Haru Shabu Shabu 小春日和 寿喜烧 — Restaurant in Toronto

Last Monday night, my best friend and I dined at here, a place I once raved about to anyone who would listen. It had been my go-to spot for cozy dinners, and a place I proudly recommended to friends and family for its impeccable food and service. We arrived at 8:45 PM, ready for a satisfying meal. The host informed us that last call for orders would be at 9:30 PM—despite the restaurant closing at 11 PM. A bit odd, I thought (isn’t last call typically closer to closing?), but it wasn’t a deal-breaker. We were seated promptly, placed our final orders at 9:25 as requested, and settled in to enjoy our meal. Service kind of slowed but I figured maybe it was because they were filling all the last orders. What I didn’t expect was that at around 10 PM—an hour before closing—a waitress approached us, not to check on our table but to insist that we pay the bill immediately. Confused, I asked about the closing time, which she confirmed was still 11 PM. Her reasoning? They just needed to "settle the bill now." This felt both questionable and very rude. Reluctantly, we paid the bill, tip included, under the assumption that we’d continue to be served until closing. But sadly, we were wrong. From that moment on, the service ceased entirely. Our plates piled up, broth went un-replenished, and the water was refilled once. What made it worse was the abrupt and unapologetic way the staff shifted their focus—not on us, the remaining diners, but on preparing to close the restaurant. At one point, the stench of cleaning products filled the air as they began scrubbing and tidying up around us (they still never came to clear our empty dishes and let them pile up). Suddenly, our leisurely dinner felt like a rushed chore. I tried to rationalize it. Maybe they wanted to get ahead of their closing tasks – which is fine with me. But being ignored by every staff member for an hour+ while the restaurant is still open is unacceptable. For context, we weren’t overstaying any dining limit (2 hours). Out of the two hours we were there, we received proper service for maybe 30 minutes. If a restaurant claims to be open until 11 PM, then service should reflect that. I would have understood a slowdown around 10:45 or even 10:30, but being rushed, ignored, and treated like an inconvenience was a stark contrast to the stellar service I had once loved. For me, service is an integral part of the experience, and last night, it fell woefully short.

We weren't even able to finish the food because (as you can see in the photo) our hot pot at about 10:15 was essentially like a sauce at that point because it hadn't been refilled for a while and it wasn't refilled after.

Honestly, I’m sad and disappointed because I don't see myself returning. I hope management takes note of these issues and addresses it...

I rarely write any reviews but the experience that we had just over the weekend was so terrible that anyone who is planning to go to this place, please pay attention and make sure the waitress knows and understands your order. It was a terrible experience for the family which costed us so much money. It would have been better to go somewhere else with this kind of price. We definitely will not be coming back to this restaurant. Also the tight sitting area and small tables didn’t help with the experience either.

When we arrived, the waitress came and told us to scan the QR code to see the menu. After looking over, we asked her how are the portions for each order since nowhere in the menu shows any details of quantities or sizes. She didn’t reply and looked at us clueless. We didn’t want to give her hard time so we took a chance of ordering one of each items that we wanted to see how big the portions were. When the food arrived, we noticed some items were smaller portions than we expected so we asked the waitress to increase few specific items so that all 4 of us can at least try a bite of each item. She ended up ordering everything double including veggies, noodles, all kinds of unwanted items.. we asked her why are there so much and she said we wanted everything double and she said she can’t take it back because that was our order. We had multiple plates of multiple types of mushrooms, all different kind of veggies and multiple plates of just noodles. All we wanted was few items to be added on but she misunderstood and piled the unwanted food on our table.

Our family don’t like to waste food so we asked the kids to try to eat what was given as much as possible. It was ridiculous and upsetting because at one point, we were just focusing on trying to finish everything on the table rather than enjoying the food that we wanted to eat and try.

I really hope your restaurant can provide more details about each items and have a better trained staffs who can assist customers when they have a concern or questions. By the time I went to go and pay, it really didn’t feel like it was worth of money that we had to pay for but since it was one of our family members birthday, we didn’t want this experience to...

TL; DR - Eating as I type this review for the free drink. But it's actually good. Smaller menu. Small tables (good for 4 or less). Good beef, especially marbled cuts.

Our group of 5 adults, 1 toddler (2yrs), reserved for 7:30 on a Friday night and it wasn't too busy. Restaurant isn't big and they don't really have large booths - even the one we sat in is best suited for 4 adults at most.

We selected the Regular tier menu vs Wagyu as we only noticed 2 cuts of Wagyu (Australian + US) - didn't think it'd be worth the extra $50+ even though there'd also be a few more seafood options.

Regular menu was excellent value given the quality of their beef - several cuts and the marbled ones were very delicious. Strong beef flavour and good texture. Pork Belly and Lamb were also flavourful. Broth selection had 6 - fairly simple. Wish the refills were with the same broth vs generic stock. Tasted watered down and the same by the end of the meal. The Kabocha lost its mild spiciness.

Appetizers were done well, especially the Deep Fried Pumpkin Cake w/ Red Bean Paste. So tasty! Desserts were yummy too and they have the best Melona bars - why/how? Because they're frozen super solid! Other places don't refrigerate that cold and is already soft/ melty, makes you rush eating it. This one, you can savour.

Service was attentive throughout and kept the tables cleared of empty trays. A couple of gripes though - very stingy on the last call, 2hr limit. Also completely lied and said they had no take-out cups despite a stack of paper cups right behind our table.... Initially rated 5* but took one away for that.

Will still be on...