Shabu-Tatsu — Restaurant in New York

This was my 3rd time at Shabu-Tatsu, but it was a bit disappointing compared to our 1st and 2nd time.

The 1st time we came here was two years ago and we had the impression that everything was detailedly and well prepared and presented, the overall quality was very good. The price is always on the expensive side, but we felt like it was worth it in consideration to food quality, taste and service.

The 2nd time we came here for Sukiyaki, and the staff was using a small cube of beef fat to oil the pot and sear the beef before adding the Sukiyaki broth. And then they added the vegetables. It was step by step.

However this time these steps was eliminated and the pot already got everything in there when they brought it to our table. It might be because of the pandemic that they omitted these steps, it made the Sukiyaki experience felt less detailed and qualitied.

In addition, the service was not as good as before. They waiter seem to have forgotten us for a while and didn’t come here to check for the fire often and wasn’t as attentive as before. There weren’t a lot of customers when we went there because it was right after they opened.

I asked a waiter if they accept reservation for 2 people, he said he doesn’t know and left. (If you don’t know, why don’t you just ask other staff or your manager? It’s not professional to leave customers’ questions unanswered, especially when the question was so easy.)

The space behind the seat close to the door was very dirty and I felt disgusted when I was eating and looking back at that space. They should clean it more frequently.

The toilet in the bathroom also wasn’t able to flush. The stuff that the previous person left in the toilet was still there and I couldn’t flush it either.

It appears that they are paying less attention to the overall quality of the restaurant. Maybe they are very famous and always get a lot of customers without having to worry about revenue as much as some other restaurants, they should still try to maintain the quality to be on the same level every time customers come here.

The wagyu beef was sooo delicious though! They sort of just melted in your mouth and were so aromatic. But it was very expensive for an order of a Wagyu beef sukiyaki (around $69 for 6 slices of wagyu beef and other vegetables).

We would probably not come here in the near future because this time was not as satisfactory as before, and there are other restaurants nearby that have Sukiyaki that are very similar and are much less expensive. I would still come here for the Wagyu beef one more time if I really want to eat Wagyu, but I hope they don’t disappoint...

I would come here just for the Bibimbop, not for the Shabu Shabu (prefer the Chinese version where I make my own sauce, and dump it into water to make it flavorful or drown my food with the BBQ and soy sauce).

They take reservations for parties, but if you have 10+ people, it's going to be a tight squeeze around the biggest table they have and some will need to sit on a folding chair.

Our group ordered the Sukiyaki and the regular Shabu Shabu. If you're going to order any of the entrees that uses the stove on your table, you must have at least 2 orders per entree. Choices range from beef, chicken and seafood as your raw ingredients. They both seem to have similar combo ingredients: noodles, mushrooms and veggies.

Shabu Shabu really looks exactly like the Chinese version where you dump all your raw ingredients into a hot boiling pot of water and wait 5 minutes until it cooks everything up.

Sukiyaki is exactly like Shabu Shabu but instead of water, they use a brown sweet and salty mix as the broth. I would prefer this since it's more flavorful and your food will not taste bland and no sauce dipping would be required.

Ordered a beef and seafood Bibimbop which was surprisingly the highlight of the meal. Although they didn't cook it at our table so we can glare at them, they cooked it in the back because we had such a big group and there was no more real estate left on our tables. The rice was charred just right and mixed really well. The rice was some crunchy and some soft, but very very flavorful.

Service was good and attentive and staff was very on point.

This place probably has the best bibimbop in the City, probably better than most Korean place and they're usually known...

Love the variety of meats, of seafoods, of vegetables and...the drinks! We had BBQ and nabe.

We cooked our own BBQ, but we did see the waiters cooking for other tables. And the meat was of good quality and had very good texture. And the 3 choices of sauce was also super good for all the meats, each by themselves or mixed together. They also paired a very good sauce for the beef tongue. I also liked that the meat came layered on top of lettuce, rather than directly on top of each other. But this means we had to cook the lettuce as well before eating them.

For our nabe, we had the seafood and duck. It was recommended to add in the duck first. So, we decided to cook and eat duck and seafood separately. Nothing took long to cook; and for those cooking themselves, watch over your scallops. Scallops naturally don't need too long and quickly harden; our mistake. But basically, everything is mere moments from ready to eat.

The dashi was a little on the saltier side, so I also ordered HOT Calpico Water. Yes, for those interested in exotic refreshing got drinks, they have hot Calpico! And they have cold. And they have sake. Something for every member of the family.

In terms of quantity, some items in the assorted packages is given in two's. This place is ideally shareable for two, but I think there's enough for three average people. In terms of pricing vs. portions, this place tilts on the pricier side, but the portions are decent enough to be filling. And the quality and service makes up for it.

All in all, it was definitely worth going, especially on such cold days as March this year,...