Downstairs, lunch and dinner, Monday through Saturday, this is the spot to head to for shabu-shabu,…read moreJapanese hotpot. It's Korean owned, and some of the flavors are Korean influenced (mostly in the dipping sauces), and they consider themselves a Korean restaurant, though other than those dipping sauces and some gochugaru chili paste to mix into the broth if you want, there's little, if any, difference from classic Japanese shabu-shabu. Upstairs, at night, Tokyo Bar, which is not, as we surmised, a spot for Japanese and/or Korean folk to hang and drink expensive cocktails before or after their meal, but, according to the woman running the restaurant part, "a lot of young people being crazy and drinking too much, you don't want to go there". I have the feeling that despite sharing a building and an entrance, they're separately owned.
But we're here for the one and only menu item, the shabu-shabu. In swift order, a pot of broth is placed on an induction burner and brought to a simmer. Our dipping sauces arrive, and plates of paper thin sliced meat (looks like top round, peceto, to me). But first you have to load up that broth with some flavor from the vegetable selection...you can make as many trips as you want and keep packing in more. And the beef is all-you-can-eat, and they just bring more as you finish off each plate. Plus bowls of really good udon noodles to add to the pot....
And then you get to the dipping - swish in some beef, grab some veggies and noodles, and off to your own bowl, with condiments to your own tastes.
While the basic hotpot is 650 pesos per person, about $11 right now (and keep in mind, again, that's with free refills on everything), there's an option for shellfish if you like - at 400 pesos a plate for a mix of calamari, prawns, and mussels. We tried it, but honestly, I'd skip it - the quality of the seafood wasn't as high as the beef and vegetables - it all tasted a little frozen and mealy. Though it does add some nice flavor to the broth, have to admit.
After you've eaten your fill of meat, seafood, vegetables, and noodles, the tradition is that the waitstaff whisk away your pot of now very reduced broth, back to the kitchen, where rice, an egg, and sesame oil is added, and returned to your table, ready for an intensely flavored rice porridge finale. We asked if they'd be willing to let us film it, and the manager agreed and came over and prepared the porridge at the table for us!
We ate it all! We'd go back again, happily. And it really is a steal - leave off the shellfish, and the only costs beyond the 650 peso base price are beverages (100 pesos for a 2 liter bottle of water that we shared) and tip.