Please note, Shabu Shabu has now closed. Time Out Food editors, MARCH 2020.
Shabu shabu’s the dish most of us know best from the film ‘Lost in Translation’. Wafer-thin slivers of beef (or veg, or other meats or fish) are dipped in simmering stock to cook in seconds or minutes, in the style of a Mongolian hotpot. A few places in London serve it, but this mall-style concession is the only place in London specialising in the dish. The options are brief: beef, fish and meat combo, a vegetarian option, a choice of two stocks – ‘clear’, or with soy milk. Eveything’s tidily presented, your servers fire up the hotpot, and you’re off. Be warned that dipping and retrieving udon noodles is not to be attempted if you’re a chopstick novice and wearing your best clothes.