Our first attempt to get in failed; the opening week of Shabu Hot Pot was jam-packed. When you walk in, there is a podium to sign up for a queue spot to get in. There were about 20 tables ahead of us and two hours until closing. There was no real chance for us to get in, especially when it seemed to take forever for people to leave.

The reason it takes a bit longer to dine here than other places it because you cook your own food, and it is a buffet-style restaurant. You are given a soup of your choice: spicy house soup, house chicken and herb, savory beef broth, savory pork soup, and veggie delight. Which they will make and then bring to you as the burner in front of you is heating up. You then wait for the soup to heat up.

While the soup is heating up, you can choose the meats you want to eat! It’s all you can eat so you can have as much meat as you want, but they will only bring you three at a time. There is a financial penalty if you do not finish all the meat, so make sure not to order more than you can eat!

The options for meat are chicken breast, natural pork belly, pawn and shrimp, calamari, beef torso, rib eye, pork shoulder, beef brisket, and natural Angus prime.

For soups, we ordered pork soup and beef brother. For meat, we tried chicken breast, beef brisket, rib eye, and pork belly.

After waiting for your soup to heat up and you are cooking your meat, you can take a look at the conveyor belt beside your table that has a consistent flow of options to put in your soup.

I had the beef broth, and I thought it was truly a savory broth like it described. I do not consider myself a soup connoisseur. However, this is probably some of the most flavorful soup I have had. It cannot top my favorite soup, miso soup from Ohana Japanese Steakhouse, but I loved it nonetheless.

My favorite combo was my beef broth with pork belly. Pork belly is a very sweet tasting meat and went well with the savory broth. I can also imagine something like the beef brisket and the pork soup going good together for a similar reason.

I am not a big mushroom fan and would not usually go out of my way to actively eat mushrooms. However, since I was experiencing something new, I thought it would be fun to try everything. And the mushrooms there were surprisingly good! I feel like I could just eat the soup and the mushrooms all day.

One of the few issues I came across is that they did not explain a lot about how everything works. Granted, someone who has gone to a “cook it yourself” self-restaurant before would have a better idea. I have not personally gone to a place like that yet, so this experience was a little confusing.

It took an embarrassingly long amount of time that I would find more success cooking my meat in the soup rather than the little space on the side. I found out that is more used to keep your food warm than to cook it. Once I realized I needed to cook it in the soup, it started cooking a lot faster.

Another thing that frustrated me was the wait time. Understandably, they are still new and so many people are coming to try. Our first try to go to the restaurant, we waited an hour and a half before we gave up and decided to try again the next week. The next week, I waited an hour in the queue to be seated.

While I had that time to wait, I noticed that the reason it takes awhile is the concept of having to cook it yourself mixed with the buffet. People who were dining before I came remained until the time an hour passed and we could finally be seated. That being said I imagine the wait time will go down as it is less new and more people have tried it.

If you want to try, it is located at 4560 S. Campbell Ave. STE 136, Springfield, MO.