Sabu — Restaurant in Lakeland

Visited twice got tonkotsu ramen both times. I think I am now hooked on it. Reading the other reviews I would suggest the following for first timers each broth is pretty different with the pork being a bit richer than the chicken based broths. Be aware of the "tare" you are getting.. I have read a few complaints about saltiness when I imagine they selected a ramen with a shio tare which means a salt seasoning. I am glad they had the guts to offer up fatty pork as a protein to the ramen (fatty pork belly is kind of a foodie thing) however if you are like me and do not care for the texture or idea of eating fat I would recommend asking for the crispy pork instead where the pork belly fat is rendered out a bit. I will be going back again most likely to try the shio or should ramen. Sabu is part of what is referred to as "The Joinery" it is like an slightly upper scale food court. Business here seems to be good even during off hours you will still see other patrons at sabu as it is seems to be the most popular food vendor here. Despite this if there are members of your party that are not exactly interested in Sabu I would also recommend AVA the pizza vendor that make wood fired pizzas and even though no one in my party got it I see that ATO's bowls are also popular. So the food is fresh. During peak times like dinner rush be prepared to have to search for seating and wait for your food, as they are pretty busy to the point that more popular food vendors will either text you when your food is ready or in the case of Sabu when ordering your will receive a food pager.

Update: I have now been to Sabu four times. it is going to become my guilty pleasure i think. I tried the Shio Ramen the last time. In comparison for the Shio broth vs the broth for the Tonkotsu the Shio is lighter in body and not a rich however still very flavorful. Be warned if you are not used to spicy foods they really do mean it is spicy for the average person. To help people who are trying to decide what that should mean to them understand I found near the limit for me when word spicy does not normally phase me much. I regularly eat kimchi with it being nearly the limit to how spicy I take things. Certain family member thinking I am crazy to eat that. The Chicken is definitely worth mentioning as it was very flavorful and it seemed to me it may have been wood fired it. It is now my favorite protein that they offer and that is saying something as normally in when eat at restaurant i would choose pork meat over chicken meat, but I am still a fan of the pork broth on the tonkotsu despite it may be a bit of a mismatch, which brings up a point. They seem to be willing to allow people to select whatever protein they want and if your extra hungry order a side of noodles. I would also recommend the pickled shitake if you don't have an aversion to mushrooms. The next time I go back I am curious about the marinated...

You know a place must be pretty decent if there’s always a crazy long line of people waiting to order, pay and devour. Sabu is one of the handful of stalls in the industrial and fun Joinery of Lakeland.

They do the ramen, and visitors seem to never get enough of the ramen. I’m so serious, this place is always crazy busy. Because of this I usually don’t even try to order here, because I’d rather not wait forever when most of the other stalls aren’t half as busy.

So when it actually had no line one day that I came to yee old Joinery, I jumped on the opportunity. I got one of the spicy ramen dishes that I am now forgetting the name of. I really enjoyed it, and I mean it’s hard not to enjoy any ramen bowl. I wouldn’t say it was out of this world, but I’d have it again happily. We got the bao buns too, of course. Can’t ever turn those sweet babies down.

Let me now get to what I would drive to the Joinery solely to splurge on: the drinks!! They have boba, yes, whoop whoop! I got the cocoa puffs cereal milk boba and it was ridiculous. Ridiculously easy to sip down so quick I barely savored it. It basically tasted like chocolate milk with soft, chewy boba that was cooked pretty well. Also, my friend got the iced matcha and that was by far the best matcha drink I’ve ever tried. I think they mixed it with some sort of sweet cream, because it wasn’t just the plain earthy taste of matcha but it was much sweeter, and I just can’t even believe how good it was. So yes, I’d come back to not even bother the ramen or bao buns, but to get a foo-foo drink from Sabu. But the ramen certainly doesn’t...

I never actually tasted the food. The girl behind the counter was rude, so I just went around the corner and got a burger instead. Just asked who the owner was, simple question. (I'd had a conversation with a guy at my gym who said he owned it). She started interrogating me on why I wanted to know, then declared she could not disclose that information. So I just looked it up on my phone, since it's literally public record, and they also had an article in the newspaper with his name. Guess she didn't know that. If you don't know something, say you don't know. If you're not sure about whether you can give information out, say that. Don't get rude. Don't treat a customer who simply asked who the owner was like they just asked some personal inappropriate question. Ignorant staff can ruin your business.

UPDATE: and check out the response from the owner. Now I know where the staff members get that disrespectful attitude from. Is this really the kind of person you want to give your hard earned money to? Not me. It's not always what you say, but how you say it. Instead of apologizing for your staff member's bad behavior, you encourage it, attempt to downplay her rudeness, and insult a potential customer (who may very well have deleted the review and given your food a second chance if you'd addressed the situation maturely). Instead you resort to name-calling, like an immature child. Don't waste your money here, people. There are so many locations in this town with great service run by good people. This obviously isn't...