Hey Hive!
We finally tried a new restaurant the other day when we went out to catch Deadpool and Wolverine on release day! We're big fans of Deadpool, Wolverine and Ryan Reynolds so to avoid spoilers we wanted to catch it right away and it was amazing!
Anyway, because we could only get the later showing on release day, we decided to go get dinner first and tried this new place in the mall called Shabu-GO!
Shabu-GO is one of many Japanese restaurant chains here in Singapore all under a big parent conglomerate called RE&S which was founded in 1988 by Osaka native Hiroshi Tatara. They aim to bring a slice of Japanese lifestyle to Singapore with their many brands and concepts like Kuriya, Shimbashi Soba, Kuishin Bo and Ichiban Boshi. They also branched out into different types of Japanese cuisine with franchises like Sushi-GO, Yakiniku-GO, and Shabu-GO.
Source: dollarsandsense
Shabu-GO specialises in Shabu Shabu, which is a Japanese hotpot dish of thinly sliced meat and vegetables boiled in water and served with dipping sauces. We've tried other Shabu Shabu places before (since Singapore has no shortage of them) but we had yet to try Shabu-GO and tbh I didn't even know this place existed before then.
I didn't realise at the time, but this particular Shabu-GO we patronised is part of a bigger Japanese Food Street called &JOY which I guess is an area for RE&S to showcase all their different restaurant franchises they own. I never knew how many they had, and the fact that they're all household brands too; it's crazy!
Source: danielfooddiary
It was actually quite crowded when we went over there but I think they might've been a tad understaffed for a Thursday night too. There was one person was handling the payment and serving, one other server and one cleaner, which technically should be enough but for so many customers it can be a lot.
We took the time to peruse the menu while waiting for a table. They had various set meals consisting of different types of meat like pork, beef and chicken as well as seafood and vegetables.
They also had an ala carte menu if you wished to order some of their other items or house-specials like their prawn paste ball or chicken meatballs.
They had a special Shabu set of Milky Fish Broth with a slew of side dishes that was pretty expensive. I'm not sure what's so special about the milky fish broth but I assume it's the more expensive soup bases they have.
After about 10 minutes or so, we were shown to a table and were surprised to see how big the restaurant was.
There were quite a few tables of 2 or 4 and most of them were full even if it was a little later at around 8:30pm.
We decided to order one of the sets since it looked quite complete and we could try a little bit of everything. Our set included pork belly, beef ribeye, luncheon meat, tofu, beancurd ring rolls, spinach noodles and 2 veggie platters.
We could choose 2 soup bases out of 10 choices but only 3 of them had no extra charge so we chose the cheaper ones which were called Healthy Clear Dashi and All-time Favourite Sukiyaki.
While waiting for the soup to boil, I went to check out the dipping sauce station since we we could choose and make our own dipping sauces. Initially I thought it would be an extra charge but the server invited us to take the sauce for free so we did.
They have quite a few condiments to choose from, and a helpful recipe list for their recommended and signature sauces!
I made a simple one of just soy sauce and the GO-special Spicy Chili Paste and by the time I returned to the table the soup was boiling and it was ready to cook!
We dumped some vegetables in and waited for them to cook while sipping some of the soup. The clear dashi was nice and light while the Sukiyaki was thankfully not too sweet.
I was getting hungry and couldn't wait to dig in! Hotpot is definitely not a hungry person meal since you have to wait a little but it'll be worth it when you actually start digging in!
After a while, our veggies were ready and we started on the meat. I tried the beef first and it was pretty good on its own but when dipped in the spicy dipping sauce it was so much tastier! The sauce added a nice kick to the tender beef and mixed with the soup it was delicious!
The other meat we had was pork belly which is a staple for hotpot meals. The pork was also very nice and tender on its own but got elevated when dipped in the spicy sauce. Everything just tastes better with this special chili paste.
We had some trouble separating the spinach noodles since it came in a whole clump and we wanted to separate half into each soup base to try. It took some finagling but we got it in the end, sort of.
There was also luncheon meat in our set which was curious since we've never really had boiled luncheon meat before but it was pretty good. The luncheon meat taste overpowered the dashi broth but actually contrasted the slightly sweet Sukiyaki broth quite nicely. It was a pleasant mix of sweet and salty, and spicy when mixed with the chili paste as well.
Overall, I'd say this set meal was worth the wait and money. There was a decent amount of vegetables, meat and tofu and the portion was just right for 2 people. It was a very satisfying meal and I was so stuffed after! While I expected Shabu-GO to be a bit more on the affordable side this set is quite a standard price for hotpot now but I was very full so I guess it's worth it.
If you've never had Shabu Shabu before, I highly recommend it but bear in mind it's a true sit-down and enjoy kind of meal as it takes a while. But it's really worth it and can be quite healthy too!
Thanks so much for reading!
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