The Dish: Shabu Square and Shabuya

PUBLISHED by The Cambridge Chronicle





Cambridge —Harvard Square is full of food from all over the globe, but until recently, shabu shabu restaurants were missing. Now, the square has two spots for hot pot cuisine: Shabu Square and Shabuya. The restaurants opened within a month of each other last winter, offering the interactive Asian dining experience that is gaining popularity in Asia and the US.


Panja Lymswan, a Quincy resident and owner of Shabu Square at 97 Winthrop St., also owns two Thai restaurants in Harvard Square, Spice Thai and 9 Taste, but he wanted to bring shabu shabu to the area.

Kwanghyun Yoon, who owns Shabuya at 57 JFK St. with his wife, also owns Shilla, a Korean restaurant in the basement of the same building. Yoon said shabu shabu is “the future of cuisine.”




What is the weirdest thing customers have done when they don’t know how to eat shabu shabu?

Panja Lymswan, owner of Shabu Square: Not turn on the water, so it’s not hot, and try to eat it fresh and raw. People like food already cooked. [Shabu shabu] is convenient, but when people see it they say what is this? What do I do with this?

Can large groups order different kinds of shabu shabu?

PL: Four to five people order different meat and vegetables and mix it together. When you share, what is best to do it pick the food out and put it on your plate so it isn’t involved with the other food. The American custom is that they don’t like to eat from the same bowl.

What can customers learn from shabu shabu?

PL: Most food Americans consume has oil. If you get the French fries, if you go with the stir fry with noodles, it all has oil. [Shabu shabu] is all healthy; it boils the fat out of the beef. It has less calories.



What do you do when customers don’t know what shabu shabu is?

Kwanghyun Yoon, co-owner of Shabuya: They ask, and the wait staff is very good at explaining, and sometimes they show them how to eat it. There’s no definite way to have shabu shabu. I usually show them the best way to enjoy it.

It’s so colorful in here.

My slogan here is “be happy.” When you come in, it’s happy. When you have shabu shabu and sushi, you feel happy because it makes you full, but it’s light. When we designed this place, we asked our designers to make it happy. The theme is vegetables and meat: the green is the vegetables, the pink is the meat and the hanging beads are the noodles. The lights are different shapes and heights because when you cook it, bubbles come out.



Is it especially important to be happy these days?

KY: When you go out, you want a different feeling other than at home. I kept the price down so everyone can enjoy it. Dinner starts at $11.95, lunch is way down at $7.95. You get vegetables, meat, broth and happiness, which is the most important, for $7.95.

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