Koji’s Sushi and Shabu Shabu – Orange

Alright between the poll and a special request from my friend Mike, I decided to review some Japanese food!

Up until last night I had never had Shabu Shabu, I’d always wanted to try it since the first time I heard about it a couple years ago, but I’d never had the opportunity. Then came yesterday when Mrs. DanGarion, my parents and myself went out to Koji’s Sushi and Shabu Shabu. We were first seated at the Shabu Shabu bar, I was somewhat disappointed that they sat us at the bar since there were 5 tables that were open. My parents and I both have Entertainment cards so we were hoping to both get a discounted meal along with the normal price one, but unfortunately they have very strict rules that they won’t allow people in the same party to use more then one discount, and they wouldn’t even allow us to have separate checks, they wouldn’t agree that we are separate parties because of us coming in together. It was a little goofy that they wouldn’t do it, since we were at the bar, other then us talking to each other there is no other proof that we came in together. After about 15 minutes at the bar it was determined that the burner my dad was seated at was broke so they ended up moving us to a table. It was nice we ended up at a table but because of this we had to wait another 15 minutes for our water to heat up.

Here is what we ordered. My wife and mom both ordered a Chicken and Shrimp Shabu Plate, my dad ordered the trio plate with Beef, Chicken, and Shrimp, and I ordered the around the world plate that had Beef, Chicken, Shrimp, and Salmon. The meats came on their own plate; it’s thinly sliced so as to be able to cook quickly in the pot. My plate came with about 8 slices of chicken and beef, along with 4 cuts of Salmon and 3 shrimp. Along with the meat we each got our individual veggie plate which included 1 white mushroom, 1 shitake mushroom, a slice of onion, 1 piece of broccoli, 2 cuts of carrots, 2 cuts of tofu, a bunch of cabbage, some spinach, and a bit of udon and glass noodles. On top of that they also give you two types of sauce to dip your items in after cooking them, and a bowl of rice. It’s a bunch of food, and since you are cooking it yourself you really take your time. My first meat of choice was the salmon, it dipped in it in the bowl for only about 10-15 seconds (I love sushi so I wasn’t worried about it not being under cooked) took it out and dipped it in the light sauce for the meat and tossed in it my mouth; it was so delicious! I think I could have just had a whole plate of salmon it was that good tasting. I proceeded to dip in some of my cabbage, dipped it and then placed it on my rice. I continued to do this till I was pretty much done. This left me with some deliciously seasoned rice that I finished my meal off with. The only item I had an issue with was the noodles, how are you supposed to be able to heat those and get them out of the pot?! Everyone else also enjoyed their meal. Mrs. DanGarion was a big fan of the shrimp. My mom said she could have just don’t the vegetables alone and been happy. My dad liked just about everything too.

Overall it’s a fun experience and a great meal to have with a large group of family or friends. Even though it is a lot of foods you don’t get a stuffed feeling probably because you aren’t really stuffing yourself with a ton of meat like most people do when they go out to dinner. Service was a little slow at times but considering it’s a slow meal process it wasn’t a big deal. Our waitress came by from time to time and checked on our drinks and she also fully explained how much time was needed to cook our food when we told he we had never had Shabu Shabu before. Koji’s was great for a first time Shabu Shabu experience and I’m really looking forward to trying some other places now to see how they compare to it.