Shabu-Way, Parkmall Cebu

Two reasons why we left the Philippine Fire Festival  was that it was already 9:00PM (which was the time it was supposed to end, but the show started really late!) and we were very hungry! SM had a cup of fries to munch on but we had nothing and our stomachs were getting impatient.

The first restaurant we eyed was Shabu-Way Hot Pot Cuisine, probably from their glass windows and bright sign.

Both SM and I were excited to eat here, but I have to admit that MR and Dad are not hot-pot cuisine lovers, but went anyways without complaints. People were leaving the place when we got there, we were the only ones for a while, but 2 more tables were occupied during our meal.

We sat down at a table of 4 and there were 2 of these. SM asked me what it was and I told her that it was where we would be cooking our soup. She was excited to cook her own food.

The waitress served the broth first. The rest followed. By the way, if you run out of broth, you can always ask for more for free. But just broth, not the vegetables or meats.

This is the gadget that heats the broth. It is turned on high heat.

We were then served the vegetables, the fish/shrimp/lobster balls, and noodles. Eating and cooking Shabu-Shabu is an art. I cooked the ingredients that take the most time to cook first and then ones that need less.

For me, the sauces also play a big part of Shabu-Shabu. I'm not saying you use a liter, but just a little to compliment the soup. I like adding a little red chili to add spice.

With a little mix and match, this is the sauce I came up with for myself.

Our Shabu Platter was the Wagyu Beef.

The soup is ready! ☺  I have to admit that I don't really know the proper techniques to a good Shabu-Shabu soup, but I do pretty good. I have a friend who likes to put a piece of Wagyu beef in the broth and lets it cook in the soup. The natural fat of the beef slice gives a wonderful flavor to the soup. I didn't do that. What we did was heat the soup with the ingredients and then swish swish the beef slices in the soup until it changed color. Yum! ☺

We got Chicken Teriyaki for SM in case she didn't want the Shabu soup. I thought that it would only be Chicken Teriyaki but it came on top of plain rice. The chicken was good, but honestly did not resemble any Chicken Teriyaki I've ever had before.

Dad got Shrimp Tempura and Gyoza. Both were good.

Not a lot of Japanese places in Cebu offer Salmon Skin Roll (the only other place I know is Ginza) so naturally I ordered this. This always reminds me of one of my favorite FRIENDS episode. LOL. MR ordered the California Maki, but that never arrived. Grrr.

The meal was going great until this moment. All of our orders were served except for the Fried Rice and California Maki. We were seated at the table nearest to the kitchen and I had a full view, so I could see and pretty much hear anything. While I was cooking the Shabu soup, I saw that an order of Calfornia Maki was prepared and served. I assumed it would be served at our table since we were the only ones present when we had our orders taken. But it was served to another table. I raised my eyebrow and thought to myself, "Hmmm, I think they missed our order." And I was right. I waited while eating our served food, but Dad was done slurping his soup and wanted his Fried Rice to go with the Tempura and Gyoza. I called the waitress and asked what was up with that. She looked at the order and it was obvious they had missed it. She came back to me and said, "Mam, it's on its way." So I answered back, "Did you forget our order?" to which she answered, "No we didn't. It just takes a while to cook the Fried Rice." Seriously?! Do I look like an idiot?! Seriously?! Fried rice does not take a while to cook! Unless you cooked the rice from scratch, which I doubt is the case. 5 minutes, no fried rice was in sight. I asked again. She called the kitchen and asked how many minute will it take. The kitchen staff shouted back jokingly, "3 hours." Hmmm, not a good time to joke my dear! 5 minutes later, the Fried Rice was finally served. I asked the waitress if they forgot our fried rice order and again she told me that it takes that long to make Fried Rice. Now, I just read one of my readers comment about her experience at Sababi in Boracay. And like her, I can forgive a bad experience and accept an apology, but I hate being lied to. I knew I was being lied to. Why? Because of the California Maki order that was never prepared and served to us. So I put her in her place and finally got an apology.

So the rice finally arrived and let me tell you it wasn't worth the wait. Bland and too much egg. The meal cost almost P1,500 for the four of us. I thought the food was worth it, the service not so much. Yes, I don't like being lied to!