Ka Shabu

The coupon is only good for one entrée and the service is pretty bad. Lunch is until 2, but really they stop serving at 1:15 or earlier.
I ate here once before, the food is alright, but nothing is more irritating than waiting for someone to put water into your hot pot. Why have so many if you can service everyone? There was only maybe 15 people total in the restaurant. But after today… I don’t know about going back. 1:15 vs 2:00 hello???

Clean, tasty and great service. Nerriann was on top of everything! Super friendly and very helpful. We upgraded steak which was fantastic– I recommend it. Shrimp was just okay though.
We’ll be back!

Decided to try this spot out with my girl the other night. The restaurant itself has a great location and is very easy to find but finding parking just like anywhere in DT is a mission if you don’t have a roll of quarters in your glove box LOL.
The place was packed when we got there (8ish on a sat night) but we managed to get seated immediately. Others that were literally right behind us nearly waited for 30mins. The place is set up like a large lounge where you stare right into the eyes of the people across from you the whole time which was kind of a drag. No tables at this spot.
The service was really slow, this place caters to larger parties and nearly half of the restaurant was taken up by a group of 20 or so drunk as f*ck middle aged tourists. There were literally 2 servers for the entire place and it took 15mins to get our 1^st bottle of their house sake (medium bottle had approx 6 shots or so for ~$ 9 which was really over priced for house sake) & but they do serve several decent micro brews like great white which was kinda redeeming.
The broth here is only water based, much like traditional Japanese shabu houses. I have grown partial to a sea weed broth & my girl loves miso, but alas we didn’t have the option of either. The meat is distributed based on portion/​# of cuts and was also on the pricey side compared to other shabu spots in the area. The regular portion of Angus beef only had 9 cuts and was a ridiculous ~$ 18!, I was starving and after 2 bottles of their house sake (should have just got the large for $ 30.), I had to have the samurai (30 pieces for $~29). My girl opted for the regular angus. The cuts here are incredibly thin and literally rip into pieces when you try and put them into your broth from your plate. They also only give you 1 half of a shitake mushroom cut into quarters so I had to order a side order which the server forgot about and had to be reminded half way into our meal.
After we were about done, I checked in on Unilocal!and was surprised to see that they offered a check-​in offer of 25% off a second order of equal or lesser value which was greatly appreciated considering the highly inflated price of literally everything on the menu. When all was said and done our bill came out to a shocking total of $ 68!
Summary: Super crowded, slow service, & over priced. Should have just gone to our usual spot (Sakura Shabu Shabu on Beach Blvd.) and sat at a nice private table & paid ²⁄₃ the price for better quality meat, veggies, and better broth as opposed to just water.

Park in the structure behind Ka Shabu (it’s called like «American Parking» or something like that) — they validate for 1 hour. Skip scouring the streets looking for a meter.
Check in on Unilocal if you don’t have any other coupon or are not here for Happy Hour. They usually are running a check-​in deal!
This place runs Groupon deals every once in a while, making them a great value when you have the coupon. But after my latest visit here I have to say that they’re pretty average compared to the other spots you can get shabu in Orange County. I went with the filet and it came out near-​frozen, which on one hand made it easier to stick together (the meat begins to fall apart once it thaws out and you try to pick it up), but on the other hand is an indication that you might not be getting the freshest meat possible. I think that was the case this time as once cooked, the meat came out less tender than I was hoping. I realize that with the lower fat content, it’s not going to be as juicy as a ribeye, but I’ve definitely had better shabu filet.
The service I received here was way better than the quality of the food. It was relatively empty when I was here so I enjoyed very attentive and courteous service.
Either a Groupon or Happy Hour are the best value you’re going to get here.

If I was a dinosaur I’d be a Shabu Connoisseures, being an addict of Shabu I decided to try venture out yet again to another Shabu place.
I’m going to break it down like an MC, here it goes…
PARKING: If there is no meter parking available, park in the structure behind KA
but be warned KA only validates for an hour the rest is out of your pocket (cash only)
DECOR: I liked the interior of this place and the large layout, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many tables in a Shabu place.
SERVICE: Tifany was our server, she was friendly and always smiling and checked on us periodically.
FOOD: The sauces were not for me, The Ponzu was blah and the Goma was full of peanut flavor which leads me to believe Peanut Butter was used. The meat was very thin and fell apart very easily, Udon noodles MAY have been frozened.
PRICE: More expensive then any other Shabu restaurants I’ve been to.
This place has one big thing going for them, LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!!!
FINAL VERDICT: Ka is ok, it’s not KA KA, but it’s ok.
I’d come back if somehow I found myself wondering around Main Street.
RANDOM FACT:
Shabu-​Shabu, is also spelled Syabu-​Syabu.

My grandmother loves shabu-​shabu, so it seemed like a no brainer for our family to check it this spot out. Groupon promoted Ka Shabu sometime in the past and since it was a restaurant close to our home we decided to patron the restaurant and purchased the $ 30 for $ 60 worth of food deal for 4 people.
The setting is clean with modern Asian accents and the perfect spot to enjoy a game and warm meal. The bar is fully stocked and Kim and Brandon took great care of us. Never did I have an empty glass and our food was brought out quickly and with a smile. For the price the food quality and quantity was a great value. Each of us ordered a regular (9 pieces of protein) with our own pot and left stuffed. We happily boiled our veggies and meats, and enjoyed the broth at the end.
I will agree that the Ponzo sauce tasted sour, but I loved that we were able to crush our seaseme seeds. It just smelled so aromatic and combined with the peanut sauce mm… it was an awesome dipping sauce.
Overall it’s a nice fushion restaurant that’s step away from the beach.

I’ve heard a lot about this place so when my friend suggested to come here for dinner then bar hop, I was down. We got there around 10 pm and there were only 3 other ppl in the restaurant. Sweet, better service for us.
We ordered a large choice beef with extra veggies to split and some saki. BTW the split charge is 7 bucks for your own veggies and rice but we opted for no rice. Who needs carbs. haha.
Everything came out quick, the servers were extremely friendly and the food was delicious. My only complaint is the prices are a bit higher than most other shabu places but if you check in on Unilocal,I believe they give you 25% off of the 2^nd entrée or something.

Shabby Shabu
Excuse the title but my experience @ Ka Shabu wasn’t anything special. The service was good but for some reason service at shabu shabu restaurants with bar type seating is never as attentive as having servers visit you table side. Maybe since we’re in front of them they think they don’t need to hustle or that they’ve given us enough face time. Whatever they need to boost service– they need more of it!
As for the food, we got the 2fer deal for $ 25. I think that might not have been the best choice for us since we ordered another huge plate of beef in addition to a side of salmon. I guess we were hungry! I also forgot to mention (or maybe it wasn’t worth mentioning in the first place) the garlic edamame we ordered. Not very impressive. It wasn’t seasoned with salt, just garlic. You know the garlic they have in front of you to season your dips & broth? They probably tossed around a scoop of that after the edamame was heated. Whatevez!
The things that really struck me as unappealing were the veggies and noodles. Sure, I haven’t had shabu for sometime now so maybe I’m being unreasonable when I say that their veggie plate was a little weak to me. Wilted and not very much to go around. They also don’t offer flavored broth. Not a total biggie but a little sad nonetheless. OH, and I would have to agree that the pot is just totally out of reach. I get the whole safety issue but it was hard to control my apparent spillage problem… merrp.
Besides all that. We did receive smiles and kindness, which is a plus. Food was food since it was my job to flavor it to my liking. I did enjoy the little touch they added in the beginning of the meal as I crushed my sesame seeds mortar and pestle styleee. Gotta love the details. Overall, I just can’t see myself coming back here. A-​OK from me!

After re-​visiting Ka Shabu and getting their angus meat, I’ve decided that the quality of the meat alone makes this a five star shabu shabu place. The angus meat here compared to the prime meat at shabu shabu bar doesn’t compare. Ka is superior as far as taste and quality.
I only have one gripe, and that is that the stoves are too far away from me!

Got a great groupon deal for this place and decided to try it for dinner on a Wednesday night. It was not busy so we got seated immediately and our waitress took our orders right away.
I ordered the regular choice beef. The meat was a bit lackluster for me compared to cali shabu. The goma sauce was really sweet and watered down, the ponzu sauce… well, you can’t really mess up there, and unless you’re Dwight Howard, good luck reaching the pot with ease. The vegetables looked fresh and I believe they had bak choi, which is a great addition to the regular cabbage. But with shabu, I feel like their meat and goma sauce says it all because you’re seasoning your own broth so you can’t really blame anyone but yourself. The hot drops were what saved the sauce for me so thumbs down on that.
The service was spectacular. Our waitress was a super hot Irish mixed girl that was really sweet and attentive with refills and helped us reach stuff on the far end of our table counter thing. Thank god for groupon, because I would’ve been pretty pissed if I had to pay full price for that meal. The portion was meh because their large size is the size of a regular at cali shabs. It was not bad, but it is definitely not a go to place to satisfy your shabu cravings. Actually, not a go to place unless you have a groupon deal.

So I never really had shabu shabu in the states, but now I have!
My friend is the manager here and he gives the best service! haha. All the workers are really friendly and helpful. They tell you how to shabu if you’ve never gone.
All the veggies and meats are fresh. The appetizers and desserts are BOMB! The mixed tempura is perfect — the batter isn’t thick and greasy. Trust me, you won’t go wrong with the appetizers. I’ve tried all of them, and they’re ALL good! If I’m wrong, tell Brandon (the manager) that I said everything’s suppose to be made to perfection and he’ll get the chefs to get it right! haha.
Happy shabu! :)

The Good: Awesome service, they take the time to talk and explain how everything works if you are new to the Shab (I think that word will catch on, so be forewarned that I will work it in as much as I can). If you are new here’s a breakdown. It’s a bar with hot pots at every seat, no tables. You sit down and they tell you to season your pot, ask for help if you have not clue, they are awesome and will set you up with the normally seasoning, but since they tell you what’s what you can add more of what you like. While the pot warms up to a boil you can work on your sauce, you smash some sesame seeds they they will put the peanut based (?) sauce in. The meat will arrive, you cook it, dip it and then enjoy it. Then when you are done cooking they make a soup with the broth at the end. Make sure you save noodles or vegetables for it: D
The Bad: It’s a bit pricey for what you get. For $ 20 you get like 4 oz of meat, I might be off on that but it seems like that. It’s really thin slices of meat and you get like 10 slices. Not all meat cook at the same rate, so make sure you fully cook your pork and chicken but don’t overcook the beef.
The Ben: In the end it’s just boiled meat. It’s not my thing, I would rather have grilled meats so if it’s your thing then this place is worth checking out.

Ka Shabu continues to deliver. All aspects remain on point, the service, the food and the place.
This particular morning included quite a few customers and one server. Understaffed for this rush so the wait time at most intervals was long. It took a while to get attention for any particular need, as well as food delivery but I realize she was doing the best she could.
I can’t lower their rating on this one incident but it should be noted that every late morning or early afternoon I’ve been to Ka Shabu, they are always staffed by one server only. So if you pull the trigger on a day that has a lot of customers, expect longer wait times. The food is still excellent though!

Located next to YogaWorks in Huntington Beach Main St.
I got a Groupon for $ 15 for $ 30 worth of shabu! What a deal. (Check into Unilocal and get 25% off!) The food was delish. Service was super friendly. If you never been to shabu, they will explain how it works.
We got the lunch (3 pieces) portion for 12.75(?) with 2 choices of meat. angus beef (add $ 3), kobe beef (add$ 22!!). It also includes veggies, udon, glass noodles, tofu, corn, broccoli and rice (brown or white). You would think it’s little, but it is more than enough.
The sesame chicken was like popcorn chicken & sweet/​sour sauce I can get for $ 2 at a boba shop. It is not worth it for $ 8.
The hot drops were super hot. It came in a pharmaceutical orange container, which tells you it can be very dangerous. 2 drops is more then spicy enough. I, myself like it super spicy so I got 4.
The only complaint that I have is, I agree with Andy N: «The pot was so far from how my arm extends.» I hate reaching so far for my food.
Would I come back? Yes I would! :) The girl who works there is super friendlyy
Yay for brown rice!

I came here yesterday for my second time to have dinner with a girlfriend of mine. We were seated right away and had a great server who was very friendly and attentive.
I ordered the regular choice beef and our server asked if we wanted extra green onions and of course we did. The ponzu and goma sauces were better than the first time I tried this place so I enjoyed it. We also tried the sweet potato fries and fried green beans which were both very good. Only thing I wasn’t feeling at Ka was that the pots on the heat tops were a far reach. Other than that, service was great!

HH 25% off! SCORE!!! Good service and good portions! This place is pretty big, there are 3 sections to sit in and there is also a bar area. Great for big parties. HH is the best time to come here, 25% appetizers and all shabu shabu. They offer diff sizes of meat portions for you to choose from and you can select different combination’s of meat too. Hot drops are also available if you like the spicy side. there is sesame seeds for you to grind with your sesame sauce. the sauce was a little too peanutty at first but then I got use to it, or dipping my food diluted it a bit. Once your done with the majority of your meal, they will also make the noodle soup for you in the end, they bring out a good size bowl with soup base, so save room for that later. Definitely coming back, during HH times.

I LOVE THIS PLACE!!! This has to be my favorite shabushabu spot! I wish I lived closer or else ill be here once a week lol
This place gets packed so come here with patience or not that hungry lol The service and staff was wonderful! I felt like I was eating at home and hanging out with friends! I ordered the combo. Angus beef and salmon in Large! I ordered brown rice with it. It was incredible! They cook it so well :) the beef was delicious and tender and the salmon was just amazing! the broth and soup after was a plus! I highly recommend this place. Worth the try!!! Price was perfect!

Wow! Ka Shabu… why didn’t I go visit you sooner! I found out about this place through Groupon. I bought the groupon awhile ago and realized it was about to expire, so I headed down to HB for some shabu-​daaboo-​doo-​ing!
The restaurant is located right on Main St. in Huntington Beach… a few streets down from the beach. The restaurant itself is large, plenty of seats with a full bar. Everything about this place was sexy, from the servers down to the boiling pot of water.
We ordered the crispy green beans ($ 6.50), large angus beef ($ 23.50), large pork ($ 19), hot green tea, Kirin and complimentary sake. The green beans came out first and it had a wasabi/​ranch dipping sauce… the server said this was a big seller, but I thought it was just okay, the dipping sauce was odd… not bad, but just odd.
Then it came time to shabu shabu doo-​ing! My favorite part!!! Something about meat splishing and splashing in boiling water and then yummy sauces makes me salivate! The servers here are outstanding, she actually seasoned my water pot and sauces for me! She was so good at explaining everything, that even though I was not new to shabu, I sat and listened to her because I didn’t want to be rude.
The beef was fantastic! By far some of the best quality beef I’ve had when it comes to shabu. The large was definitely a nice portion, because I was completely stuffed at the end. The veggies were nice and fresh and everything was delicious. And at the end, when I was ready I dumped my noodles in and asked for the soup bowl. Of course our server offered to make the soup for me, but I opted to season my soup myself:
Okay…but when it comes down to it… in my book, shabu is all about the sauces and here at Ka, the goma sauce was just too peanut buttery for me! I’m still obsessed with goma sauce from shabu shabu bar. But they do let you grind your own sesame seeds! FuN!
I would definitely come back here… it would also be a great date place, because you can come here for a nice dinner and then a nice walk on the beach afterwards! Que romantica!

Well worth the trek to Huntington Beach to hang out on the pier and dine at this almost brand new shabu joint. Four stars mainly because the service was outstanding and the entire experience was as entertaining as Benihana in the 80’s (which as a child I found very entertaining).
Shabu is nothing new in Asian enclaves but it does seem like it’s becoming more mainstream. Ka’s location indicates that it targets a more mainstream crowd, which is fine, and the quality isn’t very compromised. At the same time, there was nothing special about the cuts of meat or the sauces.
Hot drops (in our sauces and in the broth) was new and interesting to watch as each drop was dispensed from the lab-​like dropper bottles into our food, but tastewise, it’s no different from the chili oil on the table of many Asian restaurants. Likewise, grinding your own sesame seeds for the sauce and having the ponzu and broth mixture created right before our eyes was fun (akin to how the servers at PF Chang randomly mix sauces at the table), but both were actually less tasty than other more authentic shabu places. In fact, seeing the waitress pour in two generous rounds of soy sauce and sesame oil into the broth made the meal a bit unappealing for me. Typically, kombu seaweed & water is sufficient — shabu is meant to be healthy.
We both ordered a glass of wine which came, unbeknownst to us when we ordered, with a complimentary bottle of sake — for each person. Not ones to waste alcohol, we walked out sufficiently stuffed and buzzed.
One order can feed two people, but there is a $ 7 charge to split, so you’re better off each getting your own and taking the remaining udon soup home for breakfast the next morn… great to nurse the hangover that you will have from all that EtOH.
To the enthusiastic servers: good job in creating a wonderful atmosphere for your guests.

Not worth the time or the money!
It’s a cool concept really, with great ambiance BUT the food is lacking. Tiny portions: 5 paper thin slices of meat, 3 pieces of cabbage, 3 pieces of spinach, some noodles and some onion cost a whooping $ 23, +$ 7 for splitting. That would cost you ¹⁄₁₀ at the grocery store, and really all you are doing is putting the food in a pot of boiling water, cavemen was doing that LONG time ago. No need to fork out major greens.
$ 50 for 2 and I was still hungry. :(