Shabu Tatsu
216 E 10th St
(between 2nd Ave & 1st Ave)
New York, NY 10003

Shabu Tatsu serves up traditional shabu shabu, aka. Japanese hot pot.  Its name comes from the sound of swishing your meats in the hot water.  Unlike Chinese hot pot, shabu shabu is much lighter.  It uses a dashi broth made from just hot water and seaweed.  Chinese hot pot is heavier and often uses a hearty pork bone broth or an extremely spicy beef stock with various seasonings.  I prefer Japanese hot pot because the light broth cooks the meat and vegetables without masking their natural flavors.  Though, because the broth has no real seasoning effects, you need very fresh ingredients and deliciously fragrant dipping sauces.  Normally shabu shabu is served with ponzu sauce and a sesame sauce.  In addition to the sauces, Shabu Tatsu also brought freshly chopped scallions and daikon to mix in.

We ordered the Prime Rib-Eye Beef Shabu-Shabu Dinner Course, which was $26 per person.  $26 is a lot to pay for cooking yourself some veggies and meat in a boiling pot of hot water, but Shabu Tatsu really showed me how it is completely worth it.  The set included an amazing vegetable platter and of course, a big plate of prime rib-eye.  The vegetables were extremely fresh – no stringy veggies to be found.  The veggie platter also included tofu and Kishimen (wide and flat wheat noodles) and Malony (fat, rounded, and translucent noodles made of potato and corn starch).

The prime rib-eye was cut in the perfect thickness (not thin to the point of papery non-existence… something you find in some shabu places… but still thin enough to be cooked in just a few seconds… and thick enough to taste like meaty meat).  Because shabu meats are served raw, they have to be high enough quality to be eaten raw… this is definitely not enforced in certain places.  Shabu Tatsu’s meat is very high quality, smooth and did not contain any knots or stringy bits.

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