Shibuya – Sukiyaki dinner

To check out options for dinner, we walked around a little and found ourselves four stories up at a Shabu-Shabu and Sukiyaki place. We decided to have the all-you-can-eat Sukiyaki dinner at Mo-Mo-Paradise Shibuya Center Street Store (MO-MO-PARADISE 渋谷センター街店) 🗾. The restaurant has expanded from its origins in Japan to locations in Asia and the USA, focusing on authentic Japanese hot pot with a modern twist, according to Mo-Mo Paradise.

Sukiyaki and shabu-shabu are both popular Japanese hot pot dishes, but they differ in their preparation, broth, and overall flavor profile. Sukiyaki features a sweet-and-savory broth made with soy sauce, sugar, and mirin, in which ingredients are simmered and often dipped into raw egg. Shabu-shabu uses a lighter broth, often kombu dashi, and the ingredients are cooked by swishing them in the hot broth, then dipping them in sauces like ponzu or sesame sauce.

The format at this restaurant is that you are seated at a table, asked whether you want shabu-shabu or sukiyaki (there are other options as well), and then the rest is up to you. Basically, they will bring the hotpot with the broth already in it and place it on the built-in stove top. They bring multiple platters featuring various cuts of meat, including beef and pork. There is also a buffet offering a variety of vegetables, pickles, sauces, spices, and desserts, among other options. You get whatever you want, however much you want, however many times you want.

First, let the broth boil; add the vegetables, then add the meat, one piece at a time, cook it briefly, and transfer it to a bowl. You dip it in another bowl with raw (mixed) egg (this is specific to Sukiyaki). You also take vegetables out when you are ready to eat them. From time to time, the broth needs topping up, and you get extra water and soy-based flavoring to do that.

Beef choices included regular and Wagyu cuts, and pork included various high-quality cuts. The all-you-can-eat option gives you a certain amount of time, I think it was 100 minutes, from the moment you order, to re-order any cut of meat you would like more of. You keep eating and ordering until you have either had enough or run out of time. Once you run out of time, you can still eat what you have on the table; you cannot order more. For us, we ran out of space before we ran out of time, but not by much!

Bellies full, we made our way back to the station and from there to our hotel. Tomorrow is a travel day!