Do It Yourself!

MMMM... Tonight Ryan and I went out on a date. We weren't sure what we were in the mood for and we were literally going to flip a coin for where we were going to eat because we were that indecisive. It was between a fun pub type restaurant and a Shabu Shabu place. We blindly made our decision and went into the fun little pub with a great back patio. But once we got our menu, we realized that was not the place we were in the mood for. So we watched to make sure the waiter wasn't looking and ran out the back door. : ) There is a first time for everything! Then we decided to go back to the Shabu Shabu restaurant called Mitsu (Fullerton). We walked in and were seated immediately. We looked around and really had no clue what we were getting into. The food people were eating looked like kind of a mixture between fondue and Korean BBQ. We then asked the waiter what we were supposed to do. He told us to pick a meat and he would help us with the rest. Both Ryan and I ordered the beef and they cut it on a slicer right in front of us. It was beautiful meat, so red and fresh! They then brought out two bowls of water that boiled in front of us, like fondue. Then they gave us the meat and a mix of different veggies, tofu, and noodles. The waiter gave us two different sauces, one for the meat and one for the veggies. The meat sauce was kind of a dark brown, almost soy sauce but then he added green onions, radish, garlic and red pepper sesame oil to it. - my favorite! And Ryan really liked the veggie sauce which was like a soy dressing, also very good and very light. He then dumped all of the veggies in the boiling water and showed us how to cook our meat properly (only for about 3-5 seconds). Once you boil the meat until it changes its color, you then dip it in the meat sauce and plop it onto your bowl of rice and enjoy. It was SOOO good! It was salty, savory, hot, delicious and so fresh tasting, just what we were in the mood for!
Once the meal was over our waiter told us our meal came with a free iced coffee, brewed to perfection along with a simple syrup and cream. - The perfect ending to such a wonderful meal. Though the meal was a tad pricey for a random date night (about 15 dollars + a plate), it really was a fun environment with quality ingredients and proved to be an entertaining activity. I would highly recommend it!

http://www.mitsueshabu.com/