Happy Friday everyone! I think posting this blog today before the weekend starts is a good idea.. I want to share with everyone this AMAZING AND DELICIOUS RESTAURANT!! Hopefully you all decide to make the drive out to eat some of it yourselves this weekend! It is highly recommended by ME (and that’s all that matters). 😀 😀 I don’t think I can over hype this place or maybe it’s just my excitement from eating here last week. In Foothill Ranch, you will come across with Halves Boiling Pot & Grill. It is just what it sounds like: you can shabu shabu your meat AND BBQ grill it AT THE SAME TIME! Your own personal half/half shabu pot and BBQ grill. DOESN’T THAT SOUND AMAZING? This is the go-to place for those who are indecisive like me and can’t decide which way they want their meats cooked. Or they just want both. Who cares? There’s no sin either way! And of course they even offer the full shabu pot or BBQ grill, but who wants that? You can get that anywhere else!
BTW, it is free tea or soda with Yelp Check-In so make sure you do that!! I chose sweetened iced green tea. It was perfectly sweet and refreshing. Our server at the bar was so nice, she kept refilling our glasses. Yay! On the right, you have 3 dipping sauces: sesame, ponzu and BBQ sauce. The BBQ sauce is more so meant to marinate your meats in it before putting it on the grill (the flavors will soak into the meat while it’s being cooked that way). Again, your server will teach you.
Oh my, oh my. Isn’t this just food porn for the eyes? For all foodies? And non-foodies around? You have your small tin pot of vegetables at the top for the shabu pot and various vegetables to grill placed with your meats. Vegetables in the pot include enoki mushrooms, cabbage, baby corn, sliced carrots, tofu, broccoli, bok choy, glass noodles and udon noodles. To the corner, there are vessels of freshly minced garlic, radish and diced onions as additional condiments to your liking.
Note: if you want spicy/hot drops in your sauces, ask your server. She/he will place however many drops you request. I always just ask for one drop per sauce bowl and that’s spicy enough for me! BEWARE, it is super spicy that’s why the servers keep it stashed somewhere..
For 4 meats that we have chosen are as follows: USDA prime angus ribeye, pork toro, miyazaki A5 wagyu and american wagyu beef.
Our server taught us that EVERY piece of A5 wagyu beef comes with a “Certificate of Authenticity.” It is required by law. So you are welcome to ask to show proof or our waiter was so awesome and nice that he showed us this willingly himself! The A5 wagyu beef is also shipped weekly from Japan to this restaurant.
All of the meats have a lot of marble in it, and whether boiled or grilled, just melts in your mouth when you eat it. Like literally MELTS IN YOUR MOUTH. In my mouth at least. So good. Even though the miyazaki A5 wagyu is really expensive, it is completely worth every dollar. You’ll know when you’ve tried it too. The texture is tender and soft and the flavors are completely juicy and savory to the fatty pork flavor of the tonkotsu. This was beyond comparison to EVERY single other meat I have ever eaten in my entire life. No comparison whatsoever. It. Is. The. Best. Period.
The meats don’t look like much in quantity, but they surely surpass 200% in quality for me! Not only that, with the amount of FUN you are having cooking and grilling your meats, you start to get full too! I like this portion control. It is healthier anyways. 😉
Some of the USDA prime angus ribeye just out of that boiling pot. It was delicious and carried the tonkotsu flavor from the broth with it in the meat. You don’t even need to dip in the sauces. I personally LOVE sesame sauce with my hot pot, but I barely used it here because I just wanted to enjoy the naked flavors of the meat by itself.
Another note: They have a variety of soups for you to choose from, but the most popular one is tonkotsu. Here, we have tonkotsu and miso soups! The tonkotsu is subtly fatty and creamy, which was perfect for the combination of meats, noodles and vegetables being cooked in it.
Isn’t this just fun?! Potting and grilling at the same time! Yikes!! 🙂 Surprisingly, the meats (and the grill itself) was not greasy at all! The intense marbling retained the flavors from the BBQ sauce while being grilled. The meats did not stick to the grill at all either. It was the most perfect grill I’ve ever cooked meat off of!
I made another noob video about this place. Thanks to all those who have been watching.. 😀 Any tips/criticism/suggestions are highly welcome?! I’m just having fun with this!! But oh boy, I really want to come back to this place already! If only it weren’t so far away, I would literally come every weekend!!
Enjoy <3
