The challenge of Dine LA Week, along with the happy necessity of eating everything in sight, is the scheduling. There is a score of restaurants involved, and we want to cover as many as we can, which can result in some odd scheduling.
Thus we are here at Yuzu Shabu at 4:30 in the afternoon for dinner. As usual, it’s my only meal of the day, because I know the table will be groaning with food in just a few minutes.
The beauty of DINE LA Week (which actually runs until October 28) is that restaurants all over greater Los Angeles are featuring great specials with lunches as low as $15, to go along with $35 dinners.
There are about 20 participating restaurants all over Pasadena, ranging from New American to Asian to Italian to Argentinian.
You can see the Pasadena list right here.
Yuzu Shabu is a Japanese style hot pot restaurant—essentially a pot of broth placed on a gas burner on the table. A bowl of greens and vegetables is placed on the table overflowing with spinach, corn, taro root, tofu, mushroom, cabbage, bok choi, and the like.
The $55 Dine LA special, available for dine-in only, consists of refreshers, appetizers, a choice of broths (we’ll get to those), and a choice of meats or seafood.
There are more than a dozen broths –Japanese fish, citrus kombu, veggie, chicken, Taiwanese, beef, sukiyaki, curry, French onion, miso, pork bone, Tom yum, kimchi, spicy tomato, and spicy Szechuan.
Add to that your choice of the meat and the seafood — lean beef, Angus beef, Kurobuta, pork, chicken, lamb, Angus strip loin, brisket, beef belly, pork belly, Wagyu beef, short rib, American Wagyu, dry-aged prime rib, basa, salmon, shrimp, scallops, and mussels. It gets complicated, in a good way.
I had actually chosen only the shrimps and scallops, but my server added the Angus and Wagyu beef, “for the experience.”
We began our meal ordering the chicken Karaage appetizer, which I realize in writing this, never arrived. To be honest, I’m really okay, it’s all a lot of food. It just sounded so good —Japanese fried chicken served with a spicy mayo sauce. Right? Next time.
We chose the sukiyaki broth and just because he could, manager Brian also filled the divided pot with a miso broth. Which turned out to be a very good thing because the Sukiyaki sauce turned out to be a lot spicier than I remembered. The miso was hot and comforting, as miso always is.
And when I say hot, I mean hot as in really hot. The gas burners churn throughout the meal, and the vegetables and meats cook quickly upon being submerged into the broth.
As one server told me, you could literally hold the meat inches above the steaming hot broth and it would cook. But I held it into the broth for about a minute, maybe less, until the thin slices were maybe medium well.
Be careful out there.
Along with the broth, there are choices of dipping sauces—a Taiwanese barbecue sauce, a citrus ponzu style sauce, and a peanut flavored sauce. From the combination of the broths and the meats and the vegetables and the dipping sauces, every bite could be different, all part of the beauty of the mix.
And while one might be tempted to emphasize the meats and the proteins, I found that pouring all the vegetables into the broth added a lot more texture and complexity to every spoonful. Meat and broth is good, but each green adds a new flavor.
“It really does make a big difference,” said manager Brian. “Sometimes I end up eating far more greens and vegetables than the meats.”
Like its sister restaurant, Beer & Claw, Yuzu Shabu offers a lot of meal for the money, whether it’s lunch or dinner.
As I pondered how I would finish it all, a young female customer in the next booth calmly sat down, explained that she was in a hurry, and very eagerly devoured everything on her table. This was a remarkable and completely understandable and enviable achievement.
Having to leave for my next assignment, I missed the desserts, which are a choice of mochi or macaroons. Based on what I’d consumed so far, those would have been perfect.
Clearly I’m going to need to come back.
Yuzu Shabu is at 45 S Fair Oaks Ave, Pasadena, CA, (626) 415-9898. yuzushabu.com
