|September 1, 2014|
The start of September comes with a new restaurant review… Shabusen Yakiniku House. My fellow friends from Seattle came up this past weekend. A monthly ritual that is very precious to me 🙂
We initially wanted to try Korean BBQ and we tried going online to sieve out some good places. I learned that Yelp is not commonly used in Vancouver, BC. People here use Urbanspoon more? Interesting. I personally prefer the Yelp template. Anyways, we landed with a few options and decided on Shabusen which turned out to be Japanese BBQ. *Just a heads up – it is an all-you-can-eat BBQ but we went for ala carte because we were not too sure if we would be able to eat that much.
Yakiniku(焼き肉) translates to grilled meat in Japanese. Yaki (焼き) means grilled and Niku (肉) means meat. You will often hear Yaki (焼き) in a lot of the Japanese food names because it derives from a cooking method called yaku 焼くwhich means ‘to fry’ or ‘to grill’.
When we entered the restaurants, it was noisy and bustling with people talking. The aroma of semi-charred meat filled the entire restaurant. We were asked to wait for 45-minutes to an hour? We waited roughly for an hour. Try to make a reservation or expect to wait that long.
We ordered a two Vancouver Rolls and two sets of Yakiniku Bulgogi Set. The Yakiniku Bulgogi set allows you to choose a meat (spicy pork, beef, chicken) and it comes with rice, miso soup and some sides dishes. The first picture shows the spicy pork and beef.
I have to mention that the meat was really delicious – I believe it is how it was marinated. The meat was succulent and juicy. There was this dipping sauce that is optional but it does enhance the taste. The food was hands down terrific. The service, on the other hand, is questionable (the cashier in particular). The waitress that served us was friendly. But they did not serve us our rice which was part of the meal. We only noticed that as we were about to leave. I am not complaining though because I was pretty full as we ordered two Vancouver rolls on top of that. But I believe being part of the combo, the food should be served provided we requested to not have it. No complains because the food was really good. I would really recommend the Vancouver roll – unagi (eel) and tempura potato with avocados. Delish!
The cashier, however, made us a little unhappy as we were about to leave the restaurant. She was extremely unhappy when we tried to split our bill 4-ways. I can understand that it is a little inconvenient but we were leaving around the time where it was nearing to closing. We were the only ones at the counter so she was not exactly in the rush? One of my friends works in a restaurant in Seattle – she commented that she has never tipped a restaurant this bad before. I believe it tells a lot when a fellow waitress comments. I was slightly annoyed but the food was really good so I will just take this as an exception.
We had two rolls and two Yakiniku sets which rounded to about $13 for each person overall which was a pretty good deal. You can have the all-you-can-eat BBQ at $25.50 (Dinner) or $16 (Lunch). It would be your choice!
Overall, I would give this restaurant ★★★★★ for taste, ★★★☆☆ for service and ★★★★☆ for value.
This restaurant is located at 202-755 Burrard Steet, Vancouver, BC Canada (located on the 2nd floor) and you can check their website for the menu and contact to make reservations at http://www.shabusenyakiniku.com/
Enjoy!
Clarrie Noms 