Ayame Shabu Shabu Hot Pot

I’m just so sad! They no longer have these delicious little hot pots.
They were shut down by the fire department saying the hot pots stove part doesn’t reach the safety regulations. Instead of replacing the stove (according to one of their waiters, it was too expensive to replace and that the owners did not want to invest in the expenses), the owners decided to discontinue the hot pots instead and turn the whole restaurant to a «make it your own» sushi wrapping place. It’s super pricey and just isn’t the same anymore!
The restaurant came from super popular and crowded to having no customers at all, it’s always so empty! I believe they changed the restaurant multiple times in the past year and Ayame no longer exist. It’s a complete fail for the owners, I feel pretty sad for them. But deep down inside I’m the one that is sad, no longer having this cute convenient delicious place to go to. makes me just want to cry!

Love this place for the value of the shabu shabu that it has!
13.95 for angus beef shabu shabu with your choice of soup base and with a HUGE portion of vegie and other ingredients. Good for dinner and the lunch next day (just cook the food and bring them togo =]) Love the brown rice also. I’ve only tried the tonkatsu and spicy miso soup base. Wouldn’t say it’s the best, but it’s definitely the go to place for me (sad that i don’t live in that area anymore… TT).
A must try!!!

I’m no shabu shabu newb or anything but Ayame was my first experience with broth instead of just plain water and I must say this was awesome. Honestly, why don’t more shabu places offer broth choices? It lends so much more flavor to the veggies and the meat, it just makes sense! Come on shabu shabu restaurants, let’s make this happen.
Anyway, Ayame is settled in the middle of some cookie cutter Irvine shopping center. Without Unilocal I would never have assumed that a shabu shabu place would be here but with a little research, my friend and I decided to give this place a try. So we settled into this cute little restaurant for some dinner after a long day of work.
Service was quick and helpful. The waitress helped us settle on ordering two regular orders of the angus beef, which because of the separate orders, we also got to choose two different broths. We opted for the tonkotsu and the miso chanko (spicy miso) which were recommended as the most popular of the different broth choices. For my tastes, I think I preferred the miso chanko which had just a bit of heat and added a good amount of flavor to the accompanying veggies. Regardless, of the broth, I still made good use of the ponzu and goma which were both very good. My only gripe is that the meat portions were a bit small and I was confused about the lack of noodles. I was under the impression that the order came with either udon or ramen noodles but maybe I’m wrong and you have to order that a la carte.
After dinner we also had to try the Matcha (green tea) panna cotta. Being a fan of all things green tea, we were not disappointed. The panna cotta was creamy, light, and delicious. If only the portion was a little bigger, that’d be amazing but regardless, I’d definitely recommend it.

This place is in portola. If you don’t know where that is, I don’t blame you. Portola is to central Irvine what Orange County is to LA. You probably know some people that live there but there’s no reason whatsoever you’d ever want to visit. To put things in perspective, it took 20 mins to get there from the 5 fwy by side street. I can get to ROWLAND in 20 mins from where I live in Irvine.
Despite the distance I felt I needed to try this place… for the 2^nd time. Yes, after multiple trips to Shish, House of Shabu Shabu and now Ayame, I feel I’m now qualified to do SHABU DEATHMATCH!
House of Shabu Shabu vs. Ayame vs. SWISH
Category 1: The Meat
Ayame has the standard cuts of meat to choose from: angus, ribeye, prime rib eye and the like. The meals are sorted into a la carte options as well as «nabe» and «sukiyaki» options. Unique to Ayame is the option to pick your broth, a la jazz Cat. Because I am a complete savage and lacking any sort of desire to know the difference between all the choices, I just I asked for Ribeye and Curry broth, double-​time. Actually I didn’t say double-​time, I said please. Good manners are sexy. The meat was a good portion, smaller than SWISH but more marbled.
Both are head and shoulders above House of Shabu Shabu. As good as Harry has been to us in the past, the place hasn’t been the same since some lady with unintended acceleration plowed into the front. The cuts of meat are thicker and narrower than either of the other places. Any thicker and you would have to call it «House of Boil the Stewed Chuck.»
Verdict: SWISH by a hair over Ayame.
Category 2: The Broth
Ayame has a list of 10 or so broths to choose from. The curry was pretty tasty. I put ramen in it and it tasted exactly like the curry udon at Gohan and you know I liked that. SWISH lets you choose between just water and sukiyaki (with a 2 dollar up charge) and HoSS lets you choose between water and GTFO.
Verdict: Ayame, by a lot. SWISH second.
Catagory 3: Everything Else
All the places pretty much serve the same veggies, noodles and appetizers so there’s no point in going into great detail here. Ayame and HoSS have a stripmall Japanese aesthetic going on while SWISH at least attempts to look modern.
Verdict: SWISH, just the because the general ambiance is better.
So the final verdict? I would say a tie between SWISH and Ayame. You can’t really go wrong with either.

This place is surprisingly small and cute… the wait must be aggravating because of how small it is?!
But there was no wait for me! Came here at around 8:30 so it wasn’t too bad. It definitely reminded me of Jazz Cat in San Gabriel. I love love LOVE Jazz Cats hot pot, so this place is going to be a top regular favorite for sure in the near future.
it’s a little far deep in Irvine though.
The veggies were plentiful! For one of the sides you get this weird chicken paste called Tsumire where you can scoop into your soup base with a cute little spoon. So cute! I opted for the soy milk base, YUM. It tasted creamy and delicious with the meats and veggies.
My friends got the Spicy Miso and Tonkotsu. Wasn’t a fan of the Spicy Miso but then again my review is biased because I’m not a fan of spiciness.
This place is originally a sushi place so the stoves were portable.
The Saki bottles and cups were very cute also but I feel like I was getting jipped a little.
I’ll be coming back soon!

I really liked the menu, and the variety of broth. They give you plenty of vegetables, and a reasonable amount of meat. I ordered the lunch portion of the pork, and was surprised it was about 4 or 5 ounces of meat.
I gave it –1 stars because the service is slow. There were only 2 servers, and my supposedly 1 hour lunch turned out to be 2 hours.
I’d go back if I had the luxury of an extra long lunch.

High quality shabu shabu. Took my brother and dad here for a light (er) dinner and we all really enjoyed everything. The veggies were fresh and plentiful, the meat was thinly cut to perfection (and perfectly red so you know it’s fresh as can be), and the noodles were quite good as well. The dipping sauces were both really good, and I like how you can add condiments to the broth for a little more flavor.
It was pretty inexpensive and the location is very convenient to my brother’s house. The service was friendly and nice without being over bearing. Totally enjoyed it!

Tokyo, Japan. Momo Paradise. High-​quality all-​you-​can-​eat shabu shabu and sukiyaki. The memories alone are enough to make me salivate.
And all those memories came flooding back to me with the first gaze at Ayame’s lovingly-​crafted pot of simmering sweet broth and vegetables. Beautiful marbled cuts of meat, a bevy of fresh side dish choices, 3 types of noodles, and even a jidori egg for dipping. Oh my.
Upon entering this modern establishment, I couldn’t help but notice how empty it was. It might’ve been because it was barely 6 PM, but Zov’s next door was bustling with movement. Quite unfortunate, considering this place serves up way better food.
And that fact was confirmed with my first peek into the teacup (free hot tea, by the way). Deep jade green, obviously made with good matcha powder. Fragrant and delicious.
So going against the grain, we decided on sukiyaki instead of shabu shabu, only because there are a billion and one shabu shabu places around; seldom can you find good sukiyaki in Orange County.
2 orders minimum, both beef at around $ 20 each. Pricy but worth it. We also added on an extra plate of prime ribeye and some Kurobuta sausage.
Each table comes equipped with a small burner. Don’t let the dinky size and the fact that it’s not integrated into the table fool you; this thing is powerful. Japanese engineering = awesome miniature gas stoves that heat your pot in a jiffy.
I asked for a noodle substitution, which they normally don’t do (no big deal), but the server went the extra mile and asked the kitchen staff to do it for me. We ended up with udon, ramen, and rice noodle in our pot! Yummy. Next time, though, I’m just going to make life easy for them and go with either all udon or all ramen.
Most of the stuff we had tasted great, though I personally recommend going with white over brown rice; the brown rice wasn’t cooked as well here.
The only other thing I didn’t like was the jidori egg, which wasn’t at the quality I was expecting. The egg yolk was too yellow, meaning the hen that laid it had too much corn in its diet. I was looking forward to a nice, rich orange egg yolk, which would’ve made a much tastier dipping sauce.
Other than that, the service was superb, the food was excellent, and overall it was worth the $ 70 (including tip). We’ll definitely be back to try the shabu shabu, which is cheaper. I’m sure my partner will finish all the broth next time, too. So good.

My son was wanting shabu shabu/​hotpot so after a little bit of researching and asking a few friends, we decided upon Ayame. The choice of broth is interesting. Generally it’s one broth style and that’s it. We ordered one spicy miso, one Asian spicy and one soy milk (suggested by my friend).
We also got one order each of Kobe beef, Prime Rib Eye and Seafood. If you order a combo, then you also get rice and a plate of assorted vegetables with it.
The pots are brought out to the table and it really does cramp up the table. We had no room left after all the proteins and vegetables were brought out. With rice, your two bowls of sauces etc I got frustrated by the amount of clutter on the table with no room to maneuver.
Sesame sauce and ponzu sauce are provided along with condiments of grated daikon, scallions and garlic which you can mix yourself to your liking for dipping your proteins in.
Seafood plate includes green lip mussels, scallops, shrimps, squid and salmon. Kobe beef is nicely marbled and about $ 35 for the combo and about $ 20 to order an an extra. I suggest the Prime Rib Eye — it was a quality cut and pretty tasty.
In the vegetable plate were baby bok choy, napa cabbage, carrot, shiitake mushroom, imitation crab, and a hollowed out bamboo with a ground chicken paste you can make meatballs with.
The soy milk broth was unique and I liked how it made the meat taste — but if you are going to dip it into the ponzu or sesame anyway it really doesn’t matter what broth you get because you’re going to mask the taste of the meat anyway. If you like it au naturel, then the soy milk flavor comes through and enhances the meat.
I thought service was okay. A few times we had to call out to them for the gas canister to be replaced. Other than that, water was refilled, extra broth was also promptly provided.
The only thing which irked me was the fact that there is an automatic 18% gratuity added to the check — and there were 3 of us. not 8 people.

SHABU SHABU AND SUSHI!!! Seriously, what more could a girl ask for?
My brother took me here… my 11 year old brother knows his food because this palce was AMAZING. Oh and just in case you have a hard time finding it, it’s in the plaza with Zov’s.
Recommendations:
Soy Milk Broth: Not for those who do not like cheese, but it does sort of have a cheese-​ish flavor, but no joke the best shabu shabu broth I have every had. I mean I DRANK THE SOUP! I NEVER drink the broth after i make shabu shabu… that’s seriously saying something. The flavor is so unique and delicious. Definitely try it
Tsumire/​Spicy Tsumire: Chicken meatball that comes with your shabu shabu and comes in a bamboo. The presentation is so cute and it’s perfect for kids. (my 11 year old brother loves making these things) You basically scoop these things out and plop them into your soup. It helps that it’s super delicious and soft and tender. The spicy one is pretty spicy and comes with jalapenos, hot sauce and the meatball itself has little chili pieces inside.
Kiss of Salmon Roll: Super fresh and really good. Salmon on top with red onions and all kinds of delicious. Who knew a shabu shabu restaurant could make such good sushi?
Other things I’ve tried:
Japanese curry broth: The flavor is really good and goes great with the meat but I just love the soy milk broth too much to let go.
Moral of my review, GO TO THIS PLACE! It’s so good and you can make reservations!

So I couldn’t control myself… and I went again.
This time I tried the spicy miso nabe.
Service
I think the lady remembers me! Same old VERY friendly and nice. I seriously want to say that the boss there hired the right waitresses. They are just SO friendly. Its like 6 stars for service: D
Food
I have to say shabu shabu is still better given that I have now tried both shabu shabu and nabe. The shabu shabu has more meat and just a better price in general. The veggies for the nabe are about the same as the shabu shabu except for some enoki mushroom, piece of shrimp, chicken and other things. Everything came in very little portions. You get ramen with nabe as for shabu shabu you don’t. Overall, I liked it, but the shabu shabu is still better.
Please refer to my picture for the details of whats in the nabe.
Good stuff to try out guys! ;)

Came here again with my roommate this past week and Ayame was as delectable as ever. & as always, impeccable service!
* They give more beef than pork (my roomie ordered regular beef & i ordered pork and she definitely had more)
* TONKATSU BROTH/​SPICY MISO.
* TSUMIRE (chicken meatball) FTW.
* Make a reservation to avoid any hassle (the place is rather small)
* They really don’t use much A/​C here — so warning to the sweaters [ people who sweat easily]: wear dri-​fit haha

First off, I’d have to say that I am from the SGV area which is why I have high expectations for shabu shabu restaurants. This place was okay but one of the few shabu shabu places in the Irvine area so I guess I can’t complain too much.
I enjoyed the spicy miso soup base and all the vegetables it came with. I was surprised udon was an extra cost, but got it anyways. I didn’t like how it was served to me already warm, instead of me cooking it on my own in my hot pot. I also didn’t like that they use table burners since mine ran out of gas midway and I had to call one of them over. The place gets pretty busy so service was a bit slow, even though we went around 1:30pm. Their meat slices were very thin in my opinion and not as plentiful as I expected.
Personally, I think it’s a bit overpriced for what you pay for. I’ll be on a lookout for another go-​to shabu shabu place in the Irvine area.

Cal Shabu’s got nothin on this place! I can’t believe I didn’t discover this shabu shabu place til now! Well, I guess it is a bit on the far end of Irvine… good thing we live down the street: D! If you hate waiting in lines (like I do) I suggest that you come on a week day. Two reasons: after the first time you go, they’ll give you a 10% off coupon for next time, but its only valid Monday-​Thursday. And second, the wait is usually 15 min+ on Fridays and weekends for dinner.
Arthur and I usually order the large spicy miso broth, mushrooms, and udon. At first it doesn’t seem like a lot of food, but trust, it’ll fill you up! I absolutely love their dipping sauces, the sesame one is the best I’ve ever tried anywhere. On the plus side, they even have a full sushi bar where you can order sushi and rolls. You can’t get any better than that. The good thing about a Japanese place with Hot Pot is that you just KNOW that it’ll be clean– or wayyyyy cleaner than any Chinese place anyways. I’m Taiwanese, and I know hot pot… it can get real dirty back there in the kitchen, and you can end up with some bad toilet time if you’re unlucky. But this place is clean, yummy, and offers more than just shabu.
This is officially my favorite shabu shabu place! (…for now)

I should have known not to get tom yum broth at a shabu shabu place. Good thing the fiancé knew to get the spicy asian broth so we could have a delicious meal. Fresh veggies and meat. Get the rice cake to add to your broth — yum.
Would definitely come back here again!

I’ve been looking for a good shabu shabu place down in the OC area. Everyone keeps raving about California Shabu but I’m the type of girl that likes VARIETY!!! I’m not a big fan of the plain shabu broth majority of the shabu places serve. So to my surprise, I came to Ayame Shabu Shabu and they had a couple of choices of different broths to choose from! SCORE!
I tried their Tom Yum broth and the soup was spot on to the tom yum’s that I get at my favorite thai places! I ended up slurping majority of my broth at the end of my meal bc it was sooo good! One thing that I really enjoyed here at Ayame was their ponzu and sesame/​peanut sauce! Surprisingly, their dipping sauce is a little different compared to the other places I’ve been. I think they add something in there. Definitely taste different but REALLY GOOD!
I do admit though that Ayame’s price is a little bit higher but the variety of vegetables and seafood is soooo worth it! I ended up getting the seafood dish than meat and honestly, it was such a good decision that I did. It came with scallops, salmon, mussels, shrimps AND MORE!
The individual burners are a little intimidating. My fire kept going out bc I’m so dumb with working the burners and i was quite scared that it was going to explode or something. Other than that, pretty good shabu place! I ended up liking the place and definitely will come back when I’m craving for some good shabu!

This place is great! Honestly my favorite shabu shabu place ever.
The price may seem a lot for a regular but the portion justifies it.
However they do give a lot of vegetables. There’s not THAT much meat but still a good amount. I love my vegetables so I’m super satisfied.
Although it is not an all-​you-​can-​eat place, a regular definitely fills me up and trust me, I eat a lot. I think the difference between a regular and large is the meat portion.
It’s neat how everyone gets their own pot (depends on how many you order). It’s fun to go with a lot of people so you can try the different broths.
One thing that makes this place different is the chicken tsumire. I’ve never seen a shabu shabu place serve this. It taste great! and it’s fun to put in the pot.

I think this was previously a sushi restaurant. I came here on Friday night and it was fairly crowded. The restaurant is well lit in here and warm looking. The problem with the shabu here is that the grills aren’t built in. They bring out the grill for each person with the lighter fluid can. That’s a strike for me at a shabu shabu restaurant. The service was kind of lacking because the server kept forgetting what we ordered. I was not happy about that at all.
I ordered myself the regular beef. It came with fresh veggies, tofu, and chicken meatball stick. They didn’t bring out the udon at all and never offered it to me. The thing about this place is they have different broths to choose from and I went with the tonkotsu broth. It was light and didn’t do much to my meat and veggies. The sauces here were pretty good. The ponzu was tangy and the peanut sauce was semi thick. The meat was pretty tender but in really small pieces. It made me feel like I was never satisfied. I really enjoyed the chicken meatball stick. I’ve never seen that at any shabu place and that was pretty cool. I’m not sure how I feel about coming back. California Shabu Shabu in Costa Mesa and FV still reigns supreme in OC for me.

You’re kidding me right? What in the hell is place?! I have been to this place in the past when they only did sushi. Since then, they have changed but still have some sushi but no bar. (i.e. California rolls and dragon rolls) One couple in the restaurant were wondering having no clue what was going on or where they should sit since there was sushi bar. Instead they have these burners in front of each seat for the shabu shabu/​hot pot crap. These burners were an afterthought and definitely dangerous. They are just little ovens set on top of the table. My partner in crime thought I was going to set his eyebrows on fire. HAHAHAH!
They gave me menu to look over and it suggested on how to pick your shabu hot pot. I am like SO is it SHABU SHABU, or HOT POT??? i don’t know it was a little confusing, the women didn’t speak english and kept telling me «yes.yes»
I finally got tried of asking her questions so I just ordered the standard certified beef with assorted vegetable and brown rice.
Again the burners are not built into the table so your burner can slide anywhere. This place would be so unsafe for children. You might set one on fire! :P
As for the sauce peanut better and ponzu. That’s all it tasted like to me. It was gross. The meat was cut to thick and the taste was not high grade.
Honestly, compared to other shabu shabu/​hot pot places in O.C. This is a smack in the face. Maybe this was a good idea in concept but it came out kind of like being a confusing racist asian restaurant. :(

It seems that shabu-​shabu places are popping out everywhere. I can see why it appeals to people since it’s pretty healthy way of eating. My sister saw an ad about this place from a magazine that she picked up from Mitsuwa.
What appeals to us is that it has a few choices of broth where you would be «washing» your meat. My sister got the Tonkotsu while I got the spicy miso. The spicy miso isn’t spicy at all and pretty flavorful. I enjoy it a lot.
We ordered a salmon skin roll for appetizer, which we didn’t quite enjoy. The salmon skin wasn’t crispy at all in fact it was chewy. My sister and I thought it’s a little strange.
The service was excellent. When the staff came by to check on us and asked if we wanted more hot tea, I thought she would just be bringing over a tea pot and filled our cold tea with more hot tea to balance out. Instead, she came back with brand new cup of hot tea so our tea was like pipping hot! Hence, extra star!
For the price, I think the meat is few pieces compared to Shabu-​shabu Bar and also seemed thinner. Noodles also cost extra. It’s very different from Shabu-​Shabu Bar because you are not sitting in a horseshoe ring community table. You are seated in a regular table where they would bring you a portable gas stove and your own pot. You can also share a pot with splitter so you can 2 broths in one pot.
The experience is definitely different because of the choice of broth but I personally still prefer Shabu-​Shabu Bar better.