Went there for lunch and it was pretty good. I was a bit worried in the first place because you don't get to pick the broth (they only had 1 flavor) and 5 different meat selection you can choose from. But it was pretty good than I expected. You serve your own including drinks. It can be crowded, especially where all the sauces are. Shaved ice was a plus! Their side dish selections were good too, which include japchae, tteolbokki, friend chicken, and jokbbal! Will definitely visit again in near future. read more

Dada Shabu Shabu Buffet - Korean Near Me - Irvine, California

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Before i was considered about this place or another place , ended up i tried this one eventhough i read all the review said this place too crowded and IT'S TRUE . too crowded too small our server was okay BUT the other korean guy with short hair / bangs took our dirty plate is not polite . for me no more comeback to this place , especially their sauce is not special + not spicy at all . read more

Well maintained, clean food bar with plenty of options and great banchan. The service is always on point and the atmosphere is lovely without being too loud. read more

I LOVE THIS PLACE! This place gets BUSY and it's so worth it! Anything with AYCE is my jam! I've only been here on the weekends for dinner - so it's always a bit packed! They have such a huge variety of seafood! I always get the shrimp and crab! You can make it as spicy or as simple as you want. There's a flavor bar that has diff sauce options to add to your broth! Some of the food that you don't put in the broth like the japchae noodles or chicken wings are a delish side snack! Always tons of options to choose from :) read more

The food here is quality! Premium meats with excellent buffet choices. Service is really fast. The food, ambience and service is the reason we come here once a month. They can take reservations for parties of 8 or more. Call them to reserve! read more

I loved the variety of sides/vegetables/broth flavors and add ins/asian food. It also includes dessert and drinks. The quality of meat was great! read more

Food is ok but not worth it to me. It feels like you're always walking around someone when you get up to get items. Tables are close together and there's not much room to put anything on it so they left the meat on a ledge by our table (so you have to stand up every time you want to get more meat). Price is in the high side of the area for what you get. read more

Always solid and wait isn't ridiculously long. Also clean and well stocked with the best items!

The day after New Years I was stoked to go to Mokkoji just for my heart to be broken because it was closed !!!! Having my heart still set on hot pot I blindly chose Dada and I'm so so happy that I did. It's located in the same plaza at Zion which meant after meals walks there and there's plenty of parking. It's AYCE and it's ~$34per person on a weekend which is still pretty darn good! They give you a base broth and you can choose to make your own broth using the available seasonings they have. There's miso, spicy miso, Hondashi powder and mala sauce. I mixed spicy miso and a lot of garlic and it was yums. There's a huge selection of veggies, carbs, seafood and meats, hot foods like chicken wings and even a bingsoo spot!! I would definitely come back if I was in the area. read more

This place always has a wait and the wait is worth it. Place is clean and there is always people cleaning up the food bar area. There are 6 selections of meats I usually only eat the top three selections. The food bar has veggies, seafood, cooked items, drinks, sauces and shaved ice as dessert. Staffs are friendly and attentive. Only complain is the drink area is always so packed or wet wish they can just bring drinks for us instead of us going to get it ourselves. read more

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This is my go to place for shabu! Love the selections and varieties of add ins. Just wish they had rice paper and a better desert option rather than shaved ice. The servers were always on top of our needs and were always asking if we wanted more meat rather than us having to flag them down. This place doesn't play their music super loud like most places so it was nice to be able to have dinner and converse with my family. read more

YUMYUMYUMMMMMM Unfortunately, my first visit here was during the pandemic... so I wasn't able to experience the buffet. What's even more messed up is that you can fly on a crowded airplane with dirty air but you can't eat from a buffet in a restaurant. Explain that! Anyways regardless of the buffet being unavailable, this place hits the spot!!! The menu is limited but don't let that scare you away. I can't remember the meat I order here but I always order the 'fattiest' option lol. It never disappoints! The ponzu sauce is my go to! Service is always pretty good, if you need something urgent there's a button on the table that will ring them over. For all you can eat the service is really good, location = convenient, & meat quality is good! I can't wait until they are open again! read more

BIG BIG LIKE!!! Probably the best shabu in OC My favorite spot was TabuShabu then all that shabu But this place smashes on all of them!! Service -9 Quality -10 Ambiance-9 Flavor - 10 Value -10 I had this place last night with my best friend and daughter and I'm going back again today. It's that good!! $32 all you can eat. BOMB If you haven't tried DADA it's a must you try. You won't be disappointed. read more

Amazing food! service is quick and they give you each person a plate of meat at a time. Good portion of meat too! It is a bit crowded inside the restaurant, so I like to go late at night. read more

Saw this as a bookmark and made my way here to try this place out. It was $18.95 for lunch for AYCE shabu shabu, which was a reasonable price. Came around opening time and the people that came at the time were being seated, so had to go in to put our name on a list. It wasn't too too long to actually get seated, but I just found that kinda funny that there was a group on a weekday for lunch. We were seated and asked if it were our first time and after acknowledging yes, the waiter took his time to explain the setup. Order the meats for shabu shabu, basically everything else was in the buffet something. The general gist, obviously. We quickly went in for an order of the prime beef brisket and then made our way to get everything else. Oh yeah, two hour limit. You first had to get in the line to get a plate and a bowl/tray for the sauces. Ponzu, goma sauces that I elected for. The latter sauce was basically the saviour for the meat because like others have said, their broth is pretty bland and does not do much to accentuate the meat. Garlic and other small stuff (green onion) occupy this first row. Then you got to turn. What do you do? They have Korean chicken and fried chicken in the back (both are actually pretty good for an AYCE place)- really good flavor, not gonna lie. Spicy rice cake also lies here with tofu skin. Hehe. Fried rice here didn't really have too much flavor, and glass noodle (I forget the name!) is here as well. Those two were just alright. Then you get through the two rows where the bulk of your ingredients lie. Fish cake, tofu, fish balls (lots of them), frozen dumplings, udon, ramen (eh), spinach noodles (really good but please beware because there's actually a lot and I added just a tad lol). All the vegetables that you could think of (jalapenos, soybeans/bean sprouts, bok choy, cabbage, etc) are also here. There's also shaved ice and a Coke machine (yes they have coke zero!) Kinda exciting. Cuz Coke Zero. lol. The meat was actually pretty good. The brisket was thinly sliced and went pretty well with the ingredients that I had added from the buffet section. The better part was the USDA Prime Beef Chuck Top Blade, which was the less fattier version and marbled. This one gave off a tough meat impression without being tough (if that even makes sense). I liked their meat quality of this actually (ordered this one again haha). Wish I had tried the other meats but I guess that's for when I'm in a bigger group. I think that they have other things that are for dinner only, so maybe next time I'll be back for dinner. read more

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This place is my families go to for an amazing AYCE experience. At first, I thought that the price was a little high, but if you really weigh what you're getting, it's really not that bad a value at all. Typically, we would always get here about 10-15 minutes prior to them being open because we've experience a long wait time. There are a wide variety of seafood food selection and vegetables. There are also a few hot items to select from. There is a two hour limit but we never last that long. After the completion of all the meat that we could consume, there's also a shaved ice machine which makes it ideal for children and adults as well. I look forward to going again. read more

Dada Shabu Shabu Buffet - Front of store - Korean Near Me - Irvine, California

This kind of Shabu is my kind of jam. Plenty of fresh veggies and Korean style side dishes. No joke the wings were so delicious. The broth was very simple and diluted so if you know how to broth properly then you'll enjoy it but if you don't know what to put in it, then you might have some complaints. I didn't pay so I don't know the affordability of this place. Would definitely go again. read more

I've been eating a lot of hot pot/shabu shabu lately and this place deserves all its accolades. This was my first time trying Korean hot pot and it was great. Things I liked were that there was an extensive sauce bar to (1) grab sauces to flavor your own broth [miso, spicy miso, mala] or for dipping, (2) self serve seafood and veggies, and (3) lots of hot food sides to tempt you from focusing on meat with (Tteobokki, japchae, fried chicken, spring rolls). The meat quality was just so so but all of it together is what makes this place a hit. I recommend adding some seafood and aromatics to your broth to up your shabu shabu game. The shave ice dessert bar at the end is also terrific. I brought a group of college boys and they ate up a storm. The wait was reasonable for a large group on a Saturday night - maybe 45 minutes. Service was solid. I would definitely come back. read more

Having been here twice now, I can firmly say, this will be one of our go to restaurants when we want a feast. We didn't seem to have any problems with parking, but let me tell you, even though Dada is in an unassuming strip mall, you'll see the line building up before it even opens; it's that delicious. The array of goodies to flavor your broth seems endless. They have so many fresh veggies, eggs, seasonings, already cooked food like wontons (collectively, our group of 6 women counted the wontons as maybe the best tasting precooked food item. Sweet Hey Zeus! So scrumptious. There are so many options for protein. They set it up for us with the same 3 meats on each side in 1,2,3, order so we'd know which item we wanted. The servers are swift and efficient. Kind, helpful. Dada also has different desserts. Shaved ice and much more. This is a spendy restaurant, it's all you can eat within a 2 hour time limit, so naturally, it's going to come at a cost. But, it's so worth it, especially as a place to celebrate something. Overall, I'm super stoked about this restaurant. It's one to keep in mind. read more

Best AYCE shabu hands down. Of all the places I missed eating at, Dada tops the list. Service for meat is always super fast. Feels like you order, they spin around like a magician, and there's a new plate of meat on your table. The self serve bar has quite the variety of options for sauce and sides. read more

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Food was amazing and fresh. Our server Alan was super awesome! Super friendly and attentive even with our big group. Happy new year!!

One of my life's goals is to eat here once a week for the rest of my life. It's doable. I'm literally trying. My entire life, I've eaten hot pot all over Socal / Norcal / Vegas, anywhere I can. It's my favorite dinner in the world (and my best friend Kait's). This place is either THE best or close second. The other one's in 626. And this one is AYCE. All You Can Eat. Delicious. Crawfish, fish, various vegetables, clams, crabs, shrimps, fried shrimp, ramen noodles, thick noodles, cabbage, KIMCHI (OK THANK YOU), like the list just goes on but I'm tired. Just go. It's like a hard 10/10 if we're being honest. Drinks are included. Like literal normal drinks not alc. Fishballs, sauces, fresh onions and garlic, soup bases and pastes, and it still goes on. I couldn't take a photo of everything because I got chili oil on my phone. And then I stuffed my face. Um. Oh my gosh, they also have fresh quality cuts of meat. The leanest is the filet something. I attached a picture. I'm not a red meat person unless it's super lean and great quality. This is all included. They have fattier cuts. You will get charged if you don't finish your food, which is good. Don't waste. With tip, we paid $46 each person. Parking is where the Zion Market del taco etc are. Not bad. Service was great. They'll give you more broth and are like super nice and kind. 100% important. Thank you so much. Please never close down. K read more

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please go inside and put your party down. They call you when tables are free. I wish they had a system that texted you when your table was ready that way I can mingle somewhere around the plaza rather than sitting or standing in front of the restaurant All you can eat! So pick your meat from 3 different beef dishes to chicken to basa fish filet. My personal favorite was #2. Tender and lean meat. There's only one type of standard broth-You can add in any flavor sauce you want from the sauce bar. Good selection of seafood such as crawfish, clams, mussels, shrimp, crabs, etc. As for the vegetables selection; there could have been more. They only had 1 type of mushroom and 4 different types of greens not including bean sprouts End your full meal with their shaved Ice! They had melon, assorted canned fruits, Mochi, cherries. My suggestion is to have more fresh fruits bc the canned fruits were not that appetizing Overall: one of the better all you can Shabu places around Irvine!!! Come and try! read more

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My favorite shabu spot. Great selection of side dishes and excellent meat. It even had a bingsoo station.

In terms of what the place offers in food/drink/quality/service I actually thought it was great. One of the main reasons it is not 5 stars to me is the actual size and layout of the place. They were really busy so it was quite cramped when trying to get food at the buffet area. Plus when you walk in you smell a sort of dampness and seafood smell in the air so it needs a little more ventilation. read more

Overall good place to have Shabu Shabu with the family. The service is good and the food choices are excellent.

Great selection of meat, unlimited makes it much better! Staff are nice and respectful. This is our third time and all three occasions have been fantastic thanks to the team at Dada. read more

Dada has been my family's go-to shabu spot for the past 3 years now. Every single time we come, we're never disappointed by the high-quality food and service. Shout out to Allen, you always show us a great time and are so quick to serve. Dada's reputation is much better having a server like you! I appreciate you and thank you. read more

everything here is amazing! the meat quality is top notch and their soup is delicious. (make sure to add garlic, green onions, and chili oil to really put it over the top) the hot bar had food that was actually delicious but the chicken was a little cold and stale today. everything else was amazing though! Service was quick and everyone was really nice. read more

Dada Shabu Shabu Buffet - Korean Near Me - Irvine, California

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Haven't been to Dada since 2017 but decided to go there for a date night with hubs recently on a Friday night. We got there around 5:45 and it was still relatively empty inside, but by the time we left around 7:15, there were people waiting outside. The food was still as quality as I remember, they let you pick 3 meats at a time, and the plates are reasonably-sized. There is plenty to choose from, and the dessert is now shave ice with some minimal toppings, like cereals, mochi and red bean. Drinks are self-serve from a soda fountain machine. There's nothing I have to say here more than it's reasonably priced for the quality and variety of food you can get during the 2-hour window. read more

This is the best Shabbu Shabbu place we have ever been to, we have been going here for over a year and absolutely love it. No other place comes close to their amazing food and their customer service is even better. One server, Allen, is absolutely amazing!! He takes care of us all of the time and never disappoints. Always top notch service with top notch food. Never go anywhere else but Dada Shabbu Shabbu. My only warning is that once you come here, you will never be able to go anywhere else again, that's how good it is! Local treasure for SURE !!! read more

This place is amazing the food is really good and the buffet has a lot of variety! But the service is EVEN BETTER!! Allen was my server and i really appreciate how he works really hard Definitely should give him a raise! read more

consistently one of my fam's favs in the area! went around 5pm on a friday, no wait. the first round we ordered the #1, #2, and #3 which were all amazing. love their hot bar as well. although the second round, we ordered the same meats but they came out wayyy diff and completely lean not fatty :( we tried sucking it up but once cooked even for a few seconds they became super tough. my mom (god bless her she better than me) brought it up to our server's attention and he explained how it was still the same cuts but my mom was skeptical how it could be completely different (like absolutely no fat at ALL) he was nice enough to swap ours out for fattier plates so thank you for the customer service and my mom for having the courage to bring it up. read more

Good quality meats. Plenty of attentive wait staff who were flefficient and friendly. 2 meat max per order, but we were never without meat. Great value for your money. The chicken wings were surprisingly delicious! Snow cones are a nice touch. Will be back with friends soon! read more

I can't compliment this place enough. Wow! My family loves shabu and we driver everywhere to get the best. Our old favorite spot was Broth but Dada surpasses them by a mile. So many choices, great service. Plus drinks and dessert were included in the AYCE price. read more

Dada is a great place to go for AYCE hotpot. They have updated their policies due to the pandemic (the servers go to the buffet section and bring all your food items to your table for you) and I think it works well for them. The staff were incredibly friendly, polite, and took the pandemic seriously. All the staff wore gloves and masks. Servers stopped by your table frequently so you never have to wait to order (though you can press the server button too). All of the food I tried was decent quality, no complaints. Everything was tasty and reasonably portioned so you never had too much per order. I appreciate than non-alcoholic drinks were included in the AYCE pricing. read more

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The service is great, the choices for your hot pot are immense. Definitely worth a visit.

Very crowded but the buffet line was well stocked and good quality. A big variety of seafood, sides, and sauces. It felt a little hectic since there were so many people around, but overall it was delicious and well worth the price! read more

We came here after my boyfriend's graduation, and we were starving. My boyfriend's family have been here a couple of times, and really enjoyed it, but it was my first time here! After countless times of going to Oishi Shabu Shabu, we finally tried a new Shabu buffet. We had a party of five, and we had two large pots. One with two soups to share, and another with three soups to share. You don't get flavored soups pre-made like Oishi instead you choose flavoring at the salad bar. I'm pretty bland, so I just added miso. They have about 5 or so options for the meat, so it's not too big of a list sadly, but they do have a wide variety of side food ( a lot of diff seafood!), the drinks are included, and there is shaved ice! We ate so much we could barely move after. The service was attentive, and we were checked on pretty often. It's pretty crowded in there, but that's expected at an all you can eat. From what I remember the ambiance was pretty nice, and it was clean and stocked up on supplies/food. We can't wait to come again! (-: read more

The ambience, the food, and the customer service is amazing here. The cuts of meat are really good compared to other places i've had. Our server Allen, was really attentive and provided excellent customer service as well which made the dining experience better. Would definitely come again! read more