Nabehide

I just got my new Amex card that came with the complimentary Palate Dining membership, so we were thrilled to try it out. Scanning through the list of places we can get 50% off, we found this Japanese Shabu joint at Anchorpoint. The picture used for the restaurant on the Palate website was a gorgeously marbled plate of beef. Call us weak if you will, we were tempted by the picture and ended up there for dinner.

The restaurant was actually pretty empty. And upon the server's explanation of what I have to order to qualify for the discount, I was a little miffed. On the Palate website, it was just stated that I have to order a minimum of 2 main course to qualify for the discount applicable for 2 pax. Only at the restaurant was I shown a separate menu from which I have to order a minimum of 2 items, afterwhich the discount will also apply to all other items I order off the ala carte menu. Lynn was a little late, running to Ikea before joining me to get the big bad wolf plushie she's been wanting for a long time. While waiting for her, I observed that per item on the Palate specific menu actually consist of 2 servings of meat plus one serving of veggie off the ala carte menu. So effectively, to use the discount, I was forced to order 4 servings of meat and 2 servings of veggies. Moreover, even after I qualify for the discount, the fine print was that the discount will not apply for item on the ala carte menu which cost less than $5. Almost all the side dishes costed $4.90. Highly annoying isn't it?

But anyway, the per serving of meat turned out to be pretty little, so even if we hadn't been forced to order 4 servings, we WOULD have ordered that much anyway. And we were tempted by their shabu salad, so we ordered that, thinking that it'll be nice to have something to munch on while our food cooks. The salad of shabu beef with sesame sauce was pretty nice. Perfectly cooked shabu beef slices on a bed of lettuce, drenched in sesame sauce and topped with crispy garlic slices. It hits the spot for our hungry bellies right away.

Shabu salad

When they came with the hot charcoals, we were initially excited. Charcoal steamboat, sound yummy. If I didn't remember wrongly, the soup base costed less than $5 too, and didn't qualify for the discount. Annoying. We went for Shoyu if I'm not wrong. And it seems like the charcoal wasn't quite hot enough. The server told us once the soup starts boiling, we can start adding our stuff. We waited and waited. The soup never reached a boil. It just steam more and more, but never boiled. We got tired of waiting, and started to put stuff in anyway. They do cook, just that we never see the rolling boil we usually see with hotpot.

Hot charcoal

The soup that never boils...

Greens

Potatoes asparagus and corn

Beef

Pork

The pictures shows the '2 servings' of each meat. Small servings isn't it? So we werent' quite satisfied and very quickly started flipping through the ala carte menu to see what extras we can get. And found the seafood mentaiko pasta. We both like mentaiko, so we went for it. Turned out to be a very creamy pasta, but it wasn't very 'roe-y'. So much for mentaiko. It was just a very rich creamy seafood pasta. Just so-so.

Seafood mentaiko pasta

We weren't super impressed by the food. Couldn't help comparing it to Shabuya. For similar prices, I get a whole lot more variety, wagyu beef and FREE-FLOW! I honestly think Shabuya have killed most shabu places for me. Spoilt the market. Lol...