Never fails! Their food is always great and fresh!?
Shabuway has been my go to place for years now. I’ve tried other hotpot/shabu spots, but nothing compared to the Shabuway San Mateo. The meat and vegetable quality is top tier! On top of that, everyone there is super nice and attentive! Makes for a very comfy experience. And if you’re looking for a spot to watch the game, 3 TVs!!
Biggest scam in the world. Should have walked out when I had the chance.Sharing is impossible because they charge $10 in sharing and soup fees. That's practically paying for .4 of another plate of meat.The meat is subpar. It is meat. It exists. You can chew it to gain protein in your diet. Of course, one can't just live on protein, so they'll give you a small plate of 2 small bok choys and a fingerful of cabbage and call that your serving of veggies for the day.Don't even get me started on the broth. The "traditional seaweed water" was tasteless. I tried the seaweed and it was no different from munching on my phone case. Their miso is also not miso.I paid for overpriced food so you don't have to.
Meat quality is pretty decent, but unfortunately thought everything else (especially broth and vegetables) was a bit lacking (taste for the broth, variety for the vegetables). I think there are much better other options for hotpot/shabu shabu for similar prices in San Mateo.
exquisite flavors and friendly staff! would highly recommend
This is so sad!!!! Is it so hard to open a hotpot restaurant and you do your job to make sure your soup base is good? You have nothing to do but make sure your soup is good right?! But no sorry, this place is awful experience!!! So I had spicy miso, taste like water. I’m not even joking!!! And I asked them “can this be more flavorful? “ I mean add more miso into it. But they said no can do. They gave me more soup base but still taste the same. The quality of meat is so bad too. Kobe beef and angus beef. Taste like cardboard box. This is so sad. I love hot pot. But this place you can skip for sure.
This is my favorite restaurant for healthy lunch. If I don't ask too many bowls of white rice, Shabu-shabu hot pot is low-carb, high-protein meal with good amount of dietary fiber, therefore I go to Shabuway at least once a week. The owner always carefully purchases the quality meats. When he could receive a good quality of beef blocks, he recommends Angus beef, for example, with confidence even I was about to ask Kobe beef which is higher priced. The owner is such a honest guy yet low-key usually.The meats are such carefully chosen, and the sesame souse is the best part of this hot pot. I can buy several Shabu-shabu sauces from Japanese supermarkets but no one can beat Shabuway’s rich and flavorful sesame sauce.Because Shabu-shabu is a self-service cooking, you have to careful heating the thin-sliced meat in the boiling broth. I prefer nice and pink medium-rare cooked, so I tap the meat only for 2 to 3 seconds in the broth. If you cook too much, it loses the texture, flavor and fat then the meat turns like a piece of cardboard… so be careful for heating and find your most favorite. Have fun!
The food is awesome but they've gotten a cheap on the vegetables I got one little piece of broccoli and two shoots of asparagus that they chopped in it 1inch pieces and they used a lot of cabbage as a filler to make it look like you got a bunch of vegetables they didn't used to be like that not with the last owners little disappointing but it's still one of my favorite places but I always feel like I'm settling when I go there
The meat quality is very good. The most expensive AYCE option is definitely worth it if you are hungry and the waiters will make sure that you are fed, even when it is packed. Soups could be more flavorful but the sauces provided at the table make up for it.
One of my regular spots that I go to. Affordable, delicious shabu, in one of the greatest locations in the bay area. I recommend upgrading your vegetable plate to the California veggies, if you're a fan of mushrooms. The portions are great here, so even though the lunch special is 5oz, it's still plenty of food (and for only $15!).Highly recommend this place for shabu veterans and newcomers alike.