Shabumi - eat your heart out with all you can eat hot pot

Neighborhood: Strip mall off Balboa Ave. in Kearny Mesa, San Diego

Price: $$

Vibe: Large restaurant space is super casual; they even have a button on the wall to call your waiter over for more food or drink. You are not here for the atmosphere; you are here to eat!

Sure, I’ve heard of all you can eat Korean BBQ and steakhouses like Fogo de Chao, but all you can eat hot pot? Is it true?

Recently, my favorite foodie friend (whom I Food Club with at least once a month) shared a new hot pot place she has been keeping a secret from me. You see, we love our hot pot, and traditionally visit our mainstay, “Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot” for our fix. But Little Sheep closes at 9:00 SHARP. They will literally start cleaning around you until you are ushered out by the smell of Lysol and vinegar overtaking your hot pot steam. So, this calls for an alternative if say you’re having a late dinner and are still craving your Chinese hot pot. Which brings me to Shabumi. This joyous little spot is off-Convoy in a shopping center on Balboa Avenue, open late and providing a much different foodie adventure for the hot pot enthusiast.

Shabumi offers both “all-you-can-eat” hot pot AND Korean BBQ. So, you get to choose your own adventure. A cool option for groups that may want a little variety. Kind of like Fogo de Chao, Shabumi offers this amazing “salad bar” of offerings — this is where you grab your veggies and dumplings for your hot pot from an assortment of options. They also have some cooked offerings like egg and scallion pancakes, gummy rice noodles and more. The assortment changes and they are constantly bringing out new items to freshen up the bar area.

They also have a pretty large offering of different sauces to either use for dipping your hot pot or BBQ, or I tend to take some of that spice and throw it right into the hot pot. One unique feature of Shabumi is that there is no “shared” hotpot or BBQ — everyone has their own personal burner in front of them, so you can create your own flavors and spices and don’t have to worry that someone may not like it. It’s your own personal meal!

We chose hot pot (of course) for our meal - one of these days I’ll try to Korean BBQ, but the salad bar items seem more geared toward hot pot, and I just couldn’t resist those dumpling and vegetable options! We started with the chicken broth base, which I’ll admit, is not the same umami goodness that you get from Little Sheep (the broth that tastes like it’s been steeping for days like a good pho). The broth can definitely use a little spiciness or at least you’re going to want to dip your goods to get a little more flava. For meats, we chose the prime top blade beef, lamb leg and pork belly. The meats are delivered quickly, in smaller portions about 6 pieces a plate. We grabbed veggies, dumplings and some noodles from the bar (unfortunately, no Udon noodles, which are my fave). Everything is marked with a description at the bar, so it’s fairly easy to pick and choose your fixings.

This is a really fun, individual hot pot dining experience— and open late to provide more flexibility for your dining needs. Don’t forget the sake, oh and there’s a button on the wall next to your table for immediate service to meet your needs. Check out Shabumi and have fun!