Update! I have to agree with a lot of the reviews of House of Shabu Shabu regarding the service. In the past a skinny teenage girl and older lady would not give service and forget your order. That didn't bother me, because Asian restaurants never have service so get use to it! Its about the food. Now, your order can be written on a paper menu similar to AYCE Sushi restaurants. Great improvement! Also, I can order multi-meats at once before we were limited to one plate of meat per guest at a time. THE SERVICE BLEW ME AWAY!! It was American food quality service. I went on Tuesday night and there was maybe around 10 or 12 people eating dinner. That's about 10 times more people than are usually there when I go. This time House of Shabu shabu got it right. The manager/ owner I'm guessing... was very nice and came by and greeted every guest. Instead of 2 people. The restaurant now has 2 servers that were incredibly fast and 2 busier that also helped with orders and cleaning. Twice the staff and friendliness. The servers tried to talk to my party and came back and forth constantly. The only waiting was for the cutting of the meat or the sushi, but my water glass and sauces never reached empty. One sushi platter, 2 appetizers, 7 plates of meat, and soup later, I was in food coma heaven, but I didn't over do it this time. I stop at just the right time before you feel to stuffed to walk. The menu changed slightly so you can only get rolls on the cheapest special. It was nice of the cute server to take the time to explain this new menu. I think the Special #1 is now $17.95 (2 dollars less) and the highest is only $24.95 (about 5-10 dollars less). I usually just get special 1 because I'm cheap and its all you can eat. I don't go to this restaurant for the sushi although Spicy tuna and Spicy Salmon is a good appetizer. This place will not blow you away like some Asian area Shabu Shabu, but HEY! would you rather eat Panda or PF "not" Changs? This is Irvine and pretty decent eats. **Note: go easy on the hot sauce, it is more potent than before (no longer watered down).** --- It feels weird rating a restaurant where you cook your own food. It doesn't seem fair if you are a bad cook than you probably will have a bad review of this place. If you want fresh tasting food this is the place for you. I am always a fan of any all-you-can-eat meat places. The nice thing about this place is not only can you get all you can eat beef, chicken, and pork for $19.99, you have an option to order other appetizers or sushi rolls. The sushi is a great option because you maybe on a date and your partner might not be as big of a meat lover as you. Shabu Shabu is a simple Japanese way of cooking food in boiling water, similar to Chinese hot pot. Every meat is cut extremely thin to cook faster, this is great because pork and chicken can take longer. I personally like the beef over the pork and chicken. I would recommend trying all the meats because it will make for a better soup at the end. **NOTE: I recommend dipping your chopsticks in the boiling water after handling raw meat.** You can dip your meat in ponzi sauce either plain or extremely spicy. Its up to you how much of the secret hot sauce you want to add. There are also garlic, onions, turnip, and some kind of mustard like sauce so you can mix and match as you please. Great place for a date just remember to come hungry. There is also a $29.99 AYCE option that includes all you can drink beer! I want to try this, but eating a lot and drink until you are full.. sounds like a bad combo. Highly recommended!

I believe this shabu shabu restaurant has gone through several ownership changes over year. I wasn't really impressed with any of the time I visited and I always thought it was just another place for shabu. I recently visited this place, maybe twice over last month, I begin to like this change of ownership. With about $21, you get AYCE menu with varieties of meat to choose from. With $31, I believe, will get you even wider selection of meat with higher grade meat. I personally didn't care to pay extra $10 for the higher cut so I settled with angus beef. I tried both the spicy miso broth and the standard water with piece of seaweed broth. I always ask for 1 drop of spicy sauce on my peanut sauce. The service is relatively good here with friendly staff. The quality of the meat, angus beef, is okay, not great, but good enough for what I pay for. I tried their beef belly. I recommend again it since it has so much fat. I also like this House of Shabu Shabu because they got other mini dishes you can order as a part of that AYCE comboa. I typically order some sushi rolls, chicken wings, and vegetable tempura. With this new ownership, they have signs everywhere saying they do not accept tips. I felt little uncomfortable not paying tip so I asked the staff and they responded by saying they are better compensated. Overall my shabu shabu experience here were good and I highly recommend anyone around the area to try.