it was a hot bowl of miso, then mixed my meat with the plate of veggies and ate my salad raw...just kiddddding. I picked up a slice of beef, dipped it into the hot water, wiggled it around until it was no longer red, then dipped it into the zesty ponzu and gobbled it down with some steamed rice. Yummy. I looked over to J. and could tell that the demons in her belly were satisfied...for now.

Dinner was interrupted 3/4th of the way by the check, which was understandable because of the long wait behind us and forgivable because the meal was quite delicious, even though I left feeling half full. I probably could've downed another plate, maybe even two more plates if I was fungry. We still had about 30 minutes of parking left, so we decided to walk around the plaza some more and let our stomachs digest. We got a cream puff at the bakery next door, hoping it was remotely close to a Beard Papa cream puff..."not even close", muttered J. with an almost disgusted look on her face. Minutes later we decided to enter the Fiore's...[to be continued].

Shabu Shabu House
127 Japanese Village Plaza Mall
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 680-3890