Do you Shabu?

Until I moved to San Francisco, I'd never heard of shabu-shabu. Basically, it's the Japanese version of fondue, only more savory and not sweet. You cook vegetables and thinly sliced meat in a hot pot of boiling broth. Since we live next to Japantown, we see a lot of these restaurants around, but didn't try one until earlier this week. We actually went outside of Japantown to Inner Richmond, to try the new place, Shabu Pub. Shabu Pub (3809 Geary Blvd) has a fun ambiance, with lots of lanterns and bright colors. It gets a little warm inside, with a hot pot boiling at every table and at the bar. The first issue was apparent when we first came in, that they were severely understaffed. When we got seated at the bar, it turned out our server didn't really speak English. I get it, it's a Japanese authentic restaurant, but we had no idea what we were doing to see just had to peak around and try and figure out what other people were doing. We both got the combo meat plates, with slices of lamb, ribeye beef and short rib. Each meat plate comes with a large bowl of vegetables and noodles, which are also Japanese so I'm not exactly sure what some of the root veggies were. You also get to choose a flavor of broth, so we got a combination of spicy miso and Mongolian style. After asking the people sitting next to us, we found out that because the meat is so thinly sliced than you only have to have it in the pot for 10 seconds, or until it is not longer red. After that, it was a pretty fun experience (I mean, it's fun-due really). It's definitely messy to eat and not first date material. There's sesame and soy dipping sauces. I read that shabu-shabu should be served with a bowl of white rice, but they don't bring you one unless you ask for it. The meal ends with a choice of either green tea or chocolate ice cream. I wouldn't recommend getting a drink there, as I ordered a glass of brut and it didn't come until I had already started eating and was served in a soda glass over ice. Shabu-shabu was a fun experience, but I'm not sure if we'll do it again any time soon.