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2014-12-06
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Didn't mean to make the title sound so lonely but there are days when you want to shabu shabu and you don't have anyone around. So what is one to do?You can come here.Located in Causeway Bay down Patterson Street, you'll see an alley way next to the Hysteric Glamour shop. Go down that alley and you'll find Katte Shabushabu. The layout is simple. A bar chair at a bar table and one single hot pot station just for you and you alone.The menu is simple. They even have a swanky cartoon drawing of how
You can come here.
Located in Causeway Bay down Patterson Street, you'll see an alley way next to the Hysteric Glamour shop. Go down that alley and you'll find Katte Shabushabu. The layout is simple. A bar chair at a bar table and one single hot pot station just for you and you alone.
The menu is simple. They even have a swanky cartoon drawing of how to order. You choose your soup base, you meat and your sides. You can throw in some yakitori as well if you want. As the weather was cooler, it was time to shabu shabu so I came here for lunch. I was greeted by the wait staff who seemed to do everything from bartending, serving and cashing your bill. Later I found he was also the captain. He queried if I'd been here before and explained their menu and suggested the lunch menu is the most reasonable. I decided on the $168 executive lunch set which included assorted vegetables, Japanese pork, US beef, choice of two skewers ($50 and under), appetizer, Inakawa udon or rice, soft drink or dessert (which is just ice cream mochi). I chose udon and a soft drink and asked for yakitori suggestions. The staff told me that their chef does an amazing ox tongue so I chose that. My second yakitori was bacon asparagus.
I was then to choose a soup base from the four they had available: kimchi, bonito and kelp, sukiyaki and red snapper. The staff informed me that their signature soup base was red snapper so I chose that.Noted that hygeine was pretty good as they gave me two different chopsticks. One for cooking and one for eating. Most places don't unless you ask for it. As I work in microbiology, two different chopsticks at a hot pot place gave me top marks that I wasn't going to get sick afterwards.
I was given an appetizer of sesame seed marinated egg plant. It was cold and refreshing. The eggplant wasn't drowned by the sesame. Pretty good.
Two dipping sauces were given to me. Right is sesame and it was really thick. I've never had such thick sesame sauce. And it had a strong sesame flavor. Left is ponzu.
The soup base was red snapper and was very white in color. Taste was very sweet.
All the shabu shabu items were placed neatly on one plate. The assorted vegetables included various lettuce, enoki mushrooms, one shitake mushroom, shimeji mushrooms, one piece of Japanese tofu, pork and beef slices. The udon was also placed on the plate. Quality of the pork and beef were very good. Very tender. The udon was amazing. It was very chewy even though I boiled it for a long time. Portion size was just the right amount for one person.
The ox tongue skewer was really good. Pieces were quite large and cooked to a medium rare. Perfectly seasoned.
Bacon wrapped asparagus was also good. The bacon was crisp yet not burnt. The asparagus was still soft and juicy.
Pretty good deal for $168 as quality of ingredients was excellent. Even for a lunch set, they didn't skimp on the quality. Staff informed me that they were originally from Tai Hang (really?? I never noticed them) and they moved here recently. I would return if I am in the mood to shabu shabu and have no one to do it with at the moment.Should note as I was leaving, they had a chalkboard on one end that showed their daily seafood catches for dinner or people who want a la carte.
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