Comforting Japanese-Style Hot Pot Comes to North Park | Eater San Diego

"Arriving on 30th Street just in time to welcome diners in from the rain, I found Tabu Shabu serving shabu-shabu, or Japanese-style hot pot, to warm bellies. Expanding from Orange County—where it operates popular locations in Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa—the eatery replaces Paesano’s in North Park and has thoroughly remodeled the 50-year-old space into a horseshoe-shaped dining bar with individual cooktops at every seat. The dining experience starts with your own pot of broth (seaweed dashi, spicy miso, tonkotsu pork, or sukiyaki) and a choice of proteins, from waygu short rib to grassfed rib eye, Kurobuta pork, and wild scallops, to cook in the seasoned stock and dip in either sesame sauce or ponzu that can be punched up with ‘hot drops,’ a fiery hot pepper infusion. Meals come with rice and noodles plus a plate of various vegetables, and intrepid diners can pre-book the ‘Godzilla Challenge’—three pounds of meat plus veggies, rice, dumplings, and porridge—which is free if you polish everything off in less than 30 minutes. The restaurant is open for lunch and dinner, offers a weekday happy hour from 5–6 p.m. and a bottomless sake brunch on weekends, and owner Jeff Chonis is planning another Tabu Shabu in Carlsbad at The Square at Bressi Ranch." - Candice Woo