Address: 21-1, Udagawacho, Shibuya (in the Seibu Store, B2F)
Type of Meal: Lunch
During cold weather nothing beats hot soups and shabu-shabu, a Japanese method of placing thinly sliced meat and other ingredients into bowling soup, certainly hits the spot. Koichi Fakuba, located on the B2 level of the Seibu building in the heart of Shibuya’s busy scramble by the train station, offers this cooking method at reasonable prices.
When the pot
of soup is first brought over a lump of collagen sits in the broth; slowly it
infuses into the soup as it heats up. I’ve heard about the Japanese practice of
eating and putting collagen products on their skin for beauty benefits and thus
excited to try it. After returning home and researching more about it on
Livestrong.com, it’s a bit disappointing to find out that your digestive
process would break down any of the amino acids in it and thus there is no
benefit. Luckily, there is nothing harmful with it either and I’d like to think
that I did myself a great service for eating shabu-shabu for lunch.
Koichi Fakuba
offers all you can eat and a la carte options.
We decided to stick with something where we wouldn’t over indulge, so I
ordered their pork and beef (¥1,480) meal. A dish of approximately six slices
of thinly sliced meat and another filled with vegetables (pumpkin, shredded
root vegetable & carrots, spring onions and napa cabbage) arrived. The meat
only took a few swishes in the boiling broth to cook through while still
retaining its tenderness. There really wasn’t that much taste to the beef or
pork but ponzu (a citrus soy sauce) and goma (a creamy sesame sauce) accompanied
the platter to help flavour the cooked products. The goma went perfectly with the meal and I
enjoyed how its thicker consistency helped stick to the ingredients more.
A pot containing
a ladle and strainer is used for skimming the impurities off of the top of the
soup, gathering up all the slivers of vegetables and if you incline for scooping
up the broth to add to the rice or drink on its own. Personally, I found the
meal was the perfect amount of food so that I was satisfied without being
overly stuffed. Plus, for only ¥1,480 it
was also an affordable option.
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Gastro World's Grading System
- Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
- 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
- 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
- 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
- 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
- 10 - absolute perfection!
