Gastronomique: Happiness is a warm broth.
We first noticed Happy Shabu Shabu on our way to the Fillmore Street Jazz Festival. Since Kim Nalley was going to sing us the blues, shabu shabu happiness was not the state of mind we were looking for. It would have been rude to gloat, shining with satiety, when someone’s got a bad case of the blues. We blocked the idea of dipping some thinly sliced raw meat in a hot broth and then some sauce, and tried to get ourselves in the right mood. It did the trick to focus on our life’s little tragedies, when our lover was gone, our truck broken down, our appartment broken into, our cell phone battery ran out, our windows OS stopped booting.
We must mention that, post-blues, we found comfort in the best spanakopita, a Greek phyllo dough square stuffed with spinach. We saw it displayed in the window at Dino's, and it was so appetizing we just had to get it. For $4.50, the pie at Dino's was filled to the gills with a delicious seasoned spinach and onion stuffing. Dino's is a pizzeria, but the owner is Greek, thus the presence of this dish there. If SFist ever has a best-of list, this spanakopita will be on it. Along with the ginseng hen at Happy Shabu Shabu.
We did see that the menu at Happy Shabu Shabu was the same for lunch and dinner, so we decided to take advantage of the noon discount ($11.50 instead of $15.95) a couple days later.
Happy Shabu Shabu just opened about 2 months ago, in the Fillmore center. The center is located a couple blocks south of geary, on fillmore st, in an area that is being invested in heavily by the city's development agencies, in an attempt to reclaim it from drugs and crime. The Fillmore center, with a high-end Club One gym inside is part of the effort; the relocation and resurrection of Powell's is another one. A new jazz club, Sheba Lounge, will open there shortly as well. There is even a starbucks another block south of Happy Shabu Shabu, a sure sign of gentrification, which for once we won't snark at, since the neighborhood desperately needed some.
Happy Shabu Shabu is a clean and modern place. There is a little deck seating area outside, and once in the restaurant, a big fridge on the right with aged prime beef displayed, waiting for you. Opposite the fridge, the dining room is organized not unlike our chemistry lab in high-school: rows of tables screwed to the floor, separated by an alley for the staff to come and skim the foam of the hot pots, each place mat fitted with an electric heating device, and a powerfull fan overhead. Just like our chemistry lab, the layout is convenient for experiments alone or in pair, but not so much for larger social interactions. Quite unlike our chemistry lab, the colors are warm and welcoming, with nice copper sidings to the fans and over the kitchen counter.
The place does not beat around the bush: it only serves shabu shabu, in meat and vegetarian options, and the ginseng Cornish hen with sweet rice and ginseng herbal stuffing. For shabu shabu, the aged prime cut is sliced with a mandolin and is displayed on a plate, showing the nice streaks of white fat marbled in the flesh. It is dipped in a pot of boiling water, with a few vegetables, sprouts, shiitake and enoki mushroom, tofu and noodles. One should dip it twice, thus the two 'shabus', just to sear the meat but not overcook it. Then we eat the meat with an array of sauces: soy sauce, spicy sauce and a runny tahini-like sesame sauce. Each sauce is customized with garlic, green onions. The meat at Happy Shabu Shabu is stellar, the condiments delicious: this is the shabu shabu experience at its finest. So much we actually order an extra plate of meat to enjoy it a bit longer ($7 lunch/$9 dinner). Our Japanese dining companion vouched for the authenticity of the preparations.
We had ordered the ginseng hen as well ($13.99 lunch and dinner). While shabu-shabu is a Japanese tradition, this recipe is Korean, as the owners are. A cast iron pot was brought to us on a tray with some panchans, the Korean small plates of side condiments: kim-chi, yellow pickled radish.
At fist, we were skeptical: the whole hen in the pot had a pale boiled skin which did not appetize us. We tossed in some salt and sesame seed from a little plate, and dug in nonetheless. Glad we did, as we had one of the most flavorful piece of chicken we had in a long time. We admit usually avoiding chicken in restaurants, as in many case we can roast it as well at home. Here, the hen was stuffed with rice and ginseng, and simply simmered in the broth.
A complimentary cup of ice cream concluded our meal, a very nice finishing touch to a lovely lunch. At the time of our visit, they hadn't received a liquor license yet, so it was BYOB, $2 for sodas.
Happy Shabu Shabu
1401 Fillmore st @ Ellis
415 673-0416
closed on Mondays and for lunch on Sundays
Dino's Pizza
2100 Fillmore st @ California
415 922-4700