But the other night, we finally got the chance to sample the "other" shabu-shabu in town. I'm sorry to say but I didn't get the name of the restaurant. Because its in Chinese character. My Chinese knowledge is limited to numbers and a few bad words (courtesy of my Chinese lessons way back in elementary days, oh but the bad words i learned it in high school, just so we're clear.)
Anyhoo, the location of the restaurant is a bit seedy. It is at the top of Philippine House Restaurant in Najda St. A door that leads inside has two non-working escalators, so you have to climb up manually. Once at the mezannine floor turn left and another left, you'll see a door with bead curtains and blinking lights in Chinese characters. Since its the only restaurant on that floor, we hesistantly went inside. Once you get pass the cashier's counter, you'll see a buffet table. Table is not for the food, it is actually for the condiments and sauces you create for your own hot pot.
We were ushered to a table near the glass window with small Chinese lanterns hanging overhead. I will give this restaurant an A for ambiance. It sure does feel like I'm inside an Asian restaurant. So were given this A3 size sheet which serves as the menu. The waiter explained that there single serving hot pots and there is also the big one that can cater to 2-3 person. We chose the medium size with one basic soup and one spicy soup. An electric induction stove. While our soup simmers, our ordered ingredients arrived, we had chicken, beef, frozed fried tofu, chicken balls, crab sticks, chinese cabbage, bok choy, carrots, potato and cauliflower. Plus noodles and rice, we started dunking the ingredients. and stirred while it is being cooked.
What I love about this shabu-shabu is the sauce and dips that you can mix and match. We were not able to finish off everything. So we had it packed to take home. All in all, the dinner was pretty filling and lip smacking the chili was enough to keep my lips burning for an hour. We are definitely coming back and will be trying the single hot pot instead of the big one. Total dinner damage was AED 164.00. Stiff? Oh yes! But we were able to bring home some stuff and the dinner was super filling. *burp*
