Opened on Rue des Gravilliers in January 2014 just a few doors down from Bob’s Kitchen and Andy Wahloo, Shabu Sha is the clever marriage of two gastronomic concepts: Japanese fondue (fresh raw foods cooked at table in a seasoned stock) and conveyor belt sushi.
‘Shabu Sha’ is the diminutive of ‘Shabu Shabu’, meaning fondue: an onomatopoeia for the sound of meat dropped into simmering broth. The restaurant seats twenty around a long, mahogany counter, each place fitted out with its own pot and cooker. Plates of sushi and raw produce (thin strips of meat and fish, chopped vegetables, kelp, ravioli and udon noodles) make the rounds on a magnetic belt, from which diners are free to take whatever and however much they like.
The menu is 'à volonté' (unlimited): €18 for lunch and €25 in the evening. Ideal for the indecisive, you need only choose the flavour of your stock (vegetable and goji berry, miso, spicy Ma La or lamb) and sauce (sesame, Satay, peanut, barbecue or a zesty house special). There’s also an impressive selection of teas, Asian beers, whiskeys, liqueurs and saké on offer. Since we came for lunch, we stuck with soft drinks: a lemon and honey infused ice tea and an organic lychee lemonade, both light, sweet and zippy, the perfect partner for simmered meats.
At €25 per person before drinks, Shabu Sha is obviously a splurge, but the food is fresh and healthy and the experience of eating traditional Japanese fondue (that you’ve stewed yourself) is fun and special. Not to mention that the restaurant is gorgeous: crisp white lighting and textured azure wall panelling hung with prints of ’50s-era Japanese pin-ups.