Only RM 28.80 for Lunch and RM 38.80 for Dinner Buffet at Shabu Ten | One Utama

If you are looking for steamboat buffet with nice ambience, this might be the place for you. Good news is it doesn't cost you a boom when come to buffet at nice restaurant. I found this place recently when searching for new food outlets in One Utama. It was quite hidden at the corner that I rarely notice every time I come. It is located at first floor new wing, same area as Padini Concept Store.

Shabu Ten is a Japanese shabu-shabu style of all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant with conveyor belt concept. Most of the ingredients are served on the conveyor belt, easy to pick up your choice of ingredients.

Here is the price, available for lunch and dinner.

However, there is a downside about the ingredients. The portion served on the conveyor belt is so little (should I call tiny?). For example: 2  small half pieces of mushroom in a plate and 2 cm thick of corn. It is kinda frustrated especially when the conveyor belt move in slow pace and you couldn't get enough of ingredients to go into your soup.

Let see what do they have!

There are 4 types of soups to choose from, however we didn't get what the waiter was talking, so I just picked the normal type of soup which are the chicken soup and tomyam. They are using Vees Delicooker for the cooktop, so it is safe, don't worry of any explosion.

There are four types of meat that you can order- Beef, Lamb, Pork and Pork bacon. You can order as many plates as you like, no limit.

Here is how it actually looks like:

 There is a long table at the corner that served other cooked food that ready to eat.

Raw vegetables for shabu-shabu, dim sum and chawanmushi in the steamed tray.

Salad bar

Sushi bar

Deep fried corner where you can find ebi fried, okonomiyaki, shishamo, fried chicken and others.

Curry fish ball

Garlic fried rice

Fruit and dessert corner

Chocolate fountain

I love chocolate fountain but unfortunately you can only find biscuits and marshmallows to go with. No strawberry or other ingredients can be found in this section.

Vanilla Ice-cream

Overall the food is not bad except I get a bit frustrated with the portion of ingredients on the conveyor belt. Comparing with others buffet steamboat in Klang Valley, this one definitely not a bad one in terms of the ambience, price and variety of food. It is definitely worth coming back again!

Shabu Ten

Lot 337 & 338, 1st Floor rainforest (new wing), 1 Utama, 47800 Petaling Jaya.

03-7492 2148 / 012-2326844

enquiry@shabuten.com.my

Business Hours: Mon - Sun: 11:00 - 22:00

Shabu Ten Facebook

Osaka Day 4: Umeda (Our last day in Japan)

A mark to the end of our trip in Japan, it is our last day in Osaka, also the last post for my Japan trip. But my visit to Japan will not just end here, Tokyo, Hokkaido, Nagoya and many more will be coming soon. Okay, let's focus back to our last day in Osaka. We decided to visit the Umeda district, since it is our last day, we focus on enjoying our walk on the street, a more relax day with just food food food. 

Our first stop, we visited the biggest Yodobashi Camera Mall in Umeda. It is quite similar to Bic Camera in Japan, another competitor of them. You can find everything on camera, electronic goods, as well as fashion and restaurants. However, if you are not into camera items or any electronic goods, you can skips this place.

A total of 8 floors in Yodobashi, every floor displays different type of products which show on the gigantic signboard. I love about Japan is they will give you a clear information what to find and where to go no matter you are at the streets or in a mall.

This is how they display their tripods! The place is huge, you can easily spend half a day in the mall! The camera price in Osaka & Kyoto is quite similar to Malaysia price, you can easily get cheaper price in Malaysia, so I won't recommend to get one from here. Probably you can get better price in Tokyo, I'm not sure.

For our second stop, let's get some ride! Yes, The HEP Five Ferris Wheel!

It is just walking distance from Yodobashi Mall. The HEP FIVE Ferris Wheel is located at the 7th floor, you can either take the lift or escalator to the top. 

You will need to buy the entrance ticket from the machine, just slot in your notes or coins to get your tickets! Entrance fee is 500 yen per person.

The big red gigantic Ferris Wheel. It is so huge that we can hardly fit it into our photo.

The view from the Ferris Wheel. It is beautiful!

Street photo: Blood donation campaign at the street during lunch time.

Third stop-Shinsaibashi Shopping Arcade. Our mission to Shinsaibashi is to find the famous Cheese Tart. Shinsaibashi area is an unique place where it is combines with retail stores, boutique and premiere department stores, approximately 600 meters long. You can walk whole day long in there.

It is past lunch time and we still have not decide what to have for lunch. We passed by this small family owned restaurant and decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, the menu only come in Japanese and they can't speak any English as well. Luckily I have him to communicate with the lady owner, She is very nice and friendly, took us outside and ask us to choose from the sample menu, everything shown here is exactly the same in the menu. That is superb!

The place is small and decoration is the traditional type of display. It gave you the feel of Japanese house.

Tempura Rice (Can't remember the price)

Curry Rice (Can't remember the price)

I actually requested the owner to customise the curry rice, instead of Chicken Katsu on top, I just want normal chicken curry. And she gave me a super big bowl of chicken curry rice! I managed to finish the curry rice but not the Udon. All the set come with Udon instead of vegetables and soup. Quite special but too much for us.

Finally, we are here at our destination- Pablo. The queue just never ends no matter what time of the day. We quickly queue up as well before the line gets longer. Shinsaibashi is the main branch, that is why it is more popular I guess.

Address: Shinsaibashi zero one Bld.1F, 2-8-1, Shinsaibashi-suji, Chuo-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka, 542-0085, Japan.  Tel. no.: 06-6211-8260

Find out more on the stores and products: http://www.pablo3.com/english.html

Basically the famous one is the original Pablo Cheese Tart which they displayed in the glass shelf, there are two type of cheese tart you can choose from either rare (where the cheese melt out when you bite or cut) or medium (the cheese is more firm).

Here is how they prepare the cheese tart. Crispy brown yellow cheese tart is ready for logo stamping.

All the cheese tarts are freshly made, it is still hot when we got ours!

Everything in Japan comes with very nice packaging, including their take away food.

Pablo Cheese Tart- 800 yen (medium)

This is really a big piece of cheese tart I ever ate. It is more like the size of cheese pie to me. How does it taste like? Heaven! The crispy outer layer with soft and smooth cheese melting in your mouth, it is just too delicious to describe it. Am I too exaggerate? It is quite similar to the large size of Portuguese egg tart, except the skin is more crispy and the inner is cheese instead of egg. You seriously have to try it when you are in Japan.

This is the famous billboard streets, where you can find those gigantic billboard display.

The famous Glico billboard

Next stop- Nipponbashi Den Den town. We walked to the Den Den town where you can find numerous Manga retailer shop or Mall that sells everything about anime. This is the Otaku paradise!

We were shocked by the whole streets, it was crazy with tons of comic books, anime videos and figurines. If you are lucky, you can even see cosplay at the streets. 

Last stop- Doguyasuji, shopping district that sells everything on cooking tools and equipments to Osaka's chefs and restaurants. Many people come here to buy the handmade knife.

I am not interested into any knife but more towards the Japanese chopsticks. I bought the chopsticks from this shop, reasonable price. They also sells wooden bowls, cups, spoon and many more.

If you came across the shop below, please avoid it. All the pricing that labelled here are wrong. When we pay at the counter, the lady actually quoted us much more higher price. We actually ask her why the price is different from the label. She raised her voice and shout at us in Mandarin, this shop is operated by China people. I'm not discriminating China people but this lady is very rude as if we are thief. Ban this shop! It is located end of the road, you can easily notice the shop because they are the most disorganise shop in the whole road!

While we were walking back to our Hotel, I saw this Takoyaki stall at the road side. I'm still not giving up on the Takoyaki in Japan, not until I find the best Takoyaki.

Since I can't decide which flavour to have, I bought all 4 flavours Takoyaki with 500 yen. However, it still doesn't taste like the Takoyaki that I had in Shanghai. All the Takoyaki I had so far in Kyoto and Osaka are soggy and very salty (due to the sauce). Disappointed and sad...

This is the only Burberry brand that exist in Japan, the Burberry blue label.  The price is too tempting not to grab one back to Malaysia. If you have extra money on the last day, recommend to bring back a blue label.

At night, we were too tired to travel further, so we had our dinner at the Sushi restaurant just below our hotel (Namba Oriental Hotel). I am not sure what is the name of the restaurant but it was the only Sushi bar restaurant below the hotel. Pricing are listed on the board from 120 yen to 720 yen. They also come with English menu with photos where you can order without any trouble understanding the English.

He loves the Salmon sushi so much, he actually ordered around 8 plates. It is fresh and delicious!

This is the best Unagi sushi we had. They actually burned the Unagi slightly before served to have the smoked smell on the Unagi. It is just so nice! We ordered around 8-10 plates too! 

Just the Salmon and Unagi, we actually ordered until their last call for both of that. Wahahahhaa....

Fried Salmon-240yen

It is a bit overcooked, not very nice.

Chawanmushi- Nice and smooth

Clam miso soup- 120 yen

I would recommend to visit this Sushi bar restaurant if you happen to stay here or come over this area, they served very nice Sushi.

The next day morning, we actually missed our express train by 10 mins to airport as we woke up late. Luckily, we went to the counter and ask for exchange ticket of next train and they actually let us do that. We were so happy as we do not need to buy a new tickets! (P.S: express train ticket is not cheap in Japan) but at the same time we were so nervous, worry that we might miss our flight. Luckily we did not, we managed to board just on time. But we didn't manage to shop at the Kansai airport. 

What do I think about this trip? I think I have the most enjoyable trip so far, although I can't speak their language but their hospitality is fantastic. Everything is so beautiful in Kyoto & Osaka, they will never leave you a bare item without packaging. During our stay, I never need to worry on our luggages getting stolen by leaving outside the corridor or any snatch thieves approach us. Although the weather is cold during the Spring and we did a lot of walking, but we enjoyed every moment there, how I wish we can stay longer. Now I understand why some of colleagues and friends visited Japan every year, the feeling that make you want to go back is so strong. I will definitely visit Japan again! 

Stay tuned for my next trip! 

Coco Ichibanya Curry House | One Utama

I was talking about this curry house for a few months, finally found it! It is not the Indian curry house but the Japanese curry house. CoCo Ichibanya finally reached Malaysia and it is opening in One Utama. It is the largest Japanese curry restaurant chain in the world and locally owned by the Fuji Group — the master franchisee of the brand in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. 

What so special about this shop? Basically they specialise on the Japanese Curry, everything you can find with the curry sauce. I love the one I had in Osaka, hope it will taste the same.

There are two menu books- main dish and beverage. Complimentary of plain water will be given, so you can skip the beverage menu. However, you can still try their green tea or green tea latte in packet.

There are steps to guide you how to order your curry rice. You can always add or reduce your rice portion. They even charge you lesser for smaller portion! Next, you can choose the level of spiciness, scale from 0 to level 5. Be careful when choosing the spicy level, it does make a lot of different. Lastly, you can opt to add more curry gravy, just a few more ringgit in it. 

Besides, if you can't find any sets to your favour, you can customise your own curry rice. You can add any toppings in your plain curry rice as stated on the menu below. If you are big eater, I recommend you to add some toppings, the portion is quite small.

Lightly Crisp Chicken Curry- RM 20

We wanted to try something different so we ordered the crisp chicken instead of the pork cutlet. We were quite disappointed with the chicken portion, it is barely the size of my hand. On the other hand, we saw the pork cutlet size were big (standard size). And both of them just RM 1 different in price. We ordered this dish with Level 4 spiciness since we wanted to try how spicy Japanese curry can be and we regretted. It is really spicy and he was sweating while eating. The spicy taste actually came from the spice mix in the curry. However, the taste still incomparable than the one we had in Osaka, quite similar but still not good enough.

Grilled Spinach, Bacon and Corn Curry- RM 20

I always wanted my curry rice to have some vegetable and it is a dream come true now. I can now order my curry rice with spinach, no longer just meat + curry rice! I actually love this dish but the portion of vegetable and bacon is too little. I understand the highlights is the curry but I do love to have more ingredients to go with the curry. For this dish, I ordered the original flavour of spice, it is definitely not spicy at all.

If you are a Japanese curry fan like me, you should try out CoCo Ichibanya. Although the taste still far apart from the curry rice I had in Osaka, but it is the best alternative I can find in KL so far. Definitely I will come back again but might need to add some toppings for the next visit. Now I understand why they offer toppings in the second page. *cheer*

CoCo ICHIBANYA
Lot LG 333A, Lower Ground (New Wing),
1 Utama Shopping Centre.
03-7732-8937
Opening Hours: 10am - 10pm (daily)