SWSH Shabu Shabu

Amazing service as always, this time we brought our 17 month old daughter and they even offered to heat up her meal (home cooked meal that I had prepared) and our server was so attentive. My husband loves his rice and water and goes thru them pretty quickly. Our server offered the big bowl for his second serving of rice and kept checking on his water. Never had a bad experience here, we always come during dinner time.
Excellent cut on the salmon and generous amount as well!

Sukiyaki broth was THE WORST broth I’ve never had! How many cups of sugar do they use for it? Really tho, how many? The waitress even offered to add more water to our broth if it’s too sweet BEFORE we even tried it. So I’m guessing we did not get a bad batch, that it was meant to be disgustingly sweet. We were starving and just tried to add our own water and other seasonings to save the broth, fail. I’m just very disappointed. Spent over $ 100 for a birthday dinner here and wasn’t even satisfied. I hate over paying for less than mediocre food. The broth was sweeter than dessert! Doubt we will ever return. Really DISAPPOINTED and DISGUSTED. Even when we got home we still had the nasty overly sweet lingering taste in our mouth! Water please!
Say NO to sukiyaki! :)

I sometimes don’t realize how shabu is an uncommon meal for some people.
How to order:
1. Choose your broth.
2. Pick your meat (can choose a combination up to three).
3. White or brown rice.
4. Noooooodles at the end (ask for soup base if you get kombu broth)
I love the broths here. The spicy miso is flavorful and mild. When I get sukiyaki, I get half sukiyaki and half kombu. It gets a little too sweet for me to drink the broth.
I prefer short rib over ribeye! I like the texture. Scallops are nice and plump. Chicken are thick slices, which I like.
The vegetable plates here are HUGE compared to other shabu restaurants who serve chopped up pieces of cabbage in little bowls. They have four different kinds of noodles here: glass, udon, ramen, and shirataki.
I don’t like goma sauce, here it’s really peanut-​y. I love love love their ponzu though. I like it extra citrusy! Don’t forget the egg that comes with the sukiyaki. Try a couple of hot drops in the egg.
If you have room for fondue, I recommend milk chocolate over green tea white chocolate.
Service here is always attentive. Come early for dinner and HH or late night to avoid their waits.
HH appetizers that I like: chicken karaage, shrimp tempura, tofu nuggets.
Park in the structure, second floor. It’ll take you directly to SWSH on the right.

This place is my new favorite place! I don’t think I’ve had this good of customer service as this place! The workers are so sweet and so easy to talk to! And the food OMG so good! The fondue is phenomenal after a hot pot! I split a veggie shabu with my friend because it was a pretty good size and we just paid a little extra for an extra set of sauces and soup. So we split the veggies. With my sukiyaki sauce it came with a raw egg dipping sauce. I absolutely love trying new foods so this was an awesome new sauce to try. If you can handle the raw creamy yoke taste then it’s a must try! Shoutout to Maggie for awesome customer service and being so helpful at our first time! Great experience!

One of the best spots for shabu that keeps you full. You will forsure go home in food coma lol. I like how you get your own pot, esp if you’re a germaphobe like me ;) I get the kombu plain water broth with a reg/​large short rib and brown rice. The rice is unlimited but one bowl is plenty since you also get udon noodles and some glass noodles. The meat is always so fresh. They sauces are also great. I like 2 hot drops in each. The perfect amount of heat. Sometimes 3 if I’m feeling adventurous.

I think I finally found my go to spot in Irvine for my dear lover shabu!
Parking is hell because it’s in DJ. So just make sure you come early to avoid the annoyance.
I came in on a Sunday night and I only waited about 15 minutes to get a table simply because I didn’t want to be seated at the bar.
They have plenty of drinks to choose from but that sake (flavorless)was refreshing and cooling. There is a also wide selection for appetizers– try their popcorn chicken with the special sauce and their edamame. I do think that their 3 options for broth is too limited. They should add more variety of broths. I got spicy miso and it was alright. Lots of veggies and the brown rice was amazing. Prices are normal for a shabu place, my friend and I got a large and shared, we paid about $ 18 for it (luckily no sharing fee unlike other places). Meat looks lean in comparison to other shabu locations. Their peanut sauce is soooooo good– it’s a must try!
Happy hour starts at 10, don’t miss out!

It’s 60 °F and for SoCal, that’s winter and cold and calls for shabu shabu. We’ve been on a shabu shabu binge: Little sheep, Jazz Cat and now SWSH
Stopped by on a chilly Friday night. Parking is awful at Jamboree plaza. Wait was about 20min, not too bad for a small place.
The service is stellar! Out waitress was very patient in explaining each of the broths and meat sizes. Once we ordered, the meal came very quickly.
You get a standard tray of veggies and ramen/​udon depending on your broth. The sukiyaki was good at first but quickly became very salty as the broth rendered down, despite adding more water to it. It paired nicely with udon. The meats were fresh: ribeye, shrimp, scallops.
Hubby had the spicy miso which paired great with ramen. But that broth still lacked ‘a bit of something.‘
Overall it was ok. But with shabu shabu that delish broth is key and for me the flavors were lacking.
Good thing we had Jazz Cat earlier in the week that satisfied the shabu shabu craving!

SWSH shabu shabu is a great place for shabu shabu. If you’ve never had shabu shabu, it’s basically a Japanese hotpot dish of thinly sliced meat and vegetables boiled in water. The ingredients are stirred in the cooking pot and served with dipping sauces. The food is cooked piece by piece by the diner at the table.
You have your choices of broths and meats such as pork, short rib.
They also have appetizers you can order such as edamame and gyoza, takoyaki, chicken karaage, etc.
I love eating this dishes because it starts out as a dip then a soup! I always have something to take home because there is so much food. All the meats and vegetables are fresh and tasty!

It is ok for one time gathering with friends. Quality is ok. Little bit pricy. I can not say you will be definitely happy with this place.
The funny part is they will charge you for any small dish of kimchi. Which is usually free everywhere.

This was a great spot to go for warm food and drinks. I ordered the spicy miso and my friends order the sakiyuki. I actually prefer their choice was brother over mind because it was sweet and different. It consisted of a taste of soy sauce and teriyaki sauce the meats were also very good, it was more than enough meat for a group of three and all we order was rib eye and short ribs! The servers were also very helpful. I am allergic to peanuts and one of the sauce I tasted had peanuts… It was the servers mistake but honestly they were so accommodating that the small mistake was easily forgiven. Really should check this place!!!

First of all, I want to take the time to thank the amazing employee name Phong. He was absolutely delightful to have around and made my dining experience so much fun!
My boyfriend was taking me out for dinner since we were celebrating my nomination for Children’s Librarian of the Year… sadly, I didn’t get the trophy, but he still wanted to celebrate anyways.
He knows how much I love Shabu Shabu/​Hot Pot Restaurants so he took me to SWSH.
I think I’ve had plenty of hotpot dining experiences to know the good ones from the bad ones… SWSH probably knocked off all of my favorite places and made it in top 2.
I ordered the Spicy Miso with the regular ribeye. My boyfriend ordered the Sukiyaki with the regular angus beef.
Upon looking at the menu, I was surprise to see that there were only 3 options of broth to select from, but now I can see why. If you have your 3 best, might as well just stick with it. Other places like Jazz Cat or Boiling Point may have a long list of broths for you to select from, but having 3 makes it easy. You’re not sitting there the whole time trying to figure out what you’re going to get. If you wanted to, you can get 2 broths in one pot! It makes life easier and you’ll be happy.
I didn’t want to bother getting 2 broths in my one pot since going with my boyfriend meant that I can easily steal all of his food while eating mine too! ;)
We sat at the very end of the bar closest to the kitchen and I can see them preparing the veggie dishes and slicing all of the meats. Everything is made fresh upon placing your order. I also liked that the quality of their meats were grade A! It was sliced thinly enough for you see and taste the juiciness before and after dipping it into your broth. After you finish dipping it into your broth, you have another opportunity to dip some more! so if you love dipping, dip away baby… dip away.
There are 2 sauces: the Ponzu and the Goma sauce. Ask your server for the green onions so you can put it into your ponzu sauce. For your goma sauce, you can add crushed sesame. YUM! If you love to eat spicy, they have spicy chili oil they can drop into your dipping sauces.
If you get the Sukiyaki, ask for a raw egg!
You want to dip your meat into the Sukiyaki broth, then dip it into the raw egg right away. After you swirl your meat around in the raw egg, consume! The egg locks all of the sukiyaki flavor inside of the meat! Amaaaaazing right?! yes. it. is.
You’re nearing the end of your dinner, but it doesn’t stop here. You have some ramen or udon noodles sitting there on your plate… go ahead and toss everything into the broth then take it out to consume!
It’s a lot of food, but so much fun to eat. I couldn’t stop smiling the whole time because everything tasted so delicious.
A dinner for 2 costed around $ 50! :) SO WORTH IT!
Anyways, thank you SWSH and thank you Phong. I look forward to coming back again real soon!

Me and my girlfriend have been going here for years! We even have the five star rewards card and have redeemed a lot of free entrés. Staff are very friendly, the line can be a bug sometimes but it’s always worth it.
I always get sukiyaki broth with short rib and 7 drops of hot drops on the peanut sauce. Whenever me and my girlfriend dont know where to eat, shabu never fail to amaze!
We’ve also tried a lot of different shabu places from LA to Glendale to Costa Mesa. But nothing compares to the flavor of SWSH.
Man, talking about this makes me salivate! Matter of fact imma go there right now. Haha!

If you are craving shabu SWSH gets the job done. Came in for dinner late Sunday night and the wait was around 45 minutes, parking for the diamond jamboree plaza is always crazy so don’t get frustrated if its takes forever to find parking. I also feel like the restaurant was on the smaller side, there was plenty of seating but they probably couldn’t accommodate for a parties bigger than 4.
We ended up sitting at the bar and sharing a hot pot. I wanted to try both the sukiyaki and the spicy miso soup bases and they were thoughtful enough to ask if we each wanted our own pots or if we wanted to split a single pot.
They were pretty slow to bring out all our veggies, sauces and meat. The soup base came out really fast though we had to get it refilled before we even got the rest of our food because it was boiling so much.
The udon noodles complimented the sukiyaki soup really well. But I have to admit this soup base was on the saltier side even though it was sweet. The spicy miso added a nice balance to the strong flavor of the sukiyaki. The ponzu and goma sauce served with the shabu was good, I really liked the peanut flavor of the goma but the ponzu was a little too zesty for me. The hot drops really had a kick to them, I went for two drops and I could smell the heat coming from the drops.
Overall, this place is worth the try and I would come back.

Another good shabu joint…
I came here with three other people during OC restaurant week for dinner. Me and another girl arrived around 6pm and they would not let us sit until our entire party was there. Understandable since it was pretty busy. Once everyone had arrived we waited another 10 – 15 minutes and were seated. My friends all went for the restaurant week special which was either rib eye or pork with edamame or gyoza and mochi ice cream. I, on the other hand, went for their salmon. I got miso broth soup (+$ 1) which included ramen noodles. I asked for one drop of hot drop in all my sauces and it was perfect. All the veggies came out fresh and there were a lot of it. My salmon tasted fresh and was good as well. My only complaint was that the ramen noodles took FOREVER to cook.
It’s about $ 20 for a regular size of shabu for dinner. They have the option of regular broth, miso broth (+$ 1), and Sukiyaki borth (+$ 2). Sukiyaki is a sweeter broth and comes with a clear dark glass noodle. They don’t put hot drops in your broth here because they calm the hotness of it comes out in the steam and can «burn» your eyes. The service was excellent. They were quick with our orders, nice, and got everything right. The inside is fairly small. They have a few booths that comfortable fits four people each and a bar area. I really want to come back and try their happy hour or lunch. The prices look pretty good for those. Overall, I believe this is a good addition to the plaza and a great alternative shabu place to other Irvine shabu joints.

Pretty solid Shabu Shabu place:)! Please make sure to make reservations unless you like to wait: P Seems like most people here are on time with reservations!
[+1] Service was really good. They felt bad we waited for an hour so they gave us free edamame on the house for us to munch on. Super nice!
[+1] Happy hour all day Sunday! Drinks are priced nicely! Saketinis are delish! Doesn’t taste alcoholic so they’re very dangerous!
[+1] Lovely beautiful thinly sliced, high quality ribeye! All you had to do was swish it around for less than a second and the meat would be cooked nicely! Soft, buttery, melty texture goodness in my mouth! Soooo good. So good with the ponzu too! I got two ponzu sauces since I loveeeee ponzu! I could drink that stuff down!
[-1] No one mentioned the soup base for the udon to us when we were done with our meal… other people got it but not us. They also didn’t let us know that you can sub veggies you don’t want with veggies you do want! Boo! I’ll have to dock from this one. Shabu Shabu bar in Santa Ana is always on top of the soup base when you eat your udon!
[+1] The décor is absolutely gorgeous in here. The walls are detailed too. It definitely fits here in the diamond jamboree plaza!

I came here this past Monday night for dinner around 7. It was pretty mellow and there was no wait at all. Of course, you have to take the stairs to the upstairs area of Diamond Jamboree.
The waiters and waitress were very quick to take our drink orders and food orders and brought everything we asked for right away. For appetizers, we ordered the edamame, the cucumber salad, and seaweed salad. They were all very good :)
We ordered the short rib, salmon, shrimp, and vegetables, with one regular broth and one sukiyaki broth. If you like spicy, get the hot drops in your ponzu sauce, sooo bomb! If you don’t feel like beef, I would definitely get the salmon :) I like the regular broth, but like my udon noodles in the sukiyaki broth. It adds a lot of flavor!
If you have leftovers, you can take it to go, but for some reason they won’t give you the ponzu sauce to take on the side. They tell you to pour it over your food because its policy that they can’t give an extra one for you to take home. It was really strange.
For birthdays, they ask if you want ice cream. They had lychee, black sesame, strawberry, and green tea.
Oh! And of course after you’re full you want to be lazy and take the elevators… But we clicked on it and it made a loud screeching sound. So we just took the stairs instead to be safe.

This place is really good for shabu and replaced the love I had for Mokkoji (although I still enjoy it there).
I always get the Spicy Miso broth with the pork and I love the pricing during the late night (I forget how much but it’s around $ 12 a person). I thought this place was really good because I really enjoyed the broth which I found surprising I guess considering I never got a broth at Mokkoji (I would get the Spicy).
Staff is attentive and nice and came here twice with my friend whose brother was very helpful and quick w everything (Darren) thank you hahaha
Will come here when I’m craving shabu and it’s in a really convenient plaza where you can find a lot of other food afterwards.

4.5 stars
With young ins it’s hard to dine at a shabu shabu. SO, the hubs and I have been on a shabu shabu hiatus for about 1.5yrs. We had some MAD cravings, so we picked a place that was spacious with tables for the kids to sit (rather than counter tops only). SWSH’s set up worked out great during lunch time.
MEATS:
Certified Angus Beef Short Rib: $ 13.50 ® and $ 16 (L). Our large order had about 16 slices. Tender w/​hints of «marbelization». Careful not to overcook the meat, it will dry it out.
Certified Angus Beef Ribeye: $ 15.50 ® and $ 19 (L). The regular order was about 11 slices. More tender and melt in your mouth!
BROTH:
Kombu: kelp seasoned broth w/​standard veggies and udon noodles. Classic broth that allows you to the enjoy the ponzu and peanut sauce. Ask for SOUP BASE when you’re ready to eat your udon. My FAVE part
Spicy Miso: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! Spicy miso broth with champon ramen noodles.
If you want a kick with every bite, this is the way to go. One caveat is that the broth will mask the ponzu and peanut dipping sauce. But, the cabbage and noodles with this broth was SO good. Throw in a little water since the broth will be salty towards the end of your meal. I loved it.
VEGGIES: broccoli, seaweed, cabbage, spinach, tofu, carrots!
Ok to opt for no veggies and get more noodles. But, I’d stick w/​the veggies and noodle combo. Better balance.
CHICKEN KARAGE: Fried chicken for the kiddos w/​rice. Well seasoned!
TID BITS:
1) Located in the Diamond Jamboree plaza. Upstairs near Balcony. Parking structure available. Level 2 will take you directly to the restaurant.
2) Kid friendly. But, I’d aim for non-​peak hours.
3) MSG: didn’t feel any :)
Our taste buds were VERY satisfied. My favorite shabu spot in OC at the moment.

Will definitely be coming back here again for their spicy miso broth! Yumm! Me and my boyfriend shared one pot. He ate the meat while I ate the veggies; we also got an extra plate of veggies since we both eat them. I must say that their spicy miso broth is one of the best I’ve tasted. It wasnt actually super spicy for me, but it had really good flavors to it. It’s a dollar extra, but totally worth it.
I also love how when you don’t like a specific vegetable, they can replace it with other veggies that you prefer to eat. So since I hate carrots, I asked for no carrots, and instead asked for more enoki mushrooms. They also have three different types of noodles: ramen, udon and shirataki. You can ask for all three, just two, or just one kind. I love how flexible they are and generous with their ingredients.
Our waitress was really nice as well. She forgot to put in my tofu nuggets, so she said she could bring some on the house. I was already full, so we didn’t end up asking for them.
They have a bunch of meat options, and what’s cool is that you can get a combination of 3 meats/​seafood for a certain price. This is a good deal if you want variety and don’t just want to eat one thing.

LOCATION: Of all the places to put this place, they chose this plaza?! Anytime I’ve come to this plaza, I’ve been on a serious hunt for some parking– this last visit, I was lucky. Parking anywhere on the ground level between all the restaurants is a recipe for disaster. You have a collab of asian x bad drivers x hungry students x crap parking spots. Luckily, let me save you some time– park in the parking garage behind the shops OR in the lot in front of HMart.
3 STARS
AMBIANCE & FOOD: Nice and modern. Love that there’s a bar and booth option. Also love that there’s a divide for the hot pots to accommodate bigger parties. We waited maybe 25 minutes at most, they don’t have too many booths, so it did take a while to sit bigger parties.
I got the Ribeye regular, which was kind of pricey to be honest. $ 18.50 for a dinner regular. They still had all the necessities though: chili oil, habanero drops, ponzu, peanut sauce, soy, green onions, garlic, radish, etc. Bottomless rice and the soup you get at the end. All were standard and good portions.
4 STARS
SERVICE: Linda was our server and she nice and friendly. Always came back to check up on us and refill our waters. One thing she did forget was to bring our Kaarage Chicken, but we were glad she forgot about the appetizers because our first-​timer shabu friends did not know what they were getting into and were super full by the end.
4 STARS
Overall, I’d come back if I was craving shabu. I’m glad it wasn’t packed like everywhere else in that plaza. Their flavors were just as good as my go-​to place (with the exception of the ponzu sauce). Keep it up SWSH Shabu! I got my newbie shabu friends hooked on this spot!