When I was told about Chuan Shabu, my interest was peaked. The concept of the hot pot was intriguing to me…choose menu items à la carte and cook them in a broth of your choosing. This made me think of fondue, but without the cheese or chocolate. When arriving at the restaurant, we were greeted with a modern, chic environment with an oriental flare. We were then seated in a long row of table which also doubled as our cooking stations for our meal. This is when things began to fall apart.
For a group of 10+ people, we were only seated with one waiter, which is very overwhelming and unfair to the waiter. While he was very friendly and courteous, the menu took some explaining and getting used to. After the first round of drinks were handed out and the menu explained multiple times, we placed our order which consisted of their spiciest broth, with a combination of broccoli, button mushrooms, shrimp, beef tongue and our choice of noodle. First off, only order their spicy broth if you love heat and can handle a lot of it, because while it is flavorful, it packs a wallop. The vegetables were very fresh and plentiful, and cooked nicely in the spicy broth. The shrimp, however were very small and disappointing. The beef tongue, while being cut into very small pieces had a nice gamey flavor to them and was a treat to try for the first time. The noodles had great texture and you could cook them as little or as much as you wanted to, depending on your liking.
Unfortunately, at times, after we got our meals, our waiter was no where to be found. With the heat of the broth, relief was needed in the form of a cold beverage and many customers at our table went wanting for too long. When all was said and done, I had eaten about 2.5 small bowls of soup with various ingredients, but still found myself hungry and looking for more. Given the fact that we had to cook all of the food ourselves (given it could be cooked to our own personal tastes), the bill at the end of the day was around $20 for soup. While the concept was intriguing and the food was tasty, I think that there is better value for your dollar in the city. If you are going to try this restaurant for the first time, I would recommend going in smaller groups (4 people max) to get the best out of this unique experience. I think this restaurant will do well once it gets it’s feet underneath it, but it will probably be some time before I attempt to visit this hot pot location.