One of my long time favorite hot pot restaurants Shabu-Zen has to be one of the most consistent restaurants in Boston. My family and I have been dining here for years now and at one point we went every week. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the concept of hotpot or shabu, basically you choose a broth/soup and the food which you would like to dip in the boiling broth to cook. Once you go through the menu and choose everything you want, from seafood to meats and veggies, they will bring it out for you one by one and turn the electric burner on. You can control the heat based on your pace of eating and it can get messy so don't wear any easily stained clothing.
Anyways aside from the raw items you can cook there are stand alone appetizers that are cooked by the chefs as well. So to start off my go to appetizer order is the sauteed beef tongue, although it's a bit unusual and might make some uncomfortable this dish is extremely tender and delicious. Another favorite that people usually get is the sauteed baby clams as well. Occasionally I'll get the mini berkshire sausages because they pair very well with the beer. I'm not a big fan of smoothies but the Mrs. likes to get a green tea latte, it tastes like a frappuccino from Starbucks.
There are many shabu restaurants in Boston, what makes Shabu-Zen so special you might ask? Simply put it comes down to three things, the sauce, the broth and the fresh quality ingredients. The ponzu sauce they have here comes with sides of BBQ paste, scallions, red peppers, and garlic, you can add whatever you want but I would recommend a bit of everything. The ponzu mixture here is still to this day the best I've ever had, not just in MA. The broth is mushroom based which is really unique compared to other establishments but I like a little spice and tang so a mixture of Tom-Yum and Kimchee is the way to go. The variety you have with hotpot is pretty large so this review is a quick condensed version to be honest. The only way you can really try everything is going with a large group or going multiple times which is very common.
If you haven't tried hotpot, you should, it's a definite must and if you like hotpot, Shabu-Zen is the place to go in Boston. (Notable alternatives would be "Kaze" and "Little Q")
"Hot Pot / Shabu"
"Sauteed Beef Tongue"
"Kirin Ichiban"
"Assorted Mushrooms (Enoki, Oyster, Bunapi)"
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