Shabu En Hot Pot — Restaurant in Houston

Crazy service and not recommended! If you want a twisted, terrifying, and extremely unpleasant dining experience full of drama, you can give it a try.

I truly feel sorry for the business owner. A beautifully decorated restaurant managed by such unprofessional manager and general manager with no basic restaurant service ethics and integrity.

On July 1st， 2024 at 5:15 pm, my friends and I (three people) arrived at your restaurant. The hostess, a short Asian woman, seated us at a cramped four-person table.Considering that 90% of the tables in the restaurant were empty and we had another friend who might join us, we thought the assigned table would be too cramped. Additionally, the pathway for getting food would be inconvenient since we would have to share it with the neighboring table. We politely asked the hostess if we could switch to a larger table for six people.

After our polite request was denied, I was shocked and said “Wow, you are difficult to deal with.” Then a waiter kindly relocated us to six person table without hesitation.

However, as we were about to eat, the manager came over to our table, didn’t introduce herself but simply said: “my host is mistreated and she is crying. We can’t serve you and I have to ask you to leave”. You are not mistaken. We all thought the female manager was supposed to come to apologize to us because the front desk insisted on making things difficult for the guest over a simple request that could easily be fulfilled. This in itself was already unbelievable.

What's even more absurd is that to get us to leave, the female manager called armed police officers. Although the boss later explained that they were security guards, their primary job is as police officers who only work part-time as security for the restaurant. When the police saw that we were only explaining the situation to the general manager without any emotional agitation, swearing, or physical confrontation, they knew there was no reason to forcibly remove us from the restaurant. The police even comforted us by saying, "Just think of me as a fish in the fish-tank."

We discovered that the general manager was in the restaurant. We explained the situation to him, hoping he would fulfill his job duties by investigating and resolving the misunderstanding.

Unexpectedly, the general manager chose to stay out of it completely and did not investigate our innocence as guests. When we were preparing to leave, we saw him eating，chatting and laughing with the femal manager who kick us out！ He doest not take the incident of our expulsionseriously at all.

Please investigate this matter seriously:

1，The hostess refused our reasonable request for a more comfortable table.

2，Her crying had nothing to do with us; she should reflect on her professionalism.

3,The female manager did not investigate the issue and rudely expelled us. She need to be FIRED!

4,We were humiliated by being asked to leave after being seated and ordering.

What a terrific manager you hire to...

Recently open, immediately becomes the #1 AYCE hotpot restaurant for several reasons - individual hotpot, fresh ingredients, premium wagyu cuts (included in AYCE), unbelievably affordable prices, delicious bingsu (shaved ice with red-bean), full bar, and can RSVP online.

Simple pricing, no addition fee for broth - Lunch is $21.99 for adult; dinner has various Akashi and Gyulais waygu cut at $31.99 for adult. Lower pricing for vegetarians and children.

Amazing emphasis on quality ingredients, to name a few - certified Angus beef, and New Zealand lamb leg, natural chicken. Fresh diverse vegetables section; freshly pulled and cut noodles, and a shaved ice bar (must eat item).

A short-list of popular broth options - For those who want to try its waygu, suggest the delicate Shabu En signature broth. Richer brothes include Tom Yum, Tonkatsu, and Sichuan Peppercorns. The shiitake mushroom broth is fragrant, earthy, and vegan friendly. The selection of broth, representing the best from top Asian cuisines/ countries.

What makes it a perfect dine-out place is its presentable ambiance, and value for money a-la-carte menu - LIVE lobsters ($15). Suggest try both raw (can Shabu Shabu for a chewy texture) and stir-fried, its sauce is addictive. Can’t stop eating. Live abalone is from Jeju island (2 for $13). I like the sautéed option with garlic butter. Half dozen fresh oysters ($7) and a tray of uni ($15) are must-order. Wrap the fresh uni in a crispy seaweed.

Moving onto meat - While Akashi Wagyu brisket, Gyulais Wagyu chuck eye and many premium cut are included in the AYCE dinner price, highly recommend the A6 Wagyu ribeye ($25) and A5 Wagyu sampler ($25). Imported from Japan, these Japanese A5 wagyu are intensely and evenly marbled, rich in beef and buttery flavor and creamy in texture when dipped and quickly swiped in boiling broth.

Beverages - just like its food, are prized at amazing value. Dasai 45 (what we ordered) is marked at retail price, same as what I paid at Central Market!

Lots of thoughts put into this place. Beautiful lighting, lots of wood and comfortable chairs. Useful signs on Wagyu samplers. Amazing sauce bars, and some chef special sauces for those unfamiliar with sauce making.

Service is attentive. Though some patience is required on peak days. With such fresh quality and everyday affordable pricing, it is worth the patience Easy storefront parking.

Huge venue. Weekday lunch walk-in is not a problem. Do rsvp a day in advance for...

As another review has said, the real thing that sets Shabu En apart from all the other AYCE shabu-shabu's in Houston is the qual-

It's Jun. Jun's so lovely and charming and meekly polite and I want to make him my husband and HE'S SO DREAMY OH MY G-

-it's the tanks of live lobsters and abalones you can see as you enter the buffet. First thing that catches your eyes in the restaurant, and they make use of it goooood.

(Seriously though the abalone just has a bit too much butter, but for the price I can't complain. Couldn't actually try the lobster though.)

Other things on the à la carte menu - itself a strange thing you can spot from this venue - include uni trays, A5 wagyu (ostensibly) and oysters. I had the uni shooter and half a dozen of oysters to try. Don't repeat my mistake. The uni shooter just tasted like an overly diluted mangonada spiked with fish sauce and pâté de canard, and the oysters - albeit cheap - were just as small and slimy and tasteless as the new Blind Goat from Christine HOUSTON YOU'RE A FISHING GULF CITY WHY CAN'T YOU FISHING DO OYSTERS RIGHT F-

The meat is also cut paper-thin, and by "paper" I meant the potato starch paper that's semi-transparent and commonly used to wrap coconut candies. Yeah. The meat quality is good though, from what I could tell. I was initially startled when my friend asked for the entire menu. We then did it twice over.

As for most of the stuff on the buffet (as in, the actual buffet table. In case you didn't know what "buffet" meant), it's very much "Shabu Zone but newer". Nothing much to write home about (except for maybe the cheese tteok - that was a surprise and delightfully so), but nothing to complain either. The frozen oyster there was better than the raw oyster they served, if only marginally.

They also have a shaved ice bar for dessert, complete with soya powder, proper condensed milk and a part-timer brimming with hope soon to be taken away. It is pretty good.

TL;DR I haven't been able to go out for 2 months so you can't blame me for becoming a little bit...