Shabu Shabu 鍋ぞう - Japan

こんにちは! I came across Nabezo whilst researching for a reasonably priced Shabu Shabu to have in Tokyo. There are a few Nabezo's across Japan but we decided to go to the one closest to our hotel in Shinjuku.

Nabezo 8F Shinjuku Takano 2nd Bldg., 3-30-11 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo

Shabu Shabu is quite like Chinese hotpot however in my opinion the Shabu Shabu soup bases are a lot lighter compared to Chinese hotpots where you can have super flavorsome soup bases. Prior to my meal at Nabezo I was always a fan of just spicy Chinese hotpot but after Nabezo I started to like Japanese Shabu Shabu as well.

Nabezo is an all you can eat buffet, you can choose between a 90 minute meat course, 120 minute meat course or just a 90 minute vegetable course and the prices varies depending on your age.

We decided to do the 90 minute meat course which was ‎¥2,480 per person (excluding tax). The course came with beef, karburagi pork, chicken, veggies, two types of soup, sides and dessert. We also decided to add the "All you can drink" option for ‎¥1,500 per person. There are 5 soup bases to choose from, Shabu Shabu, Sukiyaki, Shio-Tonkotsu, Kimchi and Tounyu-Collagen. We decided to have the Sukiyaki soup and the Shabu Shabu soup.

Nabezo get's quite popular during dinner time, we saw people queuing outside for quite some time while we were eating, make sure you either get there early or go after 8.30PM.

The meat and sauces are brought over to you whilst the veggies, seasoning and drinks are self served. Other than veggies they also offer tofu and noodles such as udon.

The Sukiyaki soup base came with raw eggs for you to dip your meat into whilst the Shabu Shabu soup base came with sweet soya sauce that we originally thought was extra Sukiyaki soup base as the colour was the same!

You can help yourself to the extensive range of seasoning they have. They have your typical seasoning such as chilli flakes and dry onions but they also provide Japanese sesame sauce and even salad sauces.

We tried all our meats in both the soup bases and we thought that the best meat was the beef and personally I preferred the Sukiyaki soup base more. Lucky we also chose the light Shabu Shabu soup base which was made from beef tail and vegetable extract because the Sukiyaki soup base can get a little bit sweet so when that was the case I used the Shabu Shabu soup base instead. I personally preferred putting my veggies into the Shabu Shabu soup then dipping it into the sweet soya sauce.

The highlight of Nabezo in my opinion was the drink station. We went to Nabezo twice during our stay because of the drink station they had!

The drink station had a HUGE range of drinks! It had soda, juices, teas and coffees and to be more specific they had some pretty nice drinks like ice matcha latte or ice chocolate. They also offered all sorts of teas that I can assure you that you won't be able to try them all in one visit, we didn't get a chance to try all the drinks that were available during our two visits! I was glad we added the "All you can drink" option, it was totally worth it!

Lastly Nabezo offers a few flavors of ice-cream for dessert which is also all you can eat however in my opinion the drink station and the Shabu Shabu itself were the main focus of Nabezo.

I really enjoyed Nabezo as the place served fresh meat, veggies, delicious soup base as well as having a large drink station. The price was fairly reasonable given the quality of the food and the restaurant itself was very clean and comfortable. We enjoyed Nabezo so much that we went again before we flew back to Hong Kong!

After my meal at Nabezo I was searching Hong Kong for something similar in which I managed to find Nabe Urawa, I'll share this with you guys another time!