A new shabu-shabu restaurant opened on East Honolulu! We were excited to head over for lunch because it’s our first time doing a hot pot dining! Cafe Asia is located at Niu Valley Shopping Center with plenty of free parking space available!
As soon as we walked in, we were greeted by Kylee Lin, owner of the restaurant. She informed us that the chef is her husband, Chen Pan and walked us through the menu. The menu had appetizers, shabu-shabu items, side orders, dessert, and drinks!
Daily Hours: Lunch 11am-2:30pm, Dinner 4pm-9.30pm
Happy Hour: Monday-Friday from 4pm-6pm
Check out Cafe Asia menu, here.
CAFE ASIA RESTAURANT
The restaurant has a perfect ambiance for family and friends! It’s a very open space with loads of seating. Each table has a portable butane stove, chopstick, two ladle spoons, soup spoon, and bowls.
DRINKS
Cafe Asia offers an array of drink choices from beer, refreshing cocktails, shochu, wine, sake, soft drinks, and tea. We started off with their refreshing cocktails: Lilikoi Iced Tea and Lychee Mojito, $8 each ($6 during Happy Hour).
APPETIZERS + SHABU SHABU
Cafe Asia has some great appetizers to choose from: We ordered a few and they were all delicious! We could’ve ordered more but our main focus was to try their shabu-shabu before feeling to full. Each hot pot is filled with an aromatic broth that’s decorated with fresh ingredients. First, we picked our broth (Coconut Curry and Kombu Miso Vegetarian). There are 11 broths to choose from and all of their broths are made with no peanuts and no msg! We then picked two shabu-shabu set (Mixed Vegetables Set and Seafood Mix) with a side order of the USDA Ribeye Prime. They delivered the broth and sets to our table. Being that it was our first time at a shabu-shabu restaurant, we added everything once the broth started boiling. But that was not the right way to cook! Kylee gave us tips for first-time goers:
Tip #1 – Once the broth starts boiling, add the vegetables. Harder vegetables like carrots will take longer to cook, while leafy vegetables tend to cook more quickly. Then take out the vegetables once it is cooked.
Tip #2 – Next, add the seafood and let it cook. For the meat, swish the pieces lightly through the broth or submerge briefly. Cook only enough one or two meat slices at a time, rather than cooking everything at once – it’ll take longer.
When all is cooked and smelling ambrosial, remove it from the pot and dip them into their homemade ponzu and sesame sauce. With every shabu-shabu, you’ll get a bowl of white rice. We requested for the mixed grain rice ($1 extra), it was so good!
DESSERT
We can’t forget about dessert! Cafe Asia offers gelato in different flavors and fried ice cream. Can you guess which dessert we went with? Fried Ice Cream? YES! The Fried Ice Cream is vanilla flavored served with fresh berries, whip cream, and chocolate syrup. Broke da mouth! In other words, it was really delicious!
We had a lovely lunch at Cafe Asia and enjoyed experiencing shabu-shabu. Now that we learned how to properly cook on a hot pot, we’re excited to be back and show our family. With the kids and dessert menu, Landon would absolutely love it!
For more information, visit Cafe Asia.
Cafe Asia on Instagram and Yelp
5724 Kalanianaole Hwy.
Honolulu HI 96821
808-762-7514
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