Shabuway Japanese Style Hot Pot

Came here with my bf tonight and we were immediately sat since it wasn’t busy. The resteraunt was spacious and clean. I actually came here before for a birthday and really enjoyed the meat, atmosphere and drinks!
I ordered the Large American Kobe & Premium Lamb with half Spicy Miso broth and half Spicy Tonketsu broth (I think thats how you spell it). The broth honestly were eh. I didn’t taste much flavor, since the spiciness overpowered it. The vegetable portion was very, very sad as well… you’ll see in my picture. The lamb and kobe meats were great though, super tender and melted right in my mouth. The ponzu and a sesame peanut like sauce were very tasteful and went really well with the meats. I just wished the soup was more enjoyable as well.
This all came out to be around $ 22~ and honestly for the portion of meat they gave us. it didn’t seem worth it :/​
Service was decent nothing special, we were checked up on at-​least twice. Think I’ll continue my search for a better shabu type resteraunt.

30+min wait and guest who came after got their food before us when we sat down first. Two GROUPS oF people AND did i mention THEY FORGOT TO GIVE US THE THIRD PORTION OF MEAT .
Timely manner you say. If you order before the person behind you and they get there food before you how is that timely? I apologize for my stupidity that i did not take your offer for the free items that you suggested when you ONLY offer to serve the missing portion of meat. If your establishment was so well managed why were you not out and about asking customers how is everything? Instead you only come to Unilocal to defend your honer by a simple comment instead of in person. Please ask for reinforcement from your superiors on management and PA.

Friendly, quick service! Always a great experience! If it’s your first time their really good at explaining.

Best of the Shabuway locations by far. It’s out go-​to place for shabu and always hits the spot. Big meat slices with good quality and I prefer the California veggies for more variety. It can get a bit crowded, stuffy with steam, and tough for parking but totally worth it.

Love this place. Excellent service! Great food! If I live closer, I’ll be here every day. I am addicted to their tonkakasu (not sure of it spelling) broth. I always get that broth with the all you can eat vegetables, meats and appetizers. So well worth it!
This place never let me down! Always hit the spot.

So glad to have found an all you can eat shabu restaurant. We were lucky to get seated right away as the place was starting to fill with hungry customers.
Tip for all you can eat shabu… everyone in your party has to get the same combo (A or B). We opted for combo A.
We will definitely come back to this restaurant whenever we’re in town.

I called to ask when they close since Unilocal says 9:30 pm but this is the SECOND time I have been turned down. I am a frequent customer here I dine here about twice a month.
The lady on the phone said they do last call AT 9 pm, so I get there at 8:58 pm. She says they already did last call. She argued with me and said: «on the phone I said we do last call AROUND 9 pm». This girl is a liar, she told me they do last call AT 9 pm. I already knew the menu I was going to order quickly and eat before they shut the doors at 9:30 pm. You just lost a long term frequent customer who brings you referrals for business meetings. I’m extremely disappointed.
I did not come in after 9 pm and they can review the security footage to clarify. I came in at 8:58 pm as stated above.

Ohh gosshh yaaassssss!!!
Shabuway i love you…
Been going and eating here for years and still think about eating shabuway everyday… Lol
All u can eat baby… 7 orders of meat
I love you will you marry me shabuway!!!

The food here is just as good as at the other locations but this place is shabbier and the service is slow. The one in Saratoga (in the same plaza as Mitsuwa) is nice and the one in downtown Mountain View is even better. I’d go the extra distance and eat at one of the other locations.
Normally I’d opt for the bar as that guarantees multiple pots but the bar seemed improvised and was awkwardly set on lower ground so it didn’t really have the usual bar appeal. Our table was sticky, the condiments were not stocked, and it was far too crowded, especially once all our meat and vegetable plates arrived. Four people sharing one pot, albeit a big one, is a bit limiting even if you can choose two separate broths in the one pot.

Nothing is better than hot pot in a cold weather! It was my first experiencing in Shabuway, surprisingly good! Clean and good service is all I ask for in a restaurant, so I can more enjoy their food!!! I order the lamb and pork, it’s so good with their dipping sauce!!! Can’t wait to go back again!

I prefer this place over other shabu places I have been to because it has Kobe beef for an affordable price. I usually order the spicy miso broth and Kobe beef with lamb. Worth your money but the service is a little slow considering it doesn’t usually get packed.

The service is not great here and the food for what you are paying is not all that filling. Came here for the first time a couple days ago for dinner and was shocked at the lack of service after I came into to join my other two friends who were already eating. Took me a good 10 or more min. to get the attention of an actual server so I could order. I had to talk to the meat cutter first to even get the server to help. Making eye contact doesn’t help at all here! The food is average and the meat portions for a medium sized order is underwhelming. Definitely opt for the large if you are hungry.
I won’t come back to this particular place, and I don’t often eat Shabuway. I wouldn’t recommend it unless you have no other options. They did have TV’s so we could watch the warriors game which is a nice touch you may not get at other hot pot joints. Its like $ 17 for a medium and $ 20 – 21 for a large order. Not really worth it in my opinion. And you can’t even control the heat on your own hotpot here for some odd reason, lol. Terrible.

Recently came here on a Friday night. Actually surprised for a Friday night it wasn’t was crowded as expected. Maybe because of all the new chinese hot pots that have been opening? (the world may never know…)
Anyway Shabuway has always done on a good job on their quality of meats and vegetables that they serve. Price wise its pretty reasonable as well. Where this location fails was the fact that they were understaffed for a Friday night. Three total employees for a Friday night, basically there were empty tables available for us (as well as several other guests), but because they were understaffed we had to wait an additional 10 mins to finally get our seat. If your slow in getting your customers to the seats ready to order and eat, i think management really needs to add to the headcount because your pretty much losing customers who see empty tables but can’t get seated. It’ll be awhile before i come back.

To sum it up for fellow Unilocalers: food is okay. Service is not so great.
The food was 3 stars. Nothing really stands out. The sauces were great. You can customize your sauce with green onions, garlic, and more chili if you like but I usually skip that because it’s fine on its own. I ordered the vegetable shabu shabu with spicy miso and my family ordered the American Kobe. Vegetables were fresh, but the cabbage slices were way too big.
Service gets one star. There was only one girl serving all the customers and a man cutting meats. There was also an older gal who I assume is the boss. I’ve read previous reviews and everyone has said the same thing. There. Is. Not. Enough. People. Working. I asked for water three times, soup spoons twice, and my vegetable tray was forgotten. I don’t blame the poor girl serving us. There’s only one of her and a room of customers who need her undivided attention. I blame management for this. Customers have been bringing this to your attention for several months and you still blatantly ignore it.
There are several things I want to address as well. the ventilation sucks. I could not enjoy my meal because steam was blowing into my face the entire time. And the whole «we’re in a drought. Conserve water» irks me. I’m fine asking for water. However I feel this is just a poor excuse to be lazy. Another Unilocaler also pointed this out as well. You’re supposed to OFFER water. Your customers are not supposed to ask for it. And since you decided to adopt this frivolous policy, at least make sure your customers get water when they ask for it. Because I got mine halfway through my meal.
Verdict? I would not come back
Also a friendly psa: this is JAPANESE style hotpot. Not Taiwanese. Not Chinese. For those complaining about the lack of flavor in the seaweed broth, or writing a review just because it didn’t meet your expectations from other places you have dined at (like little sheep), I suggest you do some research on what Shabu shabu is. Traditional shabu shabu is just that. A broth flavored with seaweed in which you cook you meats and veggies in.

Came here on a Sunday night around 6pm. Surprisingly there was no crowd at the time, about half the restaurant was full. Not sure if it’s usually like this at that time, but it was a delightful surprise since we didn’t have to wait.
We ordered our broth first. You get the choice between seaweed water, spicy miso or half and half. We went with the half and half, which is perfect! With the soup, the waitress dropped off two sauces, Ponzu and Sesame Sauce.
My girlfriend got the American Kobe (medium portion) and I ordered the combination of beef and lamb (large portion). The meat slicer is in the front and you can watch them do it.
Vegetables were fresh and the right portions!
Back to the broth, we used the seaweed water broth for the vegetables which was perfect because the flavor wasn’t over powering. We used the spicy miso for the meat, which definitely brought out the flavor.
The prices were pretty high, but the amount of food was definitely satisfying.

One of the best Shabu I’ve ever tasted.
— services is good
— delicious taste
— must order Kobe beef and lamb
— great location
— lots of parking
— reasonable price
— couldn’t find any inconvenient in this place, so I will probably be back soon.

Just your average shabu shabu place. There is a 6 $ sharing fee which is kinda dumb. So they force you to order your own stuff basically. If you have a big appetite DONT settle for the regulAr and just do your self a favor by ordering the large. There is options to add more meat to your order but it was expensive. The vegetables were okay and the meat was okay. The mild soup base was good and I like how they give you the option of having two types of soup. Since our group did not want the clear (?) soup we got one side mild and one side medium! I wish they refilled the soup base though because it got pretty low by the end of our meal.
I’m not a HUGE meat eater so I can’t really say much about that but my friends had nothing bad to say about the meat! Definitely a place I would come to if I was craving some shabu shabu again though.

YUM! I love this place, and crave it so once every two weeks or so. It’s those dipping sauces that keeps me coming back for more. THAT PONZU AND SESAME SAUCE THO! Those sauces with meat, veggies and rice just create some sort of perfect collision in my mouth.
I always get the same ish. Mild miso broth, the basic veggie plate (enoki mushroom, couple of shitaki mushrooms, seaweed, couple of tofu squares, nappa cabbage, a carrot slice and some glass noodles), and the American Kobe beef. I tend to stick to beef, because I can’t really tell when meat is safe to eat.
How I usually tell is when the meat changes from that raw pinkish red color to that cooked meat color, but what has been happening lately is that my meat would stay that pink color, but the texture would be cooked. Turns out the chili oil from the broth would color the meat that color.
Both sauces are AMAZING! Don’t go mixing them though. I enjoy garnishing my sauces with garlic, green onions and some chili flakes. Veggies go best with the ponzu sauce in my opinion, and the meats are excellent with both. My favorite is dipping the glass noodles in the sesame sauce.
It’s quite filling for a medium plate which is usually $ 16.50 for American Kobe. Decently priced for a plate of meat, veggies and soup if you consider drinking the broth. Service is great too. They’re attentive, friendly, and always on top on refilling the sauces.

Yummmm I prefer shabu over Little Sheep any day! (Too much msg at Little Sheep).
Shabuway’s food doesn’t contain any msg at all and you won’t feel like shit after eating it.
I’ve gotten the seaweed broth and vegetable plate before. The entrée comes with plenty of vegetables that are super fresh. My favorite is kabocha squash heheh. It also comes with dipping sauces that are really good even with the vegetables!
Good shabu place back in the bay :)

This location seemed pretty small that for a table of 4, it took about 25 minutes to get seated.
Shabu shabu is perfect on a cold night. For 4 people, we ordered 2 large and 2 medium as if we decided to share, they would have charged a sharing fee. It comes with rice and the dipping sauce: ponzu and goma (sesame). For the broth, we had the traditional seaweed and medium spicy miso. The medium was super spicy that we couldn’t cook the vegetable and meat for too long. Luckily, when they added more broth later, the spiciness was just right. Overall, satisfying meal, but minus one star for the slow service.