Suzu Noren: Shabu-Shabu at an Affordable Price

Shabu-shabu is a dish in Japan that involves cooking paper-thin slices of meat right before eating. Everyone sits around a large pot filled with kombu dashi or kelp broth and using their own chopsticks, briefly submerges a slice of meat into the boiling dashi just until the meat is cooked. Since the dashi is only subtly flavored, there are usually two types of dips to eat with shabu-shabu, a light and refreshing ponzu or a thicker and heavier sesame dip. The word shabu-shabu comes from the motion of swishing the meat back and forth in the broth.

Going to a shabu-shabu restaurant can be quite expensive, especially those that use wagyu, or Japanese-raised cattle or pigs. One such well-known chain shabu-shabu restaurant is called Kisoji 木曾路. Here, the courses can range from 4000-7000 yen. However the same group has a sister shabu-shabu restaurant that is much more affordable. Suzu Noren 鈴のれん uses mostly imported meat, but you can still try domestic beef if you pay a little bit more. They also have an all-you-can-eat option.

I tried the "suzu no ne gozen" (1880 yen plus tax). In this set 3 slices of wagyu beef were included. Although it was wagyu it was not marbled so much, so it was not heavy in the stomach. The salad greens had a nice topping of potato salad and smoked salmon instead of being drowned in dressing. The lean tuna was perhaps did not seem so fresh, but this isn't a sushi restaurant. The tempura consisted of okra and an interesting lotus root sandwiched shrimp paste. I like that they included some unique dishes. Another unique dish was the lotus root manju.

Shabu-shabu dinner set (pot not shown)

Area: Iwatsuka Station (Higashiyama line) 岩塚駅
Restaurant: Suzu Noren 鈴のれん
Map and Website: https://www.kisoji.co.jp/suzunoren/shop/hataedori.html
Hours: Lunch 11am-3pm (LO 2:30pm),  Dinner 5-11pm (LO 10:30pm)