Shabu Chic

Just discovered this place but looks like they are closing, permanently.
The place is very family oriented altho small and located behind a grungy looking shopping plaza. But you know it’s good eats when there is a line of Asians.
The concept is great-​pick a meat and pick the size for the order of your meat: M, L or XL. Then pick a broth: konbu, spicy miso or sukiyaki. Veggies and dipping sauces come standard. You can add on dumplings or more meat. I love the idea of how they slice your meat only when you order.
Really great place for the value altho it’s not AYCE.
Server was very friendly and attentive. I will miss this place.

If you don’t mind the super sketchy area it’s in, then by all means stop on by. It is the only Shabu place I’ve ever been to that doesn’t offer chicken, which was very disappointing. It’s a decent place, and the staff is polite, but the hotpot being 2 miles away from me made eating uncomfortable and messy. The Mochi ice cream was awesome though.

Service was good, the server sat me down immediately and he gave me a good amount of time to look over the menu before coming over to take my order. The restaurant was nice and clean. I ordered the rib eye (medium) with spicy miso. The first thing I notice as he was slicing the ribeye, the meat look like it was a little dark, indicating the fridge that kept the meat cold, was on the verge of freezing the meat. The spicy miso was average, not anything outstanding. The sesame sauce was bland and mediocre in tasting. The server did refill my water and ask if I need anything else frequently. Overall, good service and clean place to eat, but average in food.

I came with my BF and it was his first time trying Shabu. He loved it! I had the beef and dumplings. He had pork and beef. We also added the mushroom plate. The broths were a lot more flavorful than most shabu places I’ve been to and service was good. We also got the free scoops of ice cream, while I’m not a fan of the black sesame I think that’s on my part for not knowing what I ordered. Definitely coming back!

I love this place. It’s our «go to» spot in the ID. Generous portions for the price. Great service — the owner always seems to be there and greets us as if we stop in all the the time — I wish we did — asks about our son who’s away at school is doing, etc.
The restaurant is super clean. We feel comfortable and welcome in any attire — baseball jersey, sport coat, sock and sandals, it all works.
Best of all, the whole concept works great. My wife likes her beef very well done and I like pork or lamb very rare. Because we cook it ourselves we get exactly what we want.

I have been missing Shabu pretty hardcore since I moved from California a few months ago! Lo and behold this place is awesome! First off, noticed how clean and welcoming the space was. We went early on a Saturday evening and there was no wait for us. We ordered the spicy miso broth with rib eye and lamb. Loved the flavors and will definitely be trying another broth on the next visit. Even though we didn’t order the more expensive wagyu, I was perfectly happy with my rib eye cut! Also, they serve alcohol. Nothing better than shabu and beer!
In summary, clean, simple, hits the spot shabu shabu!

This place is amazing!!! Order the sukiya or the spicy miso broth and be sure to add garlic and spicy drops. The thinly sliced ribeye is perfect. Lastly, the service is so great. Everyone that works there is top notch!

I wasn’t expecting much coming here since I didn’t think Seattle would have good shabu. Was I wrong. This place was pretty good. Not the best that I’ve ever had but it was good enough for lunch. I was a bit disappointed there wasn’t a lunch special. There was only one staff serving the whole restraunt so a lot of people were waiting for service. Kind of sucks if you are in a hurry or a big group. Luckily I wasn’t in a time crunch so I just sat through the delay. The meat does come frozen but the flavor wasn’t bad. Parking could get difficult since the lot gets pretty busy but I didn’t have much of an issue waiting.

This place is a bit pricey but the service and quality of food makes it worth it.

One star knocked off for being snotty like some privileged kid with entitlement issues BECAUSE of its limited hours (Thursday-​Sunday)! But other than that, this place is bomb diggity!
First off, I used to live in Japan and been craving the shabu shabu AKA Japanese hot pot. These places are starting to open up like hotcakes because I think people are getting tired of the more mainstream style AKA Chinese/​Taiwanese/​Mongolian hot pot.
When you first walk into Shabu Chic, you will notice seating at either the table or the counter. Most times I’ve come here I’ve sat at the counter. The place is clean and feels comfortable.
How does this place work? You choose your choice of protein, which consists of the wagyu beef (too expensive — maybe when I become rich), regular beef, chicken, pork, or dumplings. The types are actually more specific, I just gave supergeneric categories: P.
Next, you choose your broth. I’ve had the sukiyaki, which is my favorite, and the miso, which is alright but not as good as the sukiyaki in my opinion.
The server will bring you a plate of veggies, which consist of lettuce, bok choy, carrots, enoki mushrooms, udon, etc. The veggies are very FRESH by the way. She will also bring you a side of ponzu sauce (soy sauce-​based citrus sauce) and goma (sesame-​based) for dipping your meats. You can also add extra stuff to your sauce, and when I refer to stuff that would be green onions, minced garlic, and spicy radish.
Then, the meat cutter dude will appear out of nowhere and cut the meat in front of you. Note: there is a meat cutter in the middle of the premises.
Next, you will get your pot of broth placed on a burner in front of you. When the liquid boils, you add your crap in. For non-​beef meats, they take longer to cook. For everything else, a few minutes in the boiling liquid should be enough.
Finally, if you check in on Unilocal and show them, you will get a free scoop of ice cream. I got the green tea one. Why would I get any other flavor? #obvi
This place gives out punch cards too!
In sum, this is a nice addition to the ID and I hope I will be seeing more shabu shabu places open up in Seattle!

I’ve been here a few times since moving to Seattle in March 2015. The food is delicious and the wait staff has always been very friendly and accommodating. The only thing is that it would be great to see more selection on the menu.

Good, healthy food and great sauces for not a lot of money. Nice atmosphere with clean granite countertops at the bar and induction hot plates at the table and bar. Usually one small order of meat per person for dinner (or medium for lunch, which I believe is the same as a dinner small) is enough once all the veggies, sauces, and rice are thrown in.
One small complaint: the hot plates at the bar are a little too far back. I’m about 6’4″ and the reach is less than comfortable for me. I’m not sure how shorter people manage.

Shabu chick is delicious. Best hot pot place in Seattle. Super clean, friendly, and healthy (I think).

This place is yummy. It’s a small restaurant and it’s cool that you get your own pot instead of sharing it with the table. Service is awesome, very attentive and super nice. My friend and I came here and we got a large beef and extra large lamb. I think a large of both is plenty. I finished midway and my friend finished the rest (he is an endless pit). I got the sukiyaki broth and my friend got spicy miso. I really liked mine. Also came with two sauces and I’m more favorable for the sesame sauce. Goes great with garlic and green onion. Comes with a plate of veggies and noodles. All were very tasty. I do like how they freshly slice the meat in front of you which is nice. I got free ice cream scoop for checking in a Unilocal.The black sesame ice cream is tasty. I’m a sucker for black sesame.

We got to shabu chic at about 545 and it was completely empty. They open at 5pm for dinner. Service was good, she gave us a lot of attention. We ordered the XL rib eye beef for $ 20 which came with rice and vegetables. Dipping sauces were awesome but 3 stars because the beef was tasteless/​bland and the whole point of eating there was to try their beef. However, beef Slices were relatively big?

There is nothing chic about this shabu place! How this place got a 4 star average is beyond me, something just isn’t right about that. First of all, I have been to many shabu places (all in California) — I think I know my shabu. My husband and I just moved back home to Seattle and I was excited to find a shabu place here. Let me save you the disappointment by saying DONT EAT HERE!!! Make like Reebok and Just DONT do it!
The service was terrible and there were only two other groups of people here. Not one person checked in on us during our entire meal, but really if the food was good I wouldn’t need to complain. The sauces were mediocre at best. The goma was way too creamy and barely had any flavor. The ponzu sauce was bland, and not citrusy and aromatic as it should be and was so watered down after a few dips that I seriously thought I lost my taste buds.
The «seaweed» broth is just water, which is fine BC it usually is but it tasted like the nastiest tap water I’ve ever had! It leaves this gross taste in your mouth. I would compare it to toilet water but that would imply that I’ve tasted it, which I have not.
The beef ribeye is dry and not tender. If you’ve ever had shabu before you would know that a part of the fun is mixing all of your remaining ingredients including your two dipping sauces into the pot with your noodles and one of the workers usually mixes it for you, adding more «soup base» to flavor up the broth, and replacing your rice bowl with a larger bowl for this heavenly goodness to come. After 5 minutes of trying to get some service from somebody, anybody, I asked for some soup broth and I was told they did not have this. That’s just preposterous!!! The response was then followed by «you’re the 2^nd person to ask in 3 years» Uhmm OK?! What are you implying? Shabu is obviously new to Seattle and perhaps people don’t really know what the greatest part about eating shabu is? How could a shabu place not have soup base? They also do not have big bowls, I was told to use the small bowl that was used to place my ladle in during my meal. That bowl wouldn’t even fit an egg, a quail egg at that.
So Alas, my taste buds could not be sparked here and it was probably the biggest waste of $$ and stomach space that I have ever encountered. I’m working on ma fitness and now I have a big belly full of disgustingness. Do not make the same mistake as I did my friends, just do yourself a favor and go anywhere else! Any… where!!!

Shabu Chic offers Japanese hot pot, which seems healthier compared to other places in International District, but still with reasonable pricing. How you order is by selecting your main protein option (meat/​veggie) which comes with a side of veggies. Plus, the variety of sauces provided for dipping are pretty tasty! The server was also helpful in explaining how to order, as it was our first time here. Worth checking out!

Love me a good hotpot. The seaweed broth is basically lightly seasoned water but the other broths are pretty amazing. The ingredients are fresh, well presented, and the service was quite attentive (maybe at times a bit much).
My only complaint about this place is how hard it is to find it. I guess it’s not a big deal since once you’ve been there you know how to get there again but that first time was a bit confusing.

I love Shabu Shabu! This was a whole new experience for my friends and I. I’ve never had Japanese style Shabu. So the waiter was amazing, he was very informative about everything. We each ordered a entrée and all of the entrees included veggies and mushrooms. We all had an option of brown or white rice. The soup is normally used to cook everything in and not for eating. So it’s not as flavorful as your normal hot pot; however, it did come with two incredible sauces. Wow! The peanut sauce was so yummy! My favorite! Great experience overall!

The good:
–Clean environment
–Meat sliced to order
–Complimentary veggies (but I think this is standard at hot pot joints?)
–Friendly service
The bad:
–Seaweed broth is very bland. I was warned of this, but it was barely different from boiled water. It should have tasted like seaweed.
–Wasn’t impressed with the sauces. Something was off with the blend of ingredients they used to make em. I can point you to bottled sauces that taste better.
–I can make this at home?