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2014-06-22
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We arrived at 12:30pm on Saturday and were seated immediately. It's a very large restaurant and never filled up completely while we were there.As others have mentioned, this restaurant is located in the basement where Monster Sushi was originally located. They took the budget route and kept essentially all the same furniture and fixtures and just converted the sushi bar to put the hotpot items.However, since it's a coverted restaurant, the electric hot plates (or portable gas stoves in some case
As others have mentioned, this restaurant is located in the basement where Monster Sushi was originally located. They took the budget route and kept essentially all the same furniture and fixtures and just converted the sushi bar to put the hotpot items.
However, since it's a coverted restaurant, the electric hot plates (or portable gas stoves in some cases) are placed on top of the tables, which makes seeing what's in the pot a bit challenging for children. It's in the basement, so there isn't any scenery. Also, one of the walkways to the drinks section was very narrow, where only 1 person could pass through at a time.
Conclusion: This is one of the best value Japanese shabu shabu restaurants in Causeway Bay during lunch. Not sure what the environment is like when it is full, but the day we went, the noise levels were low, food was plentiful and service was quick.
Compared to their Tsim Sha Tsui outlet, it felt like this restaurant had more food options. The only small complaint is that they didn't provide communal chopsticks for the pot.
Soup Bases
You can choose from Sukiyaki (sweet soy sauce) or a variety of shabu shabu soup bases ranging from clear broth to spicy miso or kimchee.
There's a $18 charge per pot for choosing 2 shabu shabu soups (鴛鴦), which is much more reasonable than other places that charge you an extra $20 per person.
We chose tomato and pork bone, which was much more flavorful than I expected - I ended up not using any sauces, because the broth was sufficient to give the meat flavor.
Meat
We chose the mid-tier 極上 beef and 90 minute all you can eat, which cost $138/person. The beef and the pork were both quite good and compared to other places, the quality quite consistent from each plate, while not being too fatty. As always, a key trick is to not overcook the meat.
Vegetables
There are a lot of vegetable choices - at least 4 types of leafy greens, potatoes, tomatoes, leeks, winter melon, squash, carrots and daikon/turnip. The only thing missing compared to other places is taro.
Fish balls
Lots of Japanese and Chinese choices - basically all of the standard items and some not so-common like Taiwanese 貢丸 and fishball with meat filling.
Frozen Yogurt
That day, the flavors were Red Bean Milk or Green Apple. The table next to us complained that the frozen yogurt wasn't ready at 12:45, but by the time we finished, was working fine.
The red bean milk was excellent with bits of red bean and creamy milk flavor. The add-ins are an interesting variety ranging from shreded coconut to pineapple nata de coco, but all quite good, although not particularly compatible with the flavored yogurt.
Other
Rice - Fried rice and curry beef - We didn't try this, but both looked quite tasty.
Drinks - Full range of choices - Skol beer, packaged Nestea, a full soda fountain (including Cream Soda), 3 types of Japanese tea (sencha, genmaicha, oolong)
Noodles - We didn't try these, but there's at least 3-4 types from Udon to Soba
Sauces - The selection of sauces is a bit more limited and "different" from what you see at a Chinese hot pot - There were Japanese Yudzu(Grapefruit) Vinegar, Japanese Garlic Soy Sauce, sesame sauce, spicy daikon, leek, spring onion, spicy soy sauce.
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