UMI Japanese Shabu Shabu

The variety of choices can be overwhelming but the server was helpful when asked questions. The appetizers came out prepared and the meal itself can be as healthy as you make it by your choices. There are are lots of great veggies and fish options at the buffet that may be a introductory opportunity for kids if they are feeling up to the challenge. Younger kids may need guidance on how to use the hot pot and not mixing the raw meat with cooked meat. A great experience overall. My kids did want to highlight the desserts as being fluffy and soft.

We visited at 7:30 PM and stayed for about an hour and a half, but the majority of the food at the self-serve bar was empty and not a single refill was done our entire meal. Despite asking several times, nothing was replenished. Customers were all walking around confused and with empty plates. Also, the little bit of vegetables that were present were very poorly washed. The bok choy had dirt on it, so we had to rinse it ourselves. This seems to be a recurring issue. Overall, the cleanliness of the restaurant and food was highly unsatisfactory. Even the servers complained that the cups were dirty. When ordering wagyu, it felt like the meat was mixed with other types. The broth was bland, as if diluted with water. A female server with glasses and curly hair used overly casual language, calling customers “sweetheart,” which was uncomfortable. Although this is an all-you-can-eat restaurant, the only thing we could really eat was meat. Overall, cleanliness, menu management, and operations need serious improvement.

My husband and I just celebrated our anniversary and we chose UMI Japanese Shabu Shabu. We wanted to try something new and different. We chose the right place. A very good and wide selection at the food bar. Good broth and meat. Excellent service. I highly recommend. Also a great price for all you can eat. Our waitress also gave us a special dessert. She was so nice.

Service was excellent! Food selection excellent! (Even for a Wednesday) Restaurant was well organized and clean, plenty of plates, dipping bowls to select. Meats, veggies, seafood, noodles, soda and dessert included in the all you can eat price. My family has a new favorite restaurant. A great shabu shabu experience!

We decided to try Umi after seeing a promotional video on Facebook. Excellent hot pot and sushi experience! More options than my husband and I could even try...Can't wait to go back to try more of them. Great pricing for a quality all-you-can-eat experience, especially with so much VARIETY! The dipping sauce choices alone definitely warrant visiting again (and again). Our service was prompt, friendly, and thorough (special shout-out to TYLER!).

Tried UMI for the first time tonight, and if was absolutely amazing. Food was delicious and there was tons of variety. The shabu shabu broth was extremely flavorful by itself and customization options for it were as varied as the ingredients to eat in it. The sushi & dessert cakes were awesome as well. Our server Tyler made sure to check on us and went above and beyond to us first timers to make sure we had a great evening. I will be asking for him every time we go, he really made our night with his attentiveness. Thank you Tyler!

Decorated very beautifully with beautiful koi fish glowing from the ceiling and the staff are all super kind and welcoming. They have great deals and honestly just need more people to know about them as they are new! Love the place!

Been here twice now.. really love this place!! Went here for my anniversary and my waitress Carmen was a sweetheart!! Would HIGHLY recommend if you love Japanese food!!

Service was excellent! Food selection excellent! (Even for a Wednesday) Restaurant was well organized and clean, plenty of plates, dipping bowls to select. Meats, veggies, seafood, noodles, soda and dessert included in the all you can eat price. My family has a new favorite restaurant. A great shabu shabu experience!

This place was absolutely delicious and you get a good amount for the $28 for dinner. There are a lot of options to choose from. Sushi, an appetizer, and dessert is included in the price. The add ons for the soup are extensive so you can 100% customize your own bowl. What I see as a down side is that the tables since they have the spots for the hot soup, do not leave any extra room for anything else. Also, you can take leftovers, but you will be charged for extra. $6.99 if you want to take your soup home and then they price anything extra, like from the bar, on how much you get. So I wonder if you can get around this if you bring your own Tupperware.

Service was really great, they got the meat orders out and cleared empty plates rly quickly Food-wise, I wasn't in love with the sukiyaki broth and that's the one I picked based on the advice of people who have been here before Loved the choice of picking ingredients and making my own sauce (although i definitely put too much garlic so it was too spicy) Mashed shrimp, beef eye round, wagyu were all really good I really like the koi fish decoration all over the walls

Stopped in for lunch today with my daughter. We haven't been to this joint for a few weeks. We went hard when they first opened so we took a pause in coming. My daughter showed up first and got our broths and drinks ordered. It was nice having everything ready when I got there. I headed over to the sauce and food area to grab my goodies and noticed that they did a little remodeling! It looks very organized and clean! They are offering more options now like ice cream, drink options and steamers for dinner. The lightning is bright and the sauces are now covered. It's nice that they are covered but some of the glass lids were hard to slide open. Service wasn't the best today. We have had this server previous and she wasn't the best then either. She barely checked up on us. Didn't really smile or engage with us. No type of kindness towards us. We walked up front to pay our bill since she vanished again. Considering how slow it was, she'd be gone for a long time. She did run up pretty fast to the register cause she thought we dined and dashed. That was the only time I saw her have any kind of speed to her. I think I'm going to hold off on coming back for a while. The food is good but I don't want to return to a restaurant where the servers don't care about their patrons.

Food is fresh, the service was great, and the restaurant was spacious. We had a table of 8 people and we had no problem getting in for dinner. We will be back

Highly recommend! Environment is very nice and clean, staff are great, and food are really good. Soft opening through September so it was 27.99 per person rather than 32.99. Our toddler enjoyed the fried chicken appetizer with rice, udon, enoki mushrooms, tofu and watermelon. Manager Woo was great and attentive. Angelica was also very nice. We will definitely come back when we visit Idaho again!

The ingredients and dishes are not as good as before, and several types of meatballs and drinks are no longer available.

First time at a Hot Pot experience and can't wait to return. Bring your appetite! Fun experience. I tried a lot of new foods. Staff was outstanding in explaining all the options. Seafood and hot pot were incredibly fresh. Restaurant was spotless.

Each time I come or bring people I've received great service, even if we come quite late. The staff will come by to see if I want more, unlike some places that will only pass by if you ask to save money on not giving you more food. The decoration and ambiance of thr location is also appealing. It feel new, fresh and clean. Definitely a place I'd recommend!

Service was good, food left a lot to be desired. The bar had a lot of options for sides, but the seafood at the bar left me feeling really sick. Price point is fair for what they offer, but i don't recommend this place unfortunately.

The company who brought this style of Japanese dining has done a credible job for the community. With anything this new and different, it takes a bit of time before customers can figure out where this fits into their culinary pictures. Having many Shabu Shabu experiences in California and Japan to base an opinion, this operation does a less than an average job of meeting the minimum performance. Influencing the low score is the almost total lack of attention to the area of the buffet where sauces are available. Restocking the containers of broth was non-existent. The heavy use of ponzu, tonkatsu and sukiyaki has to be considered by management, because during our visit, they were virtually empty - bad form. The delivery of the meats was way too early in the process. They came with the appetizers which is way too early. The heating elements in the table for 4 people are spaced so that when the dishes of the meat arrives there is virtually no space remaining for drinks and appetizers. Don't go overboard on the appetizers because they take up so much room. The appetizers should be eaten first and the table cleared of the appetizer dishes. Our server needed to give us the heat resistant ladles and tongs right away. They need to be at the table when customers make their first sweep through the food bar. This way the destruction of the plastic forks does not occur by people who are not good with chopsticks. Since the root veggies require the most time in the broth, customers should get those working and worry about the dipping sauces and condiments later. The meats actually showed up too early in the process and if there are 4 different meats ordered, the table becomes a traffic jam. Ask your server to bring them out after your appetizers are cleared. Consolidate the meats and give your server the empty dishes. You might try this cooking process: 1. Root vegetables in cooking broth 2. Seafood sauce mixed and ready 3. Seafood in and out of the broth then dipped in seafood sauce. 4. Corn and mushrooms in cooking broth 5. Leafy veggies in cooking cooking broth 6. Swish meats and dip in your meat sauce. 7. Extract veggies and put on your large dish to cool enough to eat. 8. Turn off heat to the cooking pot. Toss all sauces into broth, add noodles. 9. Using the heat resistant ladle and tongs, put everything in your serving bowl. If you want rice, grab some for your bowl and put the stuff from the cooking broth over it and eat together. 10. Remember to slurp. Careful with quail eggs as they stay nuclear hot after being removed from broth. Shabu Shabu is about swishing the meats and seafood to cook, not leaving them in to boil to death and become shoe-leather.

This place is pretty decent! Went here for dinner with the hubby (around 5:30pm on a Friday) and we got in pretty quickly. However it got busy shortly after we got seated. We both got the sukiyaki broth. For appetizers we got fries and chicken wings. For the meat, we opted for wagyu, beef brisket, beef eye round, and beef shoulder. Their food bar had plenty of options for vegetables, seafood, and noodles. For drinks, they had various canned drinks and thai tea and brown sugar milk tea which were pretty good. I also like that the hotpot itself is individual-sized (some are usually larger and shareable). I'm allergic to most shellfish so at least with an individual hotpot, my husband can also eat shellfish without having to worry about me. The wagyu and the beef shoulder were probably the ones we liked best, since they're thinner and absorbed the flavor of the broth quicker. As for the broth, while it was good, it was very mild in flavor for a sukiyaki. I expected more soy sauce and sugar to come through. Because it was milder, it takes a little longer for the meat to actually get flavorful. And depending on which type of meat you get, they can get a little tough if cooked too long. For the amount of options you get though and for an all-you-can-eat, it may be worth the price (depending on how much you eat). We'll definitely come back here to try other meats and sides.

Fantastic! We were served by Ari and Tyler, who went above and beyond to help make our experience awesome. I recommend the sukiyaki broth, pork, and wagyu beef. Definitely add in veggies and sauces to make it your own. The place has a nice ambience and would be perfect for an evening dinner. Our new favorite spot! Thank you Umi!

3.5 stars. Good service but the experience can't compete with other shabu shabu restaurants outside of Idaho. Individual hot pot sounded like good idea, but at a table for four, it's impractical. They offer brown sugar tea, Thai tea, and nice variety of bottled teas. Sides, sauces, and more are self serve. Self service ice machine would be welcome addition--we had to keep asking for ice (brought in tiny cups so always needed more).

Service was amazing! Our lovely waitress was attentive and left us to enjoy our amazing lunch. I had the healthy herbs broth and it went so good with my seafood, which was set up as a buffet. The sauce bar let me try and mix so many new flavors. It was clean and well stocked. The dining room was large and the seat very comfortable. We will definitely be putting this on our date rotation.

Great experience every time! Been here multiple times with friends and family and come away satisfied every time. The multiple different hot pot base options to choose from beef broth, spicy, tonkotsu, sukiyaki, and more. Lots of different cuts of meat and they have a hot pot self service bar with all the standard hot pot fixings. The restaurant is nicely decorated and can serve as a nice date night or a group outing with friends. Try this place out!

While to food tastes ok it should be noted that they use MSG! I find it hard to believe that in 2025 a restaurant still uses this chemical in food. Sure, some people don't care but it should be disclosed on the menu that we care more about profits than your health. It's also worth noting that the servers are paid $3.35 an hour (Idaho minimum server wage) and then management skims 10% of their tips.

I love hotpot and always ate it at home but it's nice to hear that the first hotpot restaurant finally opened after living here my whole life! Umi Japanese Shabu Shabu was a place I knew already in SLC but never got to try when visiting, so it was quite a fun surprise hearing it open in town. To start, the ambience is lovely! Beautiful lighting and decorated well. Hot pot comes as a single pot not as a split group pot. They have their own private section for private parties as well. Our server was Jett and he was kind, quick and efficient and checked on us from time to time. Clean buffet display when grabbing food and sauces. Love all the drinks they had available! We got the hot and spicy which had the full savory kick and the Beef bone broth! With most hotpot, putting toppings as you go helps it seasoned the broth more so the beef bone broth definitely enhanced as you kept adding in meat and toppings. Few insights: soft opening so far appeared a success. The restaurant was full and busy. They said they will plan to possibly open more food option and sushi bar which I hope they do! Dessert was good but I think they could modify with some ice cream added. That's just me though when I cool off after eating something hot haha. Few feedbacks: 1. They gave each person a nice paper package with all the disposable utensils via fork, spoon, chopsticks but I hope they start to transition to silverwares. My dad's fork actually molded and broke. Plastic should be not used for hot temperatures such as boiling broth anyways so I hope they transition to durable sustainable utensils. Also, consider adding napkin holders at the tables. 2. Possibly invest in a fridge to keep their bottle drinks cool. We just requested a cup of ice and put our drinks in them. Otherwise, food was delicious, loved the meat options, and hope they excel! Right now soft opening is $27.99. Their grand opening is this Saturday June 1st and prices will be $32.99 AYCE (all-you-can-eat)

The staff were wonderful and explained how everything worked to my teenage daughter and checked on us regularly. The quality and options for the food items to put in your broth was excellent. I also love how they had different sauce recipes in case you weren't sure about what to make for dipping. Everything tasted amazing and would definitely go back! For the price and everything you get that is included it's worth it!

Such an amazing and unique experience. Food was fresh and I love how you could customize your individual soup. You start by ordering your individual broth and protein with your waitress. Then you hit the food bar where they have most of the seafood, noodles, veggies, and vegetarian protein. Drinks and dessert are self serve as well. One end of the food bar is a bunch of sauces and garnishes, so you can customize even what you dip your hotpot creations into! Ambiance is very unique with giant koi paper lantern sculptures swimming around the ceiling among the chandeliers. Overall a loud place to eat, due to how many people are seated and eating. We came for date night, and it was a blast!!! But I wouldn't call it an intimate quiet sit down. They lost one star for me because several of the items on the food bar were missing labels, and it's not always clear what is being offered. Makes it fun, buuuuut for those with food allergies it can be risky if you don't know what you're potentially eating. Same with the self serve beverages, many of the labels are just in Kanji, and although the pictures on the labels give some context clues, it would be nice to have English translations for those as well.

FINALLY! A hot pot place in the treasure valley. This one hails from Salt Lake City and I'm so glad we got to try it! We made a reservation for Friday early evening and I'd highly recommend doing so because once we arrived it started to get packed. The place is pretty large and has gorgeous decor. The water pitchers are beautiful. The staff was so helpful and kind explaining all of the things that go into having hot pot: The price and amount of food you get is unbeatable. I was slightly confused at the food bar as some of the options had tongs and some did not and I was trying to avoid any cross contamination but it worked out just fine. Definitely a great place for date night or to take the family if they are up for a culinary experience.

UMI Shabu Shabu is AMAZING! Fresh meats, flavorful broths, crisp veggies, and the dipping sauces are Every bite is fun, interactive, and delicious! Staff is super friendly, portions are generous, and the vibe is perfect for date night, family, or friends If you want a meal that's an experience, this is the spot!!!

This place keeps getting better and better. I've been back several more times since my last review. The broth has gotten better, the bar selection has improved, and the sushi is good. There is a good selection of non-alcoholic drinks that are available with your meal. Best part is that it's only a few minutes from my office. Wait, that may not be a good thing.

Absolutely love this new restaurant, thank you for bringing more lovely ethnic foods into the Treasure Valley. My go to place -- an amazing dining experience, so many options and entering the restaurant transports you to a beautiful spot. The decor is stupendous. The food and service even better. Go...eat....here....often.

We went here, it is a lot of food, honestly the decor and ambiance is wonderful, the service was decent but the food was very mediocre, thought it was overly fishy, not very cost effective vs the flavor.

Good, but confusing. I've gone out to eat a lot. Worked in restaurants as well. But this place is really confusing and the table just isn't big enough for all the food and everything going on. Price was decent but service was lacking.

Very welcoming. Our first time and our waitress took the time to walk is through. Great service, great selection of foods, and booths. Came for my son's 14th birthday and will def be back!! Thank you!​

Love this place, broth has flavor, plethora of choices in the seafood/vegetable bar and various red meats to choose from on their menus. Staff is great as well 8/10

The employees were really nice! Our server was Angelica, and she was super helpful to explain how hot pot works. I recommend the sukiyaki or tonkatsu broth, the edamame appetizer, and the yakitori, specifically the chicken or beef, Chinese flavor. It's kind of like a 5 spice blend and is the perfect amount of spicy. If you like ramen or enjoy Japanese food, please come here!

Food: 3/5 Service: 4/5 Ambiance: 5/5 As of July 2024 they were still charging soft opening price so my total was $29.67 before tip. The interior is beautiful and everyone gets an individual pot. My server Janela was very nice and she explained Shabu pretty well. Each setting came with a packaged wooden chopsticks, plastic spoon and plastic fork... which is a bit of a waste in packaging and weird that plastic utensils are provided for hotpot. I chose the beef broth which was more on the plain side but my server was able to bring me some of the sukiyaki to add to my broth and it made a world of difference. There is a wide selection of meats, sides and sauce to choose from but the organization of the toppings seemed a bit random and the labels were already worn out and unreadable. There were flies chilling around the sides station especially the mussels and staff didn't seem proactive about maintaining the cleanliness of the sauce area. I did appreciate the tea station as the brown sugar tea was pretty good. The meat was cut in thicker slices than I'm used to for Shabu so even the wagyu was a bit tough

Decided to take my wife and daughters out for a late Valentines lunch. We found UMI Japanese Shabu Shabu and decided to give it a try. They have different selections for your cooking broth choices. I chose the Sukiyaki broth. It's a salty sweet broth with good flavor for beef, chicken and your choice of vegetables. They have an All You Can Eat buffet style on vegetables, seafood, appetizers and drinks. The meats get ordered through your server. Those are unlimited as well. Each person has their own cooking pot for their selections. They offer a dip/sauce bar so you can make your own dipping sauce or spruce up the broth to give it your own personal flavor to anything you cook. The food was fresh and delicious with a great variety of vegetables and seafood. The server was very attentive and made sure we had everything we needed and answered all our questions as this was our first visit here. The interior of the restaurant was very vibrant Asian design with lots of lights and paper fish decorations hanging from the ceiling. We had a great experience and look forward to coming back one day to experience the dinner Shabu Shabu.

Might have potential but needs a lot of improvement. It's been a long time since I've been to a Shabu Shabu restaurant. The selection is nice. There is a variety of options including vegetarian options as well. The quality of the food was...meh. Kind of what you'd expect at a cheap buffet. The handling of the food is concerning, the seafood is half submerged leaving the easier to grab portions out in the open at room temp for who knows long. There are no covers for the food and we are in the middle of fly season at the moment....I'm guessing the flies flew away with the napkins and ice cuz those weren't easy to find. The service was...barely there. Friendly waitress but I think a bit overwhelmed. We got our check and she came back to check if we put a card in it before letting us order once more (second round). Then forgot the order completely until she came back to check on the card again. Overall it was very underwhelming. Make sure to season everything very well because it will be very bland if you don't. The place needs work and I hope it can figure it out cuz Idaho needs more places than fast food chicken restaurants...

Excellent value for your money, a generous selection that caters to all palettes, and great food. Great date night spot!

All you can eat Japanese Shabu Shabu!?!? Waygu, fresh vegetables, and all you can eat desserts? This place is clean, fresh and amazing... and the price is really reasonable for the quality and quantity of food you get. Can't wait to come back!

Soft opening review: Great customer service, the staff there were polite and down to earth. The hot pot add-in food selection/options were surreal. Lots of choices!!! Major props on that. The restaurant decor, pace and ambience were very chill and relaxing. Never felt rushed. We were there between 4-6pm MT on a Thursday with 4 people. Overall, it was a great experience and we all would come back. Hopefully nothing changes too much moving forward.

Came at lunch and it was not busy which was so nice. Our server Emma went above and beyond explaining the process and giving us her recommendations. I can't wait to come back and bring my kids. Definitely recommend!

My husband and I went for their soft opening and everything was DELICIOUS! There was a great selection of veggies and noodles. The restaurant its self was gorgeous. Very nice interior. The service was great considered that it was everyone's first day. Very happy faces and attentive. We didn't have to wave anyone down and we got our food in a timely manner. We can't wait to go back for another date night! :)

Really good idea and interactive food game with great company. The two of us had the lunch special and ordered 1 of everything. The food was great and it's literally what you make it. It took a little bit to get a seat in what looked like not busy place. Staff was most likely low at the time we were there. Once staff was at our table and explained everything we just rolled with it and it turned out great.

The ambiance was excellent as well as the service and food. Had the chance to meet the owner Caroline, and she was awesome. Will definitely be going back.

It's good foods and great price. I mean it's not 100% shabu shabu but it is pretty good for Boise area. Great services!!

*The food was definitely just sitting out all day, it was supposed to be "frozen" and it definitely was not.* Had an issue where I left my card on our table when we left. We returned 8 minutes later & 2 people went "looking" for my card without going to my waitress (who's name I already had given to them) , they proceeded to tell me I couldn't check the booth I was in because they had already sat people after I HAD JUST CALLED. They told me I could leave my number, I had just about enough with them and their lack of effort. My husband ended up stepping in walking past staff to find our waitress who had my card the entire time, the staff failed to do ANYTHING involving using a brain cell to communicate with her that a table who had just left had misplaced something. Our server Athena on the other hand did a GREAT job checking in on us when we looked like we needed more meat. Athena was the only thing was good about this place. Thank you Athena :) The rest of you take notes, seriously

The inside is amazing. Beautiful and detailed decorations! The amount of food and endless drinks also makes it worth the money. The food was delicious and our waitress was very sweet. For the most part, food had labels but not the desserts. There was also workers checking the state of the food to make sure things did not run out or if it was time to switch it out. Kudos for that! It's the soft opening and so there are going to be hiccups in the beginning. I would say, only a few downsides for me. Luckily, it's not my first rodeo with hot pot but if I put myself in someone else's shoes who was new .. this might have been very confusing for them. I also didn't know the rice, tea drinks and napkins were in the back until an hour into eating. There was no ice to serve yourself for the Thai or milk tea so we asked for a cup of ice and got it. The plate I initially was presented with when I sat down was dirty and the booth was not fully cleaned. The only other issue was that our plates just kind of were in the way--from the meats, add ons, appetizers and would be better if it was taken when seen done by waiter/waitress. However, I'll cut slack there because I know it's their first days on the job.

Great food and experience. Lots of options to choose. Everything was fresh and well maintained.

Great Food, Great Service, Friendly Owner!!!! If you haven't tried HotPot you gotta experience for yourself!!!! So good we went 2 weeks in a row and probably going this week again. Don't let bad reviews discourage you until you've tried yourself. If you don't know what to expect, just ask and they will gladly explain. The Best Asian taste we've had in Idaho!!!!! No pics yet cause we're always that hungry and don't have time to take pics, but we definitely leave with happy tummy's!!!!

I'm from Southeast Asia. Shabu Shabu is a weekly treat for my family. Since we have moved to Idaho, we have always craved this. Thank you for bringing Umi and Shabu Shabu back to our lives. First : service was great. absolutely warm and they always came to check up on us at the appropriate times. hosts always were helpful with everything we needed. Food: fresh fresh FRESH! that's what was important to us. and all the important items one would expect are available. Ambiance: Clean and new. I'd like the music to be more mellow and maybe less Hip Hop and R&B. Maybe a mix of different lighter music so that we can enjoy talking while eating too . suggest : post a recipe guide to make sauces.

Super fun place! Food was all fresh and labeled as well. It's all you can eat and can hang out for up to 2 hours. Will be back!!

If you are looking for an interactive meal, this is the place! So many choices. Delicious. Amazing service. The decorations (ceiling fish) really added to the ambiance. Thank you. We will be back.

Broth was bland and meat cuts were below average. Sucks because I was looking forward to a hotpot place here in town.

Great selection and service. Iliana was very helpful. Thanks. We will be regulars. Lunch special is a great deal.