AB Shabu

Quality over quantity. Also, very quite ambience. Don’t compare this place with AYCE place next door. Also, it is very clean. Go with beef, and just ask for what is most popular.

I dont mind paying lit higher price than others when we got better quality of meat. And their fried rice is really good. Too bad that they are only serve it at lunch time.

I was invited to eat lunch all the way in Rowland. I almost did not want to go so far to do a DIY cook my own meal. I thought the whole point of eating out is to eat a cooked meal by the restaurant chef. Even though maybe I am old fashioned, I still say, cook the damn food in front of me… haha. Not sure what is all the fuss about shabu. Shabu wasn’t invented few years ago. It has been around for thousands of years!
Actually AB shabu isn’t too bad, it’s actually a-​ok. I think most people who’s looking for some heavy broth may have mistaken Japanese Shabu with Chinese Hot pot. Japanese shabu is very bland with water and a piece of seaweed or the miso soup base. The Chinese hot pot is where they put all kinds of spices or what not.
All in all, Shabu or hot pot, they are not my cup of tea. Personally, I like a cooked meal when I eat out. If I wanted to cook, I might as well stay home and cook my own damn meal. Same thing goes with KBBQ, I would like someone cook it so I don’t smell like a bbq pit for the rest of the day or night after I come out of the restaurant.
So, we ordered angus beef with the house broth (beef slices are SUPER THIN and the house broth is very bland). I had the vegetarian with water and seaweed broth. Since I am not a big spicy food eater, I actually enjoyed my veggie shabu. Each person gets 3 sauces. I only like the ponzu so I cannot comment on the other 2 sauces. Every meal comes with either white rice or fried rice. I chose to skip the carb of course. After the meal, each person gets a coffee jello. Of course since I don’t drink coffee, I opted out my coffee jello.
Over all, I actually liked my very bland veggie shabu with water and seaweed broth. Since I didn’t have to pay for this meal, I liked it more. However if I had to pay and cook this meal myself, it would be just A-​OK. That’s why it’s a 3 star. I would only be back if I am invited. Not sure if I would come back here on my own. Sorry, AB Shabu. It’s a me not you kinda thing (lol)!!

I was very happy when I walked in here and saw no line on a Saturday night! Knowing that it was a weekend I figured there would be a wait. Anyways onto the food… they did have a wide variety of meats such as ribeye, Kobe beef, lamb. The meat portions was kind of small. But the slices of meat was a decent size. The soup base was a little disappointing because they didn’t have spicy miso. They only had a couple of plain based ones which didn’t sound too appetizing.

Great spot. Very clean. Fast and knowledgeable service. Went for dinner for my brothers birthday, had never been to this style of restaurant before. Our server filled us in and I felt like I actually knew what I was doing haha.
If you have never been to this style of eatery (cooking your own food in a boiling pot of broth and spices) then this is a good place to go. Good ambience, good energy, nice and casual. The server wasn’t always coming up to our area asking us a million questions.
Oh and the food was delicious. That’s the most important part right?

TLDR: overall average 4.25 stars
A solid shabu shabu place. Clean, fresh, good service. You won’t be disappointed.
Food: ⁵⁄₅ stars
Always hot and fresh. Shabu sauce comes with 5 different flavors. 3 different dipping sauces, and various proteins.
Atmosphere: ⁵⁄₅ stars
Always clean and comfortable. Modern minimalist styling and decorations.
Service:4//5 stars
Fast and efficient.
Expense: ³⁄₅ stars
Medium lunch $ 20 with tax and tips. A bit more than average for lunch. Dinner costs about $ 5 higher.
Return: ⁴⁄₅ stars

I like coming here for lunch. Instead of white rice, you can get the fried rice. But don’t be surprised if they run out of fried rice. The small ribeye is filling if you eat all your veggies. Now for the sauces. I really like their peanut sauce especially with fresh ground sesame seeds. I use the peanut sauce to dip both my meat and veggies.

This is now my go to Shabu Shabu place! I ordered the small beef with kimchi broth and an egg. The kimchi broth had so much flavor! I liked how they had the three different sauces on the side. Very clean place with great service! AB Shabu you have gained a regular!

Decided to try this place because Jazz Cat is always crowded and it seemed to have pretty good reviews. Was extremely disappointed. Not only was the service terrible but the food was just as bad.
The waiter recommended me to get the House soup base saying it was really good. But it was awful no taste whatsoever, it just tasted like water. For the price it was pretty expensive and totally not worth it for me. This place is definitely a miss for me. I do not recommend coming here at all.

I distinctly remember it being really good when I came here when it first opened. I remember it having great quality of meat and that the soup base was pretty good. Today, my friends decided to come here so I came here for the first time in a really long time. Time to test out this place again!
I wasn’t a fan of the soup base. I got the House Broth, which is supposed to be chicken broth. However, it didn’t really have much flavor. I added a bunch of green onions, radish, chili oil, and red pepper, and the soup base became pretty good after my my entire meal was finished, after my meat had been cooked in there. It wasn’t bad, but expect it not to taste like much in the beginning. I think i was just expecting it to taste like chicken soup, like chicken broth which was stated in the description of House Broth.
For my meat, I got the kurobuta pork. I didn’t ask for lean but this was pretty lean. I usually don’t order pork at shabu places but I was trying to be healthy and eat less red meat since it’s the holidays, and there’s just too much food around this time of year. I was pretty satisfied with my pork though. The portions are very small so if you are hungry or a guy, a small will not fill you up. They said the small is 3oz, medium is 6oz, and large is 8−9oz.
It’s decent but I remember it being way better when I first ate here. The servers are nice though.

I was so utterly disappointed by this place. It has 4 stars on Unilocal so I thought it was going to be a good experience. I was so wrong. It was so expensive and the food was just not good.
I ordered the small beef rib eye which is about 14 – 15 dollars with the miso broth (additional $ 2). The broth had absolutely NO flavor, it seemed like just water and salt. Horrible. The meat came out and it was FIVE pieces… FIVE PIECES OF MEAT FOR NEARLY 15 DOLLARS. I came here with my family and all five of us didn’t like the food at all.
I’d rather go to Jazz Cat and wait a little longer because at least it’s worth it to go there… This place is absolutely terrible, and for 5 people at dinner time the price was $ 91 with tax! Absolutely NOT WORTH IT. Don’t even bother coming here.

Food feels super authentic! Ponzu sauce for all the food stuffs and sesame sauce covering the rice. I have nothing to complain about the meat and portion sizes. You can get free refills of the rice if you’re not sharing. My favorite part is the sesame seeds!!! You get a grinder, which I always play with for a bit, but then I dump dem babies over pretty much everything. Sometimes the sesame flavor becomes overpowering… but I love it.
My winter dream meal!!!

I’ve been on a Shabu Shabu diet recently since my GF got super addicted. Ever since we tried Mokkoji over in Arcadia we use that place to compare it to others. The restaurant is pretty big and we beat rush hour so no wait and we got seated right away. She got the Sukiyaki broth and I got the House Broth. Mannnnn their Sukiyaki broth was sooooo sweet I don’t know why anyone would enjoy it. House broth was aite.
The meats were pretty good. We got the ribeye and the lamb. I like how you can choose how fat or lean you want the ribeye. Veggies are regular and sauces are too. They have Ponzu, Sesame and Satay sauce. You can grind sesame seeds to add extra flavor to the sesame sauce. As usual, I added garlic on everything and ended up gassy. Not a bad spot for Shabu Shabu but not the best.
Service was good and place is clean at least. Plenty of parking as well.

I wish I found out about this place sooner!
I always went to Ichi ichi and sometimes Jazz cat — when AB shabu was just as close to me! Their meat quality is so much better than Ichi ichi and Jazz cat. If you are a shabu snob like me, you would love their sauce and quality of meat. Their regular broth is chicken broth and you don’t need to pay extra for the chicken broth! So awesome. Also they give you sesame seeds for you to grind in a bowl to put in your Goma sauce.
I like that they keep the place nice and cool, especially when you’re eating it tends to get hot fast. The layout of the restaurant is very spacious, not too crowded. Which I like, because although the it’s a full house– you still feel like you have your own space without hearing other peoples conversations.
Overall, I had a great experience both times I’ve been here. As I’m writing this review, I’m now craving for it!
I guess I know what I’m having for dinner tonight ^_​_​_​_​^!

I came here last night, Wednesday at 7p.m. on a double date… Can I say that this was one of the best double dates I have had! Yes it was with great company, but it was also the excellent service and the delicious food that complimented my night.
Parking: Once you turn right into the plaza, you make a sharp right into the first opening of the parking lot. It is easy to miss, but if you pass Home Depot, you are going way too far! With that said, there is plenty of parking just be aware of the drivers because clearly some don’t know how to turn their right shoulder while backing up.
Food: We ordered, two lamb (Large), two beef (Large). We ordered the potatoes wrapped shrimp, which was such a great choice!
Broth: 3 of us got the HOUSE BROTH while my other homegirl got the Sukiyaki Broth. I loved my house broth, I literally drank every last drippity drop of that Pot! It was super flavorful and I kept on sipping more and more even when I was super full. I also got to try the Sukiyaki, it was very soothing and sweet. If you like sweet over savory that is the go to broth, but I think I will be sticking with my HOUSE BROTH of GOODNESS. Sauces and Rice are refillable, which my boyfriend loved!
Prices: We were very shocked that the prices were that expensive. For a Small (4 slices) it was about $ 15.00. OBVI, we had no choice but to get the large. If you are a guy, maybe try getting the XL. Both the women of our party finished the large and believe me, we didnt want to share. But the quality of meat was definitely a compromise for the price. My boyfriend and I decided that we would rather pay for quality than quantity, so this was the place!
Service: We loved our server! He was so nice, explaining the menu and offering his suggestions. He was tall and had glasses, he even took a a really great photo of us. He gave everyone their personal tutorial of our sauces. He made us feel so welcome. Everything came out fast, soups were refilled and waters were refilled without asking.
THIS PLACE WAS SO YUMMY, I loved the experience will come back again!

I was not particularly familiar with this style of dining; you cook the food yourself on a hot plate in the middle of your table. It’s a great treat for those who enjoy Asian food but feel that most dining experiences don’t feature enough third degree burns. The popping oil from the hot plate coats the entire table and your shirt in the most delightful layer of grease. I also met a lovely nurse in the subsequent trip to the emergency room. Thanks, Shabu Shabu style!

I decided to give this place a shot because jazz cat that night was packed with people and it looked like a more than two hour wait line at around 8PM and I was starving.
For people who have a hard time choosing which soup base they want, this place is the place for you. They only have 5 but for two of them you need to add two extra dollars so basically for me it narrowed it down to 3. I chose the sukiyaki. It was pretty flavorful, not too salty and just the right amount of sweetness. There were three sauces but the sukiyaki had enough flavor so I didn’t use them much, other than to flavor my rice. The rice though was more towards the undercooked side. It was hard but still edible and the sauces made it better… kind of haha. For my parents, they were drawn more to the other two lighter soup bases, the kongbu and house broth, which they enjoyed. The meat quality was average just like most 10 – 20 dollar shabu places.
overall, pretty decent place if you don’t want to wait in a long line for jazz cat and also don’t care for the large variety of soup bases to choose from.

Surprisingly pretty good! Service was impeccable, I don’t remember her name but she was super hard working and spot on! The meat quality really surprised me! It was almost as good as Little Tokyo’s shabu meat, just almost! They give you a lot of veggies, which is good meaning their not super stingy about their ingredients like some places around this area. I heard their most popular broth was really good, but I just wanted kobu that day. They also give you dessert, which is cool! It is pricey compare to other places around here.

Currently my favorite shabu shabu restaurant because of their simplicity and their sauces. You get three: ponzu, sesame and satay.
One thing I also like is that they offer lean cuts for their beef.
Their sides are delicious as well, I ordered the sweet potato fries and it felt freshly cut and deep fried.
I always order the Sukiyaki broth, it comes in its own special pot.
Great service and I enjoy the spacious setting. Its located in a busy plaza however I am always able to find parking.
The only thing I would say they could improve on is their image, it seems dull and complacent whereas most shabu restaurants such as Jazz Cat or Mokkoji has its own theme.

I have always been a big fan of shabu shabu and hotpot and my goal has been to try as many different places as I can, I finally got around to trying out AB and I was excited to try a new place.
I got the angus beef rib eye medium portion with miso soup base. My boyfriend got the large lamb with house soup base. The miso was good, not too salty, and the beef was tender. My boyfriend said his soup base was a bit too subtle but we listened to fellow Unilocalers and he added a bit of garlic and that definitely made it a bit more flavorful. The lamb was tender. I enjoyed the variety of sauces that they provided, and how it’s all presented in front of you instead of having to get up and get your own sauces like at other places. The only down side was that they didn’t give much veggies or other miscellaneous sides like how jazz cat and ichi ichi give you fish balls and a variety of different things. Here they just gave you a few pieces of tong hao and lots of Napa and cabbage.
Food quality wise I would have given it a 4 for quality, a 3 for portion compared to other places and for the price we’re paying. It was considered pretty pricey, around $ 20 – 25 a head.
Unfortunately I give this restaurant 2 stars for its service. The moment we got seated we were asked if we were ready to order, uhm no? Does it look like I even got a chance to open the menu? Then within 5 minutes we were asked another 3 times, twice by the same server, once right after we just told the first server we weren’t ready. Talk about annoying… give me at least 5 minutes please. Jesus Christ. I commend them for their quickness (although it’s a bit annoying) but what got to me was how they handled this following situation.
At the end of my meal I was taking sips of the soup and I found a bug in my soup, right there glued to my spoon, talk about a big bummer. I was actually enjoying this new shabu place. We waved down a waitress and told her about it and she did not know how to handle the situation at all. She said sorry curtly and kind of stuttered a bit before running off to tell her manager. They took my meal off the bill and gave us some dessert that I didn’t bother eating because God knows what I would find in there. The situation could have been handled better in my opinion, the manager could have came over and did a better job apologizing instead of having his clearly new employee suffer the anxiety. Probably won’t be coming back.