Some words of advice for those who have to dine at Shabu Square, the Japanese-style restaurant recently opened on Eliot Street:



1. Early means on-time, and on-time means a half-hour wait.

I had heard nothing about Shabu Square when I decided to write them up, but the concept sounded like a great time: traditional shabu-shabu is thinly sliced raw beef and vegetables that are swished in a pot of tableside, simmering broth and then dunked in ponzu, a sesame-based sauce. Fun, right? And right here in Harvard Square. So I invited lots of friends and made a reservation for 10 at 7 p.m. Four of us walked in at 7 p.m., maybe a minute or two after, to find every table full and a line out the front door. When I approached the man I took to be the manager (he was actually the owner), he told me that since we were “so late,” he had had to break up the table, and let the eight of us (two couldn’t make it) stand there blocking foot traffic for half an hour before seating us not at a long table, but at adjacent booths. We were not happy.

2. Dress for the tropics.

Every table has a heating plate in the middle to keep the broth simmering. The restaurant felt like the steam room at the neighborhood gym. It smelled, however, like wet dog.



3. Don’t expect the full menu.

By the time we sat down, everyone was sweaty and disgruntled, but a look over the menu livened things up for a time. They offer a nice selection of dunkables for your shabu—beyond the traditional beef there was chicken, pork, tofu, and even deluxe Wagyu beef—and an array of appetizers, soups, sides, and noodle dishes, all at attractive prices. The four of us at my table ordered a couple rounds of steamed chicken dumplings, summer rolls, a beef shabu dinner with rice vermicelli, a pork dinner with udon, a noodle dish called simply Yum Yum, and two orders of sashimi. Things were looking up, we were excited, and then the waitress returned to say that they were out of sashimi. Totally. All of it. Shabu Square has only been open for a few weeks, but its owners also run Spice Thai and 9 Tastes, plus another Thai restaurant in Boston, so they should have mastered ordering by now. Out of one type of sashimi is understandable, but out of everything is unacceptable.



4. Don’t expect flavor, either.

After our terrible experience at Shabu Square, I went to the review website Yelp.com to read other people’s responses, and found lots of complaints about slow service and inattentive waitstaff. Perhaps the management felt guilty for stiffing us on the table, but our service was fine, and the food that they did have in stock soon arrived. The dumplings: mushy dough and underseasoned filling with a tasty soy sauce. The summer rolls: crunchy and flavorless, with a tasty peanut sauce. The shabu-shabu: decent, I thought, although our companion table had ordered a special broth that they deemed disgusting. The yum yum: somehow both spicy and bland, which not even the administration of the tasty soy and peanut sauces could fix. All together: not bad, but certainly not yum yum.



5. Keep your wits about you.

After the busboy had come and gone with a Herculean load of dishes, our waitress returned ready to give us our check. Now, the two shabu dinners included dessert, and it seems we would have missed out on it entirely had we not reminded her. All four of us burst out laughing when she came back with two slices of steamed white bread and a dish of green custard that precisely matched the color of the plate. Bizarre though it was, the dish was the best part of the meal. Who knew that Wonderbread would be such a great foil to the milky-rich coconut custard? With four people ordering appetizers and entrees and drinking water (Shabu Square doesn’t serve alcohol), the bill came to a modest $63, including tax and tip, so things could have been worse.



We all scrambled out of our booths and out into the blessedly cool evening as soon as the bills were paid, and probably will never go back. Frankly, I was embarrassed at having forced my friends through this terrible dining experience. Therefore, my final piece of advice: don’t go to Shabu Square.

—Reviewer Jillian J. Goodman can be reached at jjgoodm@fas.harvard.edu.