Shabu Shabu House Review in Los Angeles, California

When it comes to meat, I am the pickiest eater. I'm a guilty carnivore who likes meat too much to give it up completely. Nonetheless, I don't like to be reminded that the tasty burger I'm eating comes from an actual cow. As a result, I don't even eat any kind of chicken or beef that has bones in it, because that's a little too realistic for my comfort. Knowing all this, it seems like the biggest contradiction in the world when I tell people that one of my favorite restaurants is Shabu Shabu House, located inside the Japanese Village in Los Angeles.

What is shabu shabu? It is a Japanese method of cooking in which a tender cut of beef (most often beef such as rib eye steak) is very thinly sliced and served raw. With chopsticks or a fork, a person picks up the thinly sliced beef and places it in a seasoned boiling pot of water and then swishes it around for a few seconds until the beef is cooked. The beef is then dipped in a sauce, such as a peanut or sesame, then dipped in rice before being eaten.

I'd only had this dish once before and I was on a mission to try and find the best place to eat. After spending an hour or so reading restaurant reviews on the internet, it became clear that there was only one place in all of Los Angeles that I had to visit: Shabu Shabu House. Not only was it the first restaurant in the United States that specialized in shabu shabu, but the fact that it consistently had a wait that varied between one and two hours meant it had to be good.

I was already familiar with the Japanese Village in Little Tokyo and knew it had great sushi restaurants and great ice cream places. We got to the restaurant and noticed that everyone that was eating seemed to be very intent on enjoying their food, which was a reassuring sign. We made our way to the other side of the restaurant and put our name on the waiting list. We heard the owner tell people who signed up after us that it would be about an hour wait, so my date and I left in search of some ice cream.

We came back in about an hour and the owner happened to tell us that it would be about 20 or 25 minutes more, so we wandered off in search of a bar. Luckily, there was a restaurant/bar in the Japanese Village called Zencu that sold Kirin draft beers for only $1.50 all day and gives you free edemame while you wait. Unfortunately, by the time we had our beer and paid our bill, we had missed our name being called at Shabu Shabu House.

I had read reviews saying that if you missed your name being called you would be bumped to the bottom of the list, but I didn't think they would actually do it. Turns out, it's true. Even though we had only missed our name being called by ten minutes, it took us about 40 extra minutes to get seated. By the time we sat down, it had been almost two hours since the time we'd put our name on the waiting list. But it turned out to be completely worth it.

As we sat down, our food was already waiting in front of us. I ordered a dinner medium plate, which was about $12.95. My date had the large plate, which was $14.95. Each beef place also comes with a plate of vegetables and noodles, a bowl of never-ending rice, and dipping sauces. The server took our drink order and when we told her that it was our first time, proceeded to show us how to cook everything. She showed us how to swish the beef in the boiling pot to get it to the consistency that we liked, and she helped us prepare our dipping sauces. After that, the people sitting next to us gave us a couple of tips, such as sprinkling hot pepper on the beef before we cooked it.

The beef was tender, the portions were large, and the sauces were addictive. The only down side to this restaurant is the extremely long wait and the fact that it's not a place to linger over a meal and chat, but that's a small price to pay. I wish I could say it was a bad restaurant just to keep away other people, but when something is this good, I feel obligated to share it.

Shabu Shabu House is located at the Japanese Plaza, which is located 150 E. 1^st St. in downtown Los Angeles.