Shabu Shabu has always been a good choice for me and my friends when we want to eat meat. The price is mid-range, and the taste is just right. This time, we visited the Carrefour store in Fengyuan, located on the fifth floor. The weather was bad that day, so we had to wait for a table, and it was obvious that they were short-staffed. Even though we arrived during non-peak hours, both areas of the restaurant appeared closed, yet we were still told that we would have to wait an estimated hour and a half (there was only one group waiting ahead of us).

Fortunately, the mall downstairs provided us a place to stroll around. In the end, our wait time was 40 minutes. When we showed the waiting screen, the staff only gave us a table number card and told us to seat ourselves. There was no explanation of the ordering process or how service worked, which could be quite unfamiliar for someone dining here for the first time.

After 4:00 PM, it counts as dinner time. We ordered the New Zealand and Australian beef at 600 NT dollars per person. For the soup base, we chose the newly introduced beef bone soup (+70) and the spicy soup (+50). While I always order the spicy broth, I personally found the beef bone soup unnecessary as it tasted average.

The ordering is self-service, and they have a self-serve bar and a robot that brings food, so you have to place your own orders and return empty plates to the robot yourself. To be honest, after visiting so many Shabu Shabu places, this was the first time I felt there was almost no service at all. We waited a full 15 to 20 minutes for our first order of meat to arrive, which felt like a waste of time.

Also, several items in the self-serve vegetable bar were missing and not replenished. Initially, I thought it might be due to fewer staff, but at that time, just after 4 PM, there were not many tables occupied, and the staff was nearby cleaning utensils. When the robot failed to come to our table, the plates piled up without anyone helping to clear them away.

Overall, this experience left me with a sense of disappointment regarding the service, even though the food remained unchanged.

Because I really like eating hot pot, I always look for hot pot restaurants for family gatherings. I've almost tried all the hot pot places in Fengyuan... This time, we chose this place because it was reasonably priced for an all-you-can-eat option. After looking closely, there are quite a few price levels to choose from. We decided to go for the low-fat Wagyu beef ($610 + 10% service charge). There’s a senior discount, and if you bring an elderly card, you can use it for calculation. So this time, for five people, the total was $3289 (all chose the non-upcharge soup base).

For five people, we were given a four-person table and a two-person table. Although two tables could choose different price levels and soup bases, they couldn’t share food. But for convenience, we chose the same price level.

There were six soup bases without an upcharge and three that required additional payment (see attached image). We chose (tomato/ginseng chicken). The tomato soup was very fresh and really tasted like tomatoes, but it wasn't thick. The ginseng chicken was quite suitable for cooking meat and vegetables, with a light chicken broth flavor that was very nice.

As for the (ginseng chicken/light salt), I found the light salt version too salty; cooking meat in it made the taste of the ingredients overwhelmed.

In terms of meat quality, it was great! Everything was fresh and tender. It’s quite a good deal for this price range. There were no limits on how many portions you could order, and no minimum order requirement. You place orders by scanning a QR code, and they come via a robot for you to bring to the table, while dirty plates wait for the staff to collect.

As for the dishes, they were just ordinary; nothing particularly special, but there were quite a variety of vegetables.

The drink bar also featured common offerings. The dessert area had delicious Japanese warabi mochi, but don’t add too much powder. It’s really something to watch out for; it’s easy to choke! Please be careful. The ice cream was quite soft... The small cakes were nice, especially the lemon flavor, but the apple cake had a very hard outer layer. The frozen apple’s texture and taste can only be described as... unique.

Additionally, there were quite a few noodle options, but we didn't eat those this time. As for the rice, I personally found the sauce for the rice bowl to be very ordinary, and the curry was mildly spicy.

The staff's service attitude was quite good. Overall, it was a pleasant experience that I would be willing to revisit.