SHABU ZEN --- Healthy Choice

Posted by Audrey Gallen in

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At the heart of Boston's Chinatown, you'll find this exquisite Japanese hotpot restaurant called ShabuZen. This place offers a variety of meat, seafood and even tofu meals all with a side of vegetable platter. Not only they serve meat and seafood meals but they also have Korean appetizers such as this delicious pickled cabbage called kim-chee and a spicy Thai soup called Tom Yum.

The first thing that you will notice upon entering this restaurant is a big rectangular table,that is basically the dining area. Individuals get their own pot filled with boiling water. However, if you are going to dine in with a group, it is also an option to reserve a table. The only thing about reserving a table is that people in your party will have to share one boiling pot of water.

Now, you might ask, what's up with the boiling pot of water? Well, that's how you cook your food. Yes, you cook your own food. You put all the meat,seafood and vegetable to a boil and the waitresses give you a variety of sauces and spices to add to your meal. You also have an option of putting flavor to your soup, your choices are kim chee flavor, tom yum flavor and chinese herbal soup.

The waiters and waitresses are extremely friendly. You will really feel the hospitality of the staff here. Also, I noticed that although this is a Japanese restaurant, almost all of their employees are Chinese. It is not a big deal, but it is just quite interesting to me.

When they serve your meal, they will serve you platters of meat, carefully thin sliced and neatly rolled up. They have pork, beef, chicken and lamb. For seafood, they serve scallops,jumbo shrimps,squid and occassionally, they have shark fin on their menu.

I recommend ShabuZen if you want a relaxing night out with a date or even with a group of friends. Some might criticize it because, who really goes to a restaurant to cook their own food?? But let me tell you something, cooking with your friends or a significant other is always a great experience. I don't recommend this place if you have running children around, this might be a cause of accident and they can be at high risk of getting burned if they knock down a boiling pot of water.

Overall, I give this place a 4.5 out of 5, ShabuZen is a healthy choice, you don't have to worry about your cholesterol because everything here is boiled!