Shabu-You Japanese Wagyu Hot Pot — Restaurant in Schaumburg Township

Let's start with the food....

3 broth choices-chicken, sukiyaki, and umani. We had the sukiyaki and unfamiliar as nothing special with the chicken broth. Only 4 meat choices but the quality of meat was good. On the menu, there are 2 ramen choices (miso and tonkatsu). Bowls of ramen were small but good so you don't fill up on the noodles. Both had good flavor. There were raw vegetables at the buffet to pick from but do wish for more variety and potentially as a table item so less trips to the buffet table. Hot food items also available at the buffet table and all were good. I liked the coconut shrimp and the karaage the best. Curry and white rice also there and the curry had good flavor. 9 variety of sushi rolls but the problem was it was one plate of one roll of each kind and they went quick so very difficult to get all of them to try. Desserts: 3 kinds of cheesecake, fruit, soft serve ice cream with a few topping choices, cotton candy, Japanese bread. Sauce station lacked choices. Not even a soy sauce as an option.

Beware that vegetable and hot food items seem to change daily. We had friends who went the next night after us and they had vegetables and hot foods that we didn't have the previous night.

Service

We had a reservation through open table but when we got there, we still had to wait 10-15 minutes for our table to be cleaned. We had a party of 8 so we were told we would be split into 2 tables. Once seated, waitress stopped by table #1 to explain the process and to take their order of broth and drinks. We thought she would turn around to get our table order but NO. She went back to the kitchen to get their drinks and then their broths. We literally daw the back of her 3 times and not once did she turn around to acknowledge us. The iPad at the table for the meat ordering has a timer and we noticed the timer started its countdown from 90 minutes but yet we still didn't have anyone come by for our order. There was a "call" option on the iPad so I pressed it. NOTHING! Pressed it again.  NOTHING! That apparently doesn't get the wait staff to the table. The table behind us was seated after us and they got a waitress and order and we were still waiting. Terrible service to start our dinner. Tan, an assistant manager passed by and was stopped by us. Explained everything and he took our order and said he would take care of us that night and ensure we got waited on. He came by once afterwards.  Not really what I would say of taking care of the service. Another issue is we ordered ramen and it never came. Asked the waitress and she said she would go and get it. Again NOTHING!

Overall thoughts

Food was okay. Service was TERRIBLE! Price was okay for the soft opening of 50% off. I don't think it's worth the full price. Other food choices for $37 per person. It's basically just hot pot so I could do that at home for much cheaper and more food variety. Oh,  and don't forget that you need to get up and go to the buffet for sauce, vegetables, and hot food so you waste time every time you go up and your food at the table will get cold. The tongs were also useless. You can't get anything out of the pot with those skinny tongs. Chopsticks were better but your hand got hot with trying to get everything out.

Okay to try for the experience one time but too pricey to go...

In my opinion, I think the negative reviews here are harsh for a restaurant that is currently in its soft opening phase. My family and I just tried out Shabu-You on Saturday around 2. As it was a late lunch, early dinner the place wasn’t that crowded, but it still had a good amount of people. We were seated right away, and just to let everyone know there are either 2 to 4 pots at a table so with my group of 7 there were four people at one table and then a divider (with an opening and blinds you could shut to create privacy) and then the other three sat on the other side. It is sort of a weird setup, and unfortunately if you have more than 8 people they will have to seat at the table behind you or in front of you, but I guess it just works out for the layout of the restaurant.

For the soup choices, we went with the chicken and sukiyaki broths. The chicken was okay, but it got better with the flavors from the meat and vegetables. The sukiyaki was a bit sweet, so if you don’t care for sweet probably stick with chicken or umami. I do think people are comparing this to Chinese hot pot that have broths packed with spice and herbs which is unfair as Shabu-You is a traditional Japanese style hot pot place. The sauce bar though is packed with a bunch of sauces and condiments which was awesome to mix and try out new things. For the buffet table itself, there was also a variety of dishes from Sushi, Karaage, Takoyaki, Curry, etc…honestly they all tasted pretty good, and freshly made, can’t complain. There is also a good selection of vegetables to choose for the broth.

With the benefit of the restaurant not being too crowded, I thought service was great. They were very attentive to our empty plates and food came out quick. The meat is fresh, but a little difficult to grab individually so you end up grabbing the entire slab of meat slices which may or may not be a good thing for some people. I loved the robot servers, definitely an awesome touch. I could see the restaurant becoming hectic during rush hour with more people walking around, robots delivering food, and tables being cleaned but just something for the restaurant to work out as they get more situated.

So, price is obviously the touchy subject here. We came for the Soft Opening promotion which is half off so for me everything was 5 stars at that price. When I saw the actual price of the meal ($36.99), I was skeptical like everyone else because at that price you might as well go to other AYCE places for more value. However, as I was looking at the iPad on the table I noticed they have job openings where they pay their staff a good wage plus tips which is rare these days. While I can’t say for sure that is why the AYCE is priced where it is, it does seem like a good reason to believe in and maybe something the restaurant should address as I definitely see the price being an issue for many people.

Overall, great addition to the area. Would I come back? Yes, for sure but maybe at $30 which I think would be a fair price but best of luck to Shabu-You, thank you for the...

Visited with my bf during the soft opening period. Overall great experience. Broth & meats selection were limited but very easy to choose from. Here are my thoughts about each section:

Shabu Shabu (4.5 stars): 3 broths (chicken, sukiyaki, umami kelp) & 4 types of meat (3 beef & 1 pork). We ordered sukiyaki and umami, they are both pretty light so they could complement better with the natural flavors of meats & vegetables. We got all the veggies from the buffet bar. Good selection - lots of leafy greens and you got several kinds of mushroom, yum!

Dipping Sauce DIY Bar (3 stars): Their dipping ingredients and sauce were okay but still on the lighter side IMO. My sauce base was ponzu + scallion + Shabu-You Chili, still light. But I get it as it doesn't want to overpower the main shabu-shabu ingredients.

Cooked Food Bar (2 stars): All deep-fried food was cold, not flavorful. And I realized they got dipping sauce for fried food in the Sauce bar. Too late, I didn't want to go second round to try the sauce and I want to have some spaces for the shabu-shabu. They also have white rice and beef curry but I didn't try.

Fruits & Dessert Bar (4 stars): Okay selections, but maybe they were about to close so it wasn't refilled. I loved the chocolate cheesecake tho!

Bakery & Others (???): Too full so I didn't try them. The cotton candy machine looks fun!

Services (4.5 stars): LOVED THE SERVERS! Very friendly and attentive. Too bad that they were too busy so we had sat there for 10 mins with no once coming at all, which we didn't mind at all. But we were staring at the managers (not sure, but who wore suits) 5 feet away for the entire wait. We had eye contact but they chose to ignore us. Opps! But they have cute robots who deliver food and sang the happy birthday song. Very lovely!

Environment & Ambience (5 stars): Super clean and the air-circulation was pretty good. Table for 2 is a bit small but the servers took down empty plates fast. So okay! The funny thing was that parts of the floor were not even cuz the texture. So whenever the robots 'walk thru' that area, they vibrated.

Food overall was on the natural & light side. So may not be a super good fit for people who liked heavy food. But it was a refreshing experience for us. In the end, we realized that our stomachs weren't capable...