Tokyo Pot (Stillwater) & a Shabu Shabu experience

I’ve been hearing from various foodie sources now for a year that I needed to make the trek from Oklahoma City to Stillwater to Tokyo Pot, home of the shabu shabu. My camera totally wigged out on me that night, sent me running to Walgreens for batteries and never worked propery after that…I don’t care, it’s a great excuse to go back soon.

I’m in foodie love.

Shabu shabu translates roughly to “swish-swish” which is the sound the various meats and vegetables make when being swished through the broth you dip them in to cook them.  Traditionally in Japan, this is done in dashi or plain water, but at Tokyo Pot, they’ve kicked it up a notch by giving you two flavored broths to cook in – one teriyaki like, and one spicy broth (based on a puree of spicy kimchi).  The pots are sunk in to the middle of the table over two gas burners.

This weekend myself, Nancy, Cindy, and Cindy’s daughter, KT headed out.  These 3 had no idea what they were in for.  They trust me like that…

I think?

Anyway, when we arrived at Tokyo Pot, we were like ..shabu shabu virgins.

The staff at Tokyo Pot pick up on that right away and you are fair game for any of their little games.

I have no idea how this happened. There is an evil little man named Dean whose entire mission of the evening was to torment us with his humor.

Just kidding..Dean is fantastic.  If you go to Tokyo Pot, make sure you get some moments with him.  He will crack you up while helping you make the most of the experience with the food.

So to begin, our server came out and poured the broths into the pots.

She also gave us a brief tutorial on how to proceed doing the shabu shabu.

Sounds like a dance huh?

She also brought us a plate of condiments of sort..ponzu sauce (a citrusy soy sauce), chopped green onions, and minced radishes and garlic.

Then she’ll take your appetizer order…we opted for some edamame and the seaweed salad.

Even KT, the young un’ enjoyed this salad…if you’ve never had it, it’s a crunchy, tangy but spicy treat.

Soon our server was arriving with our plates of food…Nancy and I had ordered the Prime Ribeye ($15.95).

Cindy and KT ordered the Seafood Combo 1 (scallops and shrimp at $15.95) and the Chicken Breasts ($10.95)

If you’re a shabu shabu virgin like us, I highly recommend the Prime Ribeye.  Unless you just detest red med, you will love this tender delectable experience. You will also receive a side of fresh vegetables (firm tofu, shitakes, cabbage, carrots, rice noodles, enoki mushrooms, seaweed) to go along with your meat.

Our server turned up the burners and got our pots bubbling. And then she showed us how to take our chopsticks and kind of “fondue” the vegetables and meat in the broth.

Instead of dipping them in one at a time, our server suggested we with do this with our vegetables so they would absorb more of the cooking liquid flavor.  Then you just pick them out one at a time with your chopsticks as you desire.

Now for the meat.  Since the meat is sliced so thinly, it takes mere seconds to cook in your desired broth.  Dean introduced us to the Heaven and Hell sauce for the ribeye.

Heaven is a beaten egg and Hell is a spicy chili sauce.  After you dip your meat in the broth to cook for about 5 seconds, you then dip it in the egg (tastes like butter, seriously!) or chili, whichever you desire.  Then they told us to lay it in our bowl of steamed rice until we wanted to eat it, but I don’t think any of our meat ever left the chopstick before it went straight into our eager mouths.  This was fabulous…and I know the egg thing may freak you out, but try it! It’s so good!  If you want neither of these, or if you have the seafood or chicken, just add some garlic, radish and green onion to your ponzu sauce (a citrusy soy sauce) and it’s still amazing.

After we had eaten to our hearts content and finished off all the solids, there was still more wonder to come.

Dean came over and poured our two broths together into one pot and added in our leftover ponzu, garlic, and pretty much anything left on the table, swirled in our leftover beaten egg and made us the most amazing broth. 

I love pho broth, and this may have rivaled that.

Wow, I’m telling you, I am looking forward to my next trip to Tokyo Pot.  Even though it is an hours drive, it’s a very small price to pay for visiting this place.  I spent half the evening trying to talk Dean into opening a branch here in Oklahoma City.

I’d be there every weekend.

Maybe twice.

Tokyo Pot
108 W. 10th St
Stillwater, OK 74074