Shabuya — Restaurant in Fountain Valley

Shabuya is an all-you-can-eat shabu shabu franchise. What's shabu shabu? It's a Japanese hotpot dish in which you cook thinly sliced raw meat in a pot of boiling, flavorful broth.

The Broth: First, you select one of 5 broths. I chose the original house broth, which was a brown broth made from dashi, veggies, and various seasonings. It had a laidback flavor, which I preferred so it wouldn't overpower the meat

The Meats: Speaking of which, there are 8 cuts of thinly cut meat (5 beef, 2 pork, and 1 chicken). That's not a huge selection, but all cuts were yummy. My favorite hands down was the beef toro (belly) -- amazing marbling and delicious taste!

The Appetizers: If your goal is to get your money's worth, you'll probably want to skip these. But since it was my first time I wanted to try a little bit of everything, and was pleasantly surprised to find that all 3 types of karaage (fried chicken) was quite good. I didn't have the fourth and final appetizer, goyza, so can't comment on that.

The Salad Bar: As far as AYCE goes, this salad bar was relatively small. But what they did have was good, ranging from squid and octopus to mushrooms and bok choy. The only thing I genuinely didn't like was the crab; it was probably frozen for awhile and lost its tenderness and juiciness.

The Cooking: Unlike old-school setups, at Shabuya, everyone gets their own hot pot and burner, with adjustable temperature. I had fun cooking my own food, with each piece reaching its "doneness" just the way I like it instead of having to compromise or share the pot with others.

The Service: Our server, Jenny, was outstanding! She was quick, friendly, and knowledgeable. Plus, she seemed to always anticipate our needs before we needed to ask and made excellent recommendations for my first time. Can't say enough good things about her.

The Setting: It has a modern aesthetic, with plenty of space between tables. Plus, everything was pretty clean for a buffet.

Overall: While I didn't care for the crab and the overall selection of meats and appetizers was smaller than anticipated, I truly enjoyed Shabuya. The quality of food is top notch, the customer service was excellent, and the price is actually pretty good ($29.99 per adult) when you consider today's inflation and steep cost of living. While my true rating is a 4.5 out of 5, since I can't give half stars, I'll round out to 5 out of 5....

AYCE Shabu Hot Pot? yes pls!

Normally we drive to Cerritos for BROTH as the main go-to place for Shabu, but regularly the wait time will reach 3-4 hours to get a table during peak hours.

This place is a great alternative! The longest you will have to wait here is about 2 hours during the peak hours. On average I only wait about half an hour to an hour.

The service is great, checking in on the waitlist, being seated by the host, and being catered to by our waiter. Every time has been consistent in meeting our needs. There was one time when they kept forgetting to bring napkins, but it wasn't that big of a problem. (They eventually brought them the 4th time we asked)

The menu is straightforward and ordering is fast and easy. The last time I was there, we ordered 14 plates of meat at once and in a couple of minutes it was brought out to our table.

I guess they're not used to people eating 10 plates at a time, cause the waiter was confused and unsure about the amount of plates being ordered.

But... it's me. I'm the secret fatty. I ate all 30+ plates by myself.

It really is AYCE within a time limit of 90 minutes. The vegetable and extras bar is unlimited, and they restock as it dwindles down. They always have an assortment of fresh vegetables to choose from, as well as a selection of noodles and various hot pot items such as seafood and eggs.

For $29+tax and tip, you can easily consume a few days worth of nutrients from an assortment of vegetables, seafood, and meats.

Definitely worth the money if you frequent places like AYCE KBBQ. Maybe not the best spot for families with small children, but a great spot for unleashing your...

AYCE hotpot is always a vibe, but service makes or breaks any AYCE experience.

This has been our go to recently for group dinners since it’s easily agreeable and great on any occasion. Glad to see that mobile Yelp check ins are allowed and make getting ahead of the line easier!

There are several broth options for everyone, which are honestly pretty mild in flavour but get better by the end of the meal with more additions and boiling down. The meats are well sliced without much issues of tearing on grabbing, and the quality is solid. Not the most marbled but still very meaty in taste.

The self serve bar is where you’d grab your regular hot pot fixings, from noodles to vegetables and fish cakes. The selection seems to have gotten smaller or is much smaller in comparison to other AYCE hot pot experiences though, and the sauce bar offerings were pretty mild in strength as well (the goma being notably underwhelming).

Unfortunately, the service is a wash up. Trying to check in with the hostess was like fighting for attention in a dating app, with four people upfront crowding over one iPad and not a single one looking up. Doesn’t really make sense to have that kind of staffing when there are only a handful of food runners out on the floor. Our server was nice and friendly but often forgot our orders and misheard them despite repeating back slowly. The odd part was someone else brought us our food and it was often the wrong order/table’s items. This isn’t a frequent issue, just something that stood out on our last visit.

Overall I can still recommend Shabuya as a great experience for everyone, and hope that our service last visit...