ShabaShabu

We stayed in Raleigh while visiting family. We are from Orlando, Florida. After trying out a ton of fun bbq places and biscuit places, we decided it was my turn to choose. I always go for the Asian option. We searched through google and decided on Shabu Shabu. It seemed similar to most places in Orlando as far as atmosphere and we didn’t see a problem in going for a regular lunch with our two kids. Unfortunately, right as we walked in, we were greeted with a very apprehensive host that stared at us as if we were aliens for bringing our children. It still didn’t seem that fancy in there to me, so I shrugged it off and followed him to our table. As we followed, the lady waitress literally gave us a dirty look and I realized oh… they think their restaurant is too fancy for our kids. I chuckled a little, because this place didn’t come close to what they were comparing themselves to in Orlando. Thankfully, our waiter (the only actual Asian person in the restaurant) was the most pleasant older man we had encountered. He was calm and understanding about our children. He made great suggestions for what they might enjoy since there was not a kids menu (which was perfectly fine). We decided on the teriyaki chicken with fried rice and veggies for our boys to share. It was delicious and more than enough food for the price. My husband and I decided to share an appetizer and we ordered four sushi rolls off their BOGO menu. The appetizer was delicious, but the sushi was just average. The yellowtail did not taste fresh. Overall, though, we enjoyed the food and our waiter really made up for our awkward welcome as we entered. We left him a generous cash tip that we really hoped he did not have to share with anyone. Something really odd that we noticed was that we were seated in a back corner of the restaurant away from others although we could still see everything. The host and the other waitress were attending to the front of the restaurant while our waiter had our table and maybe one other. The host was very helpful to the waitress as she had many tables. He would refill waters and bring food plates out as well, but our table was given odd looks by him and we were completely ignored. We definitely could tell we were not really welcomed. Our waiter did it all for us, took our order, made suggestions, brought our food and refilled our waters. He was great! I wish I could remember his name. He complimented us at the end for having very well behaved children who eat well too. I think that if you eliminate the workers who thought their restaurant deserved some sort of Michelin star, this place was actually really good for the price. It was no fancy Orlando place that my husband and I save for date night though. We knew it wouldn’t be just based off of the menu alone, so I’m still unsure as to why we were treated that way by the others. I will say this, Raleigh seemed very different from the last time we were there visiting. The separations between socioeconomic groups was way more obvious and we weren’t treated very nicely at a Trader Joe’s either which is a regular place we shop at with our kids in Orlando too, so we just assumed people’s higher than though attitudes in that area is because they are proud they have nice things even though those are more like average things for us in Orlando. 🤷‍♀️