Shabu S House

I always get the mini shabu. I thought the portion was very small, but I was totally wrong. It was perfect portion and price. And Kalgooksoo is awesome too.
I only wish that they open 7 days a week.

Good quality food. The hostess was Auntie-​style super friendly.
Lost a star because we got watermelon slices and no napkins. Then, they set the bill on the table and he was eating. There was too much time for me to fake-​wallet-​grab-​swirl into my purse, so I ended up buying dinner.
Shabu, you’re ruining my dating game, yo.

This is by far and away my favorite comfort food. A blend of Japanese and Korean with origins from Mongolia Shabu Shabu or swish-​swish is the meal of the gods.
imagine meat and meat and more meat — thinly sliced and cooked in a boiling broth and heaping plates of vegetables cooked instantly in the same broth. after the afterglow of meat ask for the fresh homemade raw noodles that you cook in the meal pot. and if your still hungry an order of risotto split 4 ways will polish you off.

We went to Shabu House with our 2 kids and it was a fun experience for our family. When we arrived, we were warmly greeted by the owner who took a lot of time and care to make sure we fully understood the menu and helped us to decide what to order.
The food was very tasty and my kids had a great time cooking their own meal. We will definitely go back!

I honestly don’t see the hype for this. Maybe its because of my moms magic touch with her korean cooking but this was so bland (the sauces don’t do justice) and felt like I was eating raw veggies picked straight out of the garden. I mean it’s good but not worth the trip. Great service & very clean interior though.

I’ve been here three times and I didn’t think it was all that special. The veggies and meat were all just ok with the sauces. Yup it tastes and feels semi-​healthy. But the taste is just falls short. I didn’t think the sauces were anything fantastic either.
My SO and I don’t ‘look’ Korean. Funny how we didn’t get offered the porridge at the end of the meal while two other tables got it. Yup I overheard the workers ask in Korean to the other tables would you like porridge… some other chit chat too. Not much customer service to speak of. Maybe I guess I’ll go in my korean outfit next time (skinny jeans and some dorky glasses) next time.
Spent $ 50+ each of the three times we went. I guess we’ll just take our business to the new place.

More of a 3.5 stars. I have eaten different versions of Shabu all over the world and I usually judge it by three things: broth, meat and sauce. I thought the two choices of broth was too limited and simple. If you are going to have plain broth it should have more herbs. But it was only seaweed or chicken. Their meat is pretty quality and sliced to perfection and priced reasonably for an el la carte place. But the dipping sauces were very limited, especially with the soy and vinegar ones tasting very similar. And the two other ones lacked favor.

The service is great and the food is amazing! I love it here and if I am ever in Chicago again, I would definitely come here again.

I like my food bland n not really a sauce kinda gal. I like to taste the flavors of my meats etc. This place was perfect. It’s great when your body is begging for something healthier but you don’t want a salad. Just a bit pricey for what you get for shabu. I do love their handcut noodle soup tho!

Fresh, affordable good shabushabu. Can personalize a lot, from broth, shabu combos, dipping sauces, to extras. Nice and friendly waitress.
I had beef shabushabu w seaweed broth and ponzu, peanut, honey mustard dipping sauces. My hubby had beef and dumpling shabu shabu w seaweed (plus kimchi) broth, and ponzu, garlic mustard, spicy dipping sauces. My husband’s favorite was the garlic mustard sauce and mine was the ponzu sauce. I like things fresh and my hubby likes it spicy.
We both had rice (its called risotto) mixed into the broth after finished eating meat and veggies. Mine was okay while my husband liked his cuz it had a kick of kimchi from the broth.
This place has Korean and American style fused in with the original Japanese style shabu shabu. To have it Japanese style, order beef shabu shabu w/​seaweed broth, ponzu and peanut sauce, ask for a bowl of rice (not the risotto) to eat at the same time w shabu shabu, and ask for udon (its on the extra menu). Put udon into the broth last, when the seaweed broth has all the nice juice from veggies and meat. If its still too bland, mix a little ponzu sauce into the broth.
Another tip: if you order dumplings, get it out of the broth fairly quickly. Mine opened up and all I was left with was the skin.

Oh Shabu combos!!! I’ll never waiver from you again. It is sooooo satisfying on this weird chilly April day. So warm and delicious.
My insides are piping toasty from the soup and the noodles. The dumplings were filled with delicious meat and other goodies. The veggies were fresh and crisp (until the soup of course!!)
When the weather gets hotter, I will be trying the neng-​myun but for now… Shabu dumpling combo with noodles on the side! NOM NOM NOMMMMM!
The server tonight was exceptional. She was so warm and nice (very unlike the usual older Korean ladies) Very attentive and remembered everything I needed! I hope I get her when I come back next time!

I really love it here. The food was exquisite, I’ve had hotpot in another restaurant but the broth would always taste to salty or too bland, but this place it was just right.
You first pick the type of broth you want and then afterwards they will serve you the meat and the veggies. Then you will pick what kind of sauce you want, take not they have a lot of variety of sauces and broths that you can pick so you have a lot of options. Once you have everything you can dig in.
I once went here with my boyfriend because I was craving some hot pot to warm me up from winter. We went here because my friend told me that other than Joyee this place is next best place. She was right!!! The hotpot here is on par with the hotpot at Joyee. But, when it comes to price Shabu house is hands down by far the best. When it comes to the service they are very accommodating and very friendly.
I’ve come back to this place with my girl friends and most of my friends had taken note that the servers here are really handsome too, in which I agree!!!
Their food is incredible and their price is really affordable. I’ve come back to this place so many times I’ve lost count already and I would come back again.

This place is awesome. Fresh greens and good meat for Shabu! Price is pretty good too. Must check it out!

Very solid 4 stars here. My only thing that kept it from 5 is I feel like you don’t get enough meat for the price you pay. But here’s my experience anyway.
Last time I got Shabu Shabu, I was in Chinatown and had no clue what I was doing. This time, I came prepared by watching a bunch of youtube videos. There they suggest eating the meat first, then adding the vegetables, then adding the rice or noodles. Here they suggest veggies first, then meat, then rice/​noodles. Either way I’m sure is fine, but I went with the youtube way and it worked fine.
Ended up doing the meal deal for 2 people. It gave you some appetizers which were all right, a choice of meat and veggies per person, and then a dessert at the end which was ice cream. Came out to be about $ 50 if I remember correctly, so about $ 60 with tip. I did leave full, yes, but I’d prefer to leave full on meat than veggies and rice.
I got a beef option, forgot which one though, and the gf got a combo of beef and seafood. Both beef choices were pretty good, and there was a good sampling of seafood too. There’s two veggie options and I went with the one that had tofu in it. Just threw all the veggies after I finished the meat. Lastly they throw in rice with an egg at the end and you get a risotto. Not sure if the guy just thought I was new or if they do it for everyone, but he made it for me, which was nice because I had no clue what was going on. It was pretty good, didn’t end up eating it all even so there’s a good amount of it.
To end we had green tea ice cream. Nice and simple dessert. I’d suggest not wearing anything that you would want smelling weird afterward. Also don’t wear layers, because when there’s a who bunch of tables on at once, it gets pretty hot in there. Waiters were really nice though so A+ to all of them.

Can you say onomatopoeia? Well, instead of trying to say that, say Shabu Shabu instead! It’s easier to say and definitely more tasty. Shabu Shabu is a Japanese DIY meal where you cook meat and vegetables in boiling hot broth and dip them into savory sauces. It’s called Shabu Shabu because of the sound that’s made when you swirl the food around in the broth.
This place does a fine job with S-​S. It’s owned by Koreans so there’s Korean stuff too — kimchi, seafood pancakes and dumplings. Everyone gets their own little pot of broth, an electric burner, and some sauces. The meat choice is beef but there are combos that include seafood or dumplings. Of the beef choices, I would suggest getting the prime beef — it’s the most marbled (translation — most tender) of the beef choices.
We struggled with the seafood pancake. It was a mushy mess.
BTW, it’s also BYOB!

Really friendly service, lots of different platter options. I really enjoyed the variety and generous portion on the combination platter. As far as the hot pot goes, not a lot of complaints!
On another note, the seafood pancake was not good. Mushy and rather unappetizing, but the shabu shabu made up for it.

I really really wanted to love this place! Coming from socal I’m used to having shabu with your own individual pot and a milder broth. I was also excited to have the risotto or juk at the end like we make it at home!
We decided to get the combo A. The menu was confusing and we were hungry! Driving out from Chicago, we were ready to eat! The appetizers were one beef gyoza and one kimchi dumpling each and a seafood pancake (pajun) to share. My favorite out of the three was the pancake. It was nice and thick with lots of seafood and veggies.
Onto the shabu, we both chose beef and I had seafood broth and he had chicken. My broth smelled a little weird while boiling and almost made me nauseous. The beef was good quality and the veggie tray was fresh and generous. I can see what others say about the runny consistency of the dipping sauces. Though runny they were flavorful. My favorite was the hot mustard and the soy based one. The juk they made at the end was pretty bland. If I went again, I would choose the noodle option.
They forgot to give us the dessert and I guess they only had green tea ice cream left, the menu indicated something else it was good so no big. They refused service to people that came in at 9:00pm but they close at 10:30pm… Hmmmmmm

I have an admittedly small history with shabu shabu. The only other place I’ve had it is at Joy Yee Plus in Chicago’s Chinatown, which I like very much. My girlfriend always raves about Shabu House, and we finally had the chance to go there so I could see what I was missing out on.
The menu is a bit intimidating, but they helpfully have ordering instructions in the menu and even hanging on the wall. Basically, you pick the kind of broth you want, what veggies and proteins you want, which dipping sauces, and any extras (I’m a sucker for fish balls).
Unlike at JYP where I can slurp up the soup all day, the broth here is much blander. It imparts a little flavor to the things you’re cooking in it, but not something you’d want to be straight eating. Luckily, you get a large amount of veggies and meat to make up for it. It almost feels healthy with the amount of greens and tofu you get.
The grand finale though is what makes this place excellent to me. When you’re down to your last few veggies and bits of meat, you can ask them to put some rice and crack an egg into your soup pot and make a (what they call) risotto out of it. Protip: Make sure you don’t fill up on food before this stage of the game! The risotto/​congee is probably the best part of the meal and it’s unfortunate that, by design, you can’t have it until the end.
If it wasn’t for the last bowl of rice I’d definitely pick Joy Yee Plus over Shabu House, but all things considered it’s a toss up. Both are great and I wouldn’t mine making the trek out to Niles again for more soup.

This was the first time I had shabu and I couldn’t have picked a better place to start my obsession with Korean food
When they bring the raw dishes out it looks like a lot of food but once you start cooking it in the broth, it’s much smaller. We ordered several different items like the marbled beef, tofu and veggies. All tasted good in the spicy and regular broth but what I really liked was the hot pot. The Bulgogi was piping hot and I love that the eggs cooked right in the bowl when it wasn’t even on top of a flame. I’d definitely recommend this place for first time shabu-​goers

I loved their Myung Dong kalgooksoo with the mandoo. Oh man, it’s so good! It was nice and creamy, hearty and hot, with nice dumplings within the broth and thick noodles. The mool nengmyun was quite potent with the sesame seeds, so if you’re a sesame fiend, then this bowl is for you. It’s still refreshing, though. The shabu shabu itself was okay — the spicy sauce was the best, so if you’re dying to try it out, get 3 of those spicy sauce instead of having the place choose for you. There are three different cuts of meat you can order and two types of vegetables that come with — I chose the kimchi broth so it makes things a little tad bit ‘spicy.’ I just wished there were more meat in terms of the orders. Service was friendly and the place is clean.
+Myung Dong kalgooksoo