mr shabu shabu

beef shabu shabu set - with a cute little pot on a stove with vegetables and tofu, thebeefslices and also side dishes of seaweed salad and spring rolls

my love of shabu shabu is no secret, but on this particular visit, a friend and i indulged in dessert there after our reliably deliciousbeefshabu shabu. there are three icecream flavours on the dessert menu – green tea, black sesame and red bean – all traditional japanese dessert flavours. i picked the black sesame and my friend tried the red bean flavour. the scoops were $3.80 each and came out in a side dish-sized bowl, with one reasonably sized scoop inside. the black sesame scoop was a not-completely-appealing grey colour, but had a really fascinating savoury taste. the icecream was very creamy and at first that hid the sesame flavour, which made an appearance on the back palate at the end of the mouthful. the more i ate, the clearer the flavour became, and whilst it wasn’t as sweet as i expected, my friend preferred that to the sweeter red bean flavour. i tried a bite of the red bean, and actually thought it worked better, the sweet flavour pairing well with the creaminess. the verdict? japanese icecream flavours are an adventure, definitely worth a try with varying sweet-savoury options!

this was my first visit. i had the prawn tempura udon noodle. the prawn tempura was oily so i could only eat 2 of the 4 on the plate. the broth was very one-dimensional and the udon was gluggy in parts. my better half had the unagi don, which was also very one-dimensional. it had accompaniments of a pickle which was ok, and a springroll with corn kernel inside. i didnt get it and thought it looked sad and waste of space. our third diner had thebeefshabu shabu and she looked like she enjoyed it. i had a taste of some broth and a slice of thebeefand agreed it was the best of the 3 dishes. 

so if you ever find yourself in this place, avoid the prawn tempura udon, the unagi don and go for thebeefshabu shabu. i dont know anything about the other dishes and it is highly unlikely i would be going again to find out...

the prices here are also pretty student friendly, with a meal costing between $12-$16 per person. something worth noting is that the owners/runners aren't japanese, but that's not a big deal for me as long as the food is good. while s opted for the teriyaki chicken, i went for a thebeefshabu shabu. i also really felt like some noodles (let's be honest, when don't i feel like noodles?) so i also went for an extra bowl of udon noodles for $2. the bowl of noodles was very big for the price but i must say the noodles did taste very sour--which is usually indicative of them being not very fresh (to put it nicely). however, the shabu shabu itself was much nicer. thebeefwas very fresh and nice quality--very nicely marbled and the type of meat you expect to get at a good korean bbq or hotpot. the broth was tasty and flavoursome and i enjoyed the little sides (some wakame seaweed and a spring roll) too. i would've loved some more veggies (chinese cabbage, pumpkin and shiitake mushrooms) but i think for $14 (including rice) it's pretty good value, especially for canberra.

i really enjoyed the food and my time there. visually i thought the interior was very nice, simple and modern.  i ordered thebeefset which came with a hot pot of soup (in which you place your raw meats in to cook), seaweed salad, rice, enoki, a sesame peanut sauce, tea and an asian type of roll similar to a spring roll? you can order add on such as extra meat for about $7. now on to taste… oh my, the broth tasted so nice! i could seriously keep drinking it (but it did get a lot more salty after adding thebeefin). my negative comment would be that their choice of cutlery does make it a bit tricky to eat. i only wish they gave you a soup spoon and a serving spoon instead of just the latter. i found it hard to drink the soup. i love seaweed salad so i’m super happy with that, and the sauce was a great combo with everything else...

one of the nice dinning options around anu, i recommendbeefshabu shabu, the marbledbeefslices tastes really tender and flavorful. good portion of sashimi set also.