Mr Shabu Shabu

This is probably my favourite place to eat at when it’s cold in Canberra. Mr Shabu Shabu offers consistently delicious, hearty and inexpensive Japanese food. This visit was a cold Friday after-work dinner, so I ordered my standard (a serve of takoyaki and the beef shabu shabu) without hesitation. I love the takoyaki here, even if there isn’t much octopus, because it is covered in the right sauces and lots of bonito flakes (mmm). They also don’t fill you up too much before the main event – paper-thin raw beef, enoki mushrooms and glass noodles to cook in a beautifully flavoursome clear broth. While your beef (or other selection of pork, chicken or vegetables) cooks, you can enjoy the seaweed salad, spring roll and rice with peanut sauce. But the best part by far is drinking the broth with the wooden ladle provided – after having cabbage and meat cook in it, it’s infused with fantastic flavours, the ultimate comfort food. I think I’ll have to visit in summer to try any of the other menu choices (ramen, udon, etc), because I can’t go past the shabu shabu otherwise!

Mr Shabu Shabu, 6/35 Childers St, Canberra ACT, no website

Up to You Restaurant

This story begins with a Living Social voucher, and a group of colleagues who love all you can eat hot pot. Hint: it ends with happy tummies. We headed out to Belco after work to try Up to You Restaurant, and were encouraged by the steam on the windows as a sign that it was warm inside. We’d booked ahead, and were seated at a long table with individual hot pot burners. We were asked for our broth choice (I opted for pork bone, although I later heard that the laksa was a winner), and then moved to the ingredient table to collect things to cook in said broth. Options included tofu, noodles, mushrooms, sweet potato and assorted greens, as well as about six sauces. When we sat back down, the broths came out along with plates of raw meat and seafood to cook – the beef, lamb and pork was paper-thin, so cooked quickly, whereas the seafood was frozen and took much longer. My favourites were the shiitake mushrooms, which were so flavoursome dunked in peanut sauce (mmm), and the beef, also smothered in sauce. Unlimited hot pot? Definitely a happy ending.

Up to You Restaurant, 114 Emu Bank, Belconnen, no website