Dada Shabu Shabu — Restaurant in Irvine

Who's your Dada? First off let's get the technical definition out of the way. What is this place? Is it really Shabu Shabu or a buffet? It's a buffet. Is it Shabu Shabu? No, as far as I know Shabu Shabu is Japanese and this restaurant is clearly Korean food. NO! Asian do not look alike. So don't think Sukiyaki, but think more like Oppa Gangnam Style! Yes, a lot of Japanese restaurant are own by Korean owners. Touché! Let's call this a Korean food hot pot buffet. Don't call it Shabu Shabu!

Buffet Ranking: Pricing is in the mid to high range. It can be around $25/ per person depending on weekday or weekend pricing. This place would get a slaughtered by other buffets in this price range. The "hot food" section in my opinion is a bit of a joke. Most of the items are room temperature. There is some room for improvement. It would be nice to have some tempura and not the fried unidentifiable stringy objects. I know this is a Korean food restaurant but throw in a few additional Japanese food items. The wings are decent. The positive is the crab (cold) near the Kimchi area is tasty. The cold pickled items are good and Korean certified delicious and authentic by my friend. Don't get me wrong the hot area is worth at least one plate to sample everything. It kinda like Korean comfort food. I only wish the food was served hotter both in temperature and spiciness. I would say add more meat items like kalbi. It's not necessary though because of the Shabu Shabu meats.

Shabu Shabu ("Hot Pot) Ranking: This is where Dada Shabu Shabu excels! If you ignore the entire hot food area and just order endless plates of the raw meat to throw in the soup broth, you will have a great time. The meat quality is good. The environment in the restaurant is very clean and the servers are very attentive. The service staff is actually there to work and keep customers happy unlike other Shabu Shabu places where fixing your hair or gossiping is more important. There isn't any eye candy but you will get your food quickly. The broth is good, but the sauces are meh. I had to get a creative since nothing in the sauce area tasted good on its own. All the flavors were very mild. I went with a ponzo, garlic, hot sauce, hot peppers, and soy sauce combo. The soy sauce helped to counter the thin weak ponzo flavor. Please fix the Ponzo! This place could be extraordinary the sauce issue gets fixed.

Drinks and Dessert: The drink station is a great addition for this Shabu Shabu buffet. The worst part of most Shabu Shabu places is never getting a drink refill. Problem solved! I will get my own drinks and it is included in the pricing. The dessert is okay. I like shaved ice, but let's have some ice cream. The shaved ice section is always sticky because maybe some kid spilled something on the floor or on the counter, but the good news is there is an attendant that cleans and replaces the food in the buffet area.

In my opinion, it is difficult to give a low rating to a restaurant where you cook your own food, because of the fact that if you can't cook of course it will suck. As a seasoned pro for both Korean BBQ and Shabu Shabu, I think I can always make something taste good. This review is a little but critical, but there are some areas that could be fixed to make this restaurant a 5 star place. I also do not want to over hype this place. The hot food is meh but the Shabu Shabu is good. Dada Shabu Shabu is much better than the Spicy Crab place it replaced. The first time I tried this place I went twice in the same week. I know I'm crazy, but it was nice not having to wait long to eat. I prefer weekdays. I'm not sure if the wait is long on weekends. I enjoyed my experience. Add this to the list of places to go in Irvine. When someone says there's nothing good to eat in Irvine. Just laugh and smile. Haters gonna hate, but you just gotta...

i want to give - negative

Be careful when eating at Dada Shabu. I got food poisoning, but they didn't even take responsibility for my medical bills, making me look like a weirdo. I got food poisoning from eating there. I hadn't eaten since the night before, and I hadn't even eaten breakfast.

It was my husband's birthday, so I went for lunch. I often go to Dadah Shabu Shabu, but I've only had lunch there. But yesterday was Labor Day, so I went for dinner all day. I looked at the menu and saw lamb, which I hadn't had for lunch, so I ordered it. Everyone else in the group didn't want lamb, so I put the meat in a pot and ate it alone. However, within 30 minutes of eating, my stomach suddenly started hurting so much that I had to go to the bathroom and have diarrhea. After that, I couldn't go home and had to stay in the bathroom at a nearby market for an hour. I barely made it home and called the restaurant to complain. They said they would notify the owner and get back to me. After two hours, I still hadn't heard from him. I called again, and he said he'd gotten in touch with the owner 20 minutes ago and would get back to me. Three hours later, I finally heard from the owner. The owner apologized profusely and offered me a refund. I was still having diarrhea, and I told him that if it continued, I would go to the hospital. My diarrhea and vomiting didn't stop until 6:30, and since it was Labor Day, the hospital was closed, so I went to the urgent care around 6:30. I was diagnosed with food poisoning at the hospital and texted my medical records to him. He apologized again, and I accepted it. He didn't even ask how much the hospital bill was, and said he'd refund me the money for the food. I was grateful his concern. but around 8:30 PM, my daughter texted me saying she felt like she was going to vomit. My daughter isn't a vegetarian, but she doesn't eat shabu-shabu meat. However, she absolutely loves shabu-shabu broth. That day, she said her pot wasn't enough and ate the broth I'd added lamb to. I sent the text message my daughter sent to him. I told him it seemed like it was mostly about the lamb. That's because everyone else ate it with me and nothing seemed wrong, but my daughter and I were the only ones who were having issues with the lamb.

Suddenly, the owners attitude changed. The reply he sent to me was

I see. ㅠ We are not a barbecue place, and we boil food, so we don't understand how something like this could happen. ㅠㅠ As for the food ingredients, as you can see in the store, I personally check and manage the hygiene every day.

After that, he didn't respond to my texts, my daughter had a stomachache all night, and I still have diarrhea today. When I woke up this morning, the food bill had been refunded. Isn't that normal? He was so irresponsible and refused to offer any...

Great place to come for AYCE hot pot and best bang for the bucks consider other shabu places can easily add up to over $20 without getting full. You get to make your own sauce/broth and pick the food you want to eat. There is a 2-hour dining time limit, and the best time to come is right before it opens. There was already a line 5 minutes before it opened when we went. There's lunch, dinner, and weekend pricing (weekend lunch $20.99 and weekend dinner $25.99).

DÉCOR: clean and trendy, but as with all AYCE, the floor is sticky at times.

HOT FILLERS/APPETIZER: ~ 9 items Average fried rice, japchae, fried tempura veggie, fried chicken, spicy wings, and other seasonal entrees

BANCHAN: ~ 4 items 4 kimchi and sides to select from, quite interesting to pick from BIG bowl of BANCHAN

SAUCE STATION: 3 base and 15+ condiments Premade base includes ponzu, goma (too sweet for me), and mustard. There are other condiments (sesame oil, paper, chili, green onion, garlic etc) to create your own unique sauce or soup base for broth. This was a lot of fun and may take trial and error.

SHABU INGREDIENTS: ~ 15+ items VEGGIES: cabbage, napa cabbage, bok choy, broccoli, bean sprouts, spinach, pumpkin, carrots, and mushroom FISH BALLS: only 2 kinds, average taste, nothing special NOODLES: ramen or fresh noodles

PROTEIN: 5 items Order 2 items at time (beef chuck, beef belly, pork belly, chicken breast, or fish fillet). The quality of meat is average. Tip on fish fillet, use the ladle to keep the fish together as you cook them; otherwise, the fish may swim away and cannot be found.

DESSERT: make your own shaved ice with red bean paste, mini mocha balls, corn flakes, canned fruit, grain powder, fruity syrup, or condensed milk. At first was disappointed no ice cream, but the shaved ice was refreshing after tons of hot pot to cool down.

Recommendation for improvement: I find myself missing the following items for the meal brown sugar syrup for shaved ice shrimp or squid as additional seafood protein grated daikon...