Shabu Sai is a Japanese Hot Pot restaurant that serves Shabu Shabu and Sukiyaki at affordable prices!
With just $16.99+ for lunch, I get to enjoy a variety of pork, beef, chicken, vegetables, and other Japanese food such as Sushi! I really enjoy duo pots for steamboat, and at Shabu Sai, you get to enjoy 2 kinds of soup base at the same time! This gives me a chance to try more flavours. And if you and your friends have entirely different likings, you don’t have to fight over a pot of soup, just order what you like for yourself!
I went there with Serene last week!
Do note that there is a time limit for dining at their restaurant. And to our horror, the time limit for lunch is only 70 minutes!!! I think we would barely be half full if we just eat for 70 minutes! Serene and I almost wanted to leave and choose another place for lunch but we decided to give it a try and ask the staff.
Turns out that they will only ask you to leave after the time limit when the restaurant is full.
Being buffet kiasus, we reached the place at 11:30am and there were hardly anyone in the restaurant! (It was a weekday) So we got to sit there and enjoy our food for at least a few hours!
There is a range of 7 soup bases at Shabu Sai – Seaweed soup, Sukiyaki soup, Spicy soup, Curry Dashi soup, Tomato soup and Tonkotsu Shoyu Soup. Plus the seasonal soup base which changes after some time.
You can top up $1.99+ for free flow drinks and soft serve ice-cream (This is a must-order for me whenever I go for hotpots!) Other alcoholic beverages top up are shown in the photo below.
For our soup base, we had Tonkotsu Shoyu (left) and Spicy soup (right).
I don’t really favour this type of spicy clear soup as I prefer the kimchi base or slightly more milky base. The Tonkotsu Shoyu was really average but acceptable to me.
At the buffet counter, you can create your own condiments with their wide array of sauces and paste. But for me, I love to dip my beef into some raw egg sauce. If you haven’t try it yet, you should!
Unless you are not very particular about the quality and taste of Sushi, I recommend that you save your stomach for the meat instead. The sushi isn’t really up to my standard so after taking 1-2 pieces, I decided to go straight for my hotpot dishes.
I think the BEST thing about Shabu Sai is their BEEF! Super fat and juicy (You can even tell from the photo – those white areas are the fats). The quality of the beef is really better than many other affordable hotpot restaurants. Every bite is so tender and soft, and taste especially delicious after dipping into my raw egg sauce! The egg sauce actually adds fragrance to the beef and gives it a smooth texture. The white parts are my favourite because it actually makes the beef a lot more chewy and juicy.
For me, the most important aspect of a hotpot restaurant is the beef and the soup base. To win my heart, the restaurant has got to serve delicious soup (preferably the spicy type like kimchi) and decent quality of beef!
The pork was average and we didn’t want to try the chicken. I never liked chicken during hotpot.
Some other vegetables and food. Another favourite food for hotpot has got to be crabsticks! I can never get sick of them! I also like the Enoki mushroom too.
The soft-served ice cream was not bad to me. Serene kept saying how delicious it was and it tasted so milky hahaha. She even had 2 bowls of it. I prefer my ice-cream to be more plain so here’s mine!
While Serene’s ice-cream looked much more colourful than mine.
Compared to another Hotpot Restaurant that I went to – MOF Danro @ Nex (http://mons-diary.blogspot.sg/2013/06/steamboat-with-family-danro-mof.html), the variety of the food served at Shabu Sai is considered a lot less. In terms of the meat, I would say that Shabu Sai serves better quality beef and in fact, at Danro, I seem to prefer eating fish and other food (I still like the beef though). Sadly, the soup base at Shabu Sai didn’t win my heart as it did not taste delicious to me. If I am really craving for affordable and nice beef, I wouldn’t mind coming back here again! After all, the prices are really reasonable for a buffet. But if you’re a big eater, I would suggest that you come on a weekday to avoid the time limit.
Personally, I don’t like to go to buffets with a time limit. I love to take my time to indulge and enjoy my food!
Prices:
Weekday Lunch: Adult $16.99
Weekend Lunch: Adult $19.99
Weekday Dinner: Adult $24.99
Weekend Dinner: Adult $29.99
Child: $9.99++
Address:
• Causeway Point #05-14/15
(does not accept reservations)
Tel: 6462-1557
• Orchard Central #08-09/10/11
(limited slots for reservations per day)
Tel: 6884-6760
• Changi City Point #B1-28/29
(does not accept reservations)
Tel: 6444-9569
