This Mother's Day, I decided to take my parents to try Kanpai BBQ & Shabu Shabu for their…read moreall-you-can-eat hot pot and Korean BBQ. When we arrived, I realized the location used to be the old Hong Kong Supermarket -- only longtime locals would probably remember that.
The layout inside was pretty interesting. There was a Te'amos milk tea shop in the middle, Lao Szechuan on the right, and the hot pot & BBQ restaurant on the left. The staff greeted us warmly and quickly helped us get seated.
One thing that pleasantly surprised me was that they offered freshly made milk teas and fruit teas instead of bottled drinks. The drinks were decent and refreshing, especially for balancing out the richness of the meal.
Each person gets their own mini hot pot, which I really liked because everyone could customize their own soup base and ingredients. We chose a variety of broths including mushroom, spicy mala, tomato, and herbal soup. Using the iPad ordering system, we basically ordered one of everything from both the hot pot and BBQ menus.
The food came out surprisingly fast, and they even used robots to deliver dishes to the table, which was smooth and efficient.
For hot pot, my personal favorites were the fatty beef slices, lamb, beef tripe, black tripe, tofu skin rolls, squid flowers, enoki mushrooms, corn, lotus root slices, kelp knots, fish balls, and beef tendon balls. Everything tasted great with the broth and my favorite sesame dipping sauce.
On the BBQ side, the standout items for me were the cumin lamb, beef tongue, chicken cartilage, short ribs, and squid. We weren't exactly BBQ experts, so some meats weren't cooked perfectly, but the flavor was still really enjoyable -- and the best part was that you could keep ordering as much as you wanted.
Honestly, for around $40 per person, it felt like a very good value. My parents both thought it was worth the price. We left full and satisfied, and the service was always attentive whenever we needed something.
Overall, it was a really enjoyable Mother's Day meal, and I'd definitely come back again with friends next time.