Hawaii Pot Shabu Shabu House — Restaurant in Modesto

Updated Review (I reviewed about 9 months ago) I'm leaving the food as a 5 star because that hasn't changed --much -- the main thing about things that have changed since the opening of this place is the broth is actually significantly less flavor than in the beginning. I wanted to re-review because I'm so disappointed with how bad the service has gotten from when they opened to now. I used to go, no joke, pretty much weekly or every other week. Now I don't really look forward to going and just ordered all the stuff to make it at home lol. It's pretty apparent they have new staff, and that's fine, but they don't know anything about remotely decent service, and I can only recognize 1 staff member that was there from the start and they definitely don't seem to care. You don't get greeted when you walk in any more, from any staff member, and it's not just us. When we went last week not a single person who walked in around the same time as us was greeted, and when we all got ackowledgement it was only "so who needs to be seated first" It's completely hit or miss if the staff will ask you about drinks or not, and even after they do it's hit or miss if they remember to bring them I will say most of the time it's a miss, the last time I went was the 1st time in a long while that we actually didn't have to remind a staff member that we even ordered drinks. The last about two or maybe even three times I have gone with my boyfriend or best friend, we didn't get checked up on at all. Not once. So, for those who haven't been in before you have to order meat through a staff member, you can't do that if they don't check on you. There now seems to be like one designated person who goes around for clean up, she won't ackownledge you at all either. She will just pick up your empty plates and move on, which is a little awkward especially because I try to have good mannuerisms and at least say thank you, but she won't even look up or ackowledge you said anything to her. Basically, the food is great, but the staff service is horrible. It sucks going somewhere where the staff literally noticably is avoiding doing the job they were hired to do. So, unfortunately I don't think I will be going back anymore because I continually tried to have hope maybe it was like am awkward training time for the new staff but it's been about 2 months at this point and it's not real cheap in the end. I don't want to spend 70-80 dollars each time I go to get really bad treatment from...

I had taken my previous comment off about not being served and giving it a one star review… because to be fair, it was me walking in 30 minutes before they closed their doors for the day, so I had to do it justice by coming in on a day where it was ACTUALLY dinner time.

This is probably by far the ONLY hot pot place in Modesto, and to be quite fair, I was amazed at the quality of the food and the veggies and everything they offered. It’s a little expensive considering the fact that it’s $31 per person on the weekend — even for weekday dinners. It’s a good place for introverts who don’t wanna do a lot of socializing… so I found it kinda ideal.

They have you choose your soup base, your meat, and whether or not you want fountain drinks. Best of all they have yogurt soju here — so if you’re craving some yakult like liquor, you’re in luck. These are usually all included, so I thought that was a plus. We didn’t get the appetizers because the just turned out to be too expensive, because let’s be honest — WHO PAYS $12 FOR CHICKEN WINGS? OR FOR ANY OTHER APPETIZER? I absolutely admired their sauce bar though — lots of diversity in terms of sauces and even minced garlic and different sorts of onions.

On the flip side, service was meh. I’m giving it a 3 because though the food was absolute heaven, we had to wait several minutes to get a waiter’s attention for a refill of the original broth. In addition, we kept on getting stared down at — which I did not appreciate. If you’re going to treat customers with respect, at least don’t act salty please 😕 In addition, we weren’t even greeted a hello at the door…. And they didn’t ask whether or not we wanted to sit at the bar or at a table, like that’s just common sense.

Atmosphere was pretty poppin but it started to die down after 7pm, which you know is not a good sign… I liked the solace of it but it definitely did not sit right with me.

I would go back but maybe on...

Honestly some of the best customer service I've had in my life! Every employee is incredibly nice, like genuinely so, and they go out of their way to make sure you're enjoying yourself and will help you in understanding how to eat hotpot since many of their customers, myself included, have never been to one before.

The food was really delicious and while favorite food is ultimately up to your own taste, I really recommend the pork belly and the beef.

My girlfriend and I had the original and the miso broth and I preferred the miso personally. The original is a rather simple chicken(?) broth base, which was good, but I'd like to try something different next time.

The dipping sauce bar is fun as well and my favorite was an employee recommendation which was sesame sauce, a bit of soy sauce, chilli oil, sesame oil, garlic, cilantro, and green onions.

For two people, including tip and tax, it's going to be about $80 for dinner so this is going to be a special occasion type place unless I get there for cheaper lunch prices.

All in all, I really love this place and I'm definitely going to be going back!

Edit: 5/16/2025

Still really love this place, I like to come here to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, or just to go out somewhere nice. I've tried all the soups and my favorite is the Miso, and my favorite meat is the beef. The rotating plates of food are always great to try new stuff but I really recommend the skinny mushrooms...