Shabu Garden Riverside - AYCE Japanese Hot Pot — Restaurant in Riverside

This place was recommended by a relative. We decided to take them up on the offer. The hot pot was delicious all the soup flavors were hitting the spot. Now the sushi (from a non sushi lover) it was delicious!!!!

I gave the service a 3 star but rated this a 5 star for a few reasons.

Brandon had a very dry personality he was not welcoming at all. I won't get to deep into that experience but I will say this. I kindly requested that my sushi be rolled with soy paper as I strongly hate seaweed 😆

Brandon's first responds "I can't make any promises as we are busy and the kitchen may fly through it"

I said sure and moved on with the rest of my order. When the food came out. I had seaweed instead of soy paper

Guess what Brandon said?

Brandon " The chef must have missed it since we are busy i do apologize"

Something tells me that request was never put in.

However, there was a gentlemen there and I hate myself for not knowing his name. Curly blood hair piercing in the nose that will give it away 😆 I shared my experience breiefly eith him as I was paying the bill and he handled the situation so professinaly and respectfully. I even shared when Brandon made a smart comment that once the sushi paper order returned that ment all the ordered were dropped and we had asked for our Philadelphia roll that haven't showed. When the paper returned the Phili rolls never made it to the table. He not only made sure our phili rolls showed up but our waters that were not refilled or our kids lemonade that was never refilled my sprite my wife's water my cousins coke and nephews diet coke. He made sure they were all refilled before leaving.

This could've easily got a 3 star with me maybe a 2 but the owners daughter had nice comments to say as I was walking with my daughter. And the place is still fairly new with reviews and I didn't wanna bash it but I wanted to give an honest feedback on how customer service can have such an impact. And damn the...

Food was fresh, seafood plentiful, the sliced meats are brought to table and more offered as you use them. It would be helpful if the trays of vegetables and seafood had labels as we could not identify a few. The owner was nice and very attentive. Apparently you can only have shabu on the outside patio? Patio is medium size with room for several tables. Might be good to call ahead, with number in your party. There is a sushi business inside, so if it’s a very hot/cold day, not sure how comfortable patio would be. There were fans set up all over. We did come on a hot afternoon, patio was not in direct sunlight, it’s covered with opaque hard plastic panels, and there are plants growing all around to keep area cool. Plenty of parking. I gave it 4 stars overall because we all asked for Spicy Miso. Everyone got that but me. Was not impressed with flavor as it tasted like spicy water. And no amount of sauces or spices I added, helped. To be fair I didn’t complain, because I assumed everyone got same broth. I only realized my broth was wrong when I tasted my husband’s broth. It was our first time here, will definitely return though. No photos...

WE FINALLY HAVE A HOTPOT IN RIVERSIDE!! Thank you Yelp recommendations.

Highly recommended to visit just for the dining area. The garden is GORGEOUS, I don't think there's anywhere else to eat like this in Riverside. You can really tell the owner put a lot of work into it.

The service is mostly self-serve. You go in, pick from a selection of broth. We chose the spicy miso and original. Then you walk into the restaurant and pick out assortments of veggies and seafood. There's also a hot bar. Everything was really fresh, although I feel like they were lacking some hotpot essentials like fishballs, shumai, and enoki mushrooms. I did like how the seafood options were included in the AYCE. There's a lot of different sauces to dip everything in so my mouth was never bored.

The food quality did not miss. You can tell from looking at it everything is organic. It's definitely worth the price, especially compared to other hot pots.

Will...