Spring Shabu Shabu is still my favorite hot pot spot of all time. Yes, I said it!…read more It's clean, spacious, and well-maintained, which is honestly rare to find in Flushing. On top of that, they even have authentic Dole Whip, so you don't have to wait in line at Disneyland to enjoy it! I've been coming to Spring Shabu Shabu since they first opened years ago, and they have never disappointed me. If you're looking for a huge variety of freshly made noodles, fish cakes, vegetables, and other hot pot essentials, this is the place to be. Although it's AYCE (all-you-can-eat), meats, seafood, and drinks are not included. Honestly, with all the options available at the buffet, it's more than enough for me. The fresh ramen is usually my noodle of choice, but there are so many great unique flavors that you really can't go wrong. Today, I tried the chili garlic and curry noodles, and both were delicious. The curry flavor was light and subtle, but you can definitely taste it when eaten on its own. The chili garlic noodles had a nice kick that I really enjoyed. If you're new to hot pot, this is a great place to start. Everyone gets their own individual pot and can choose their own broth. My family and I prefer not to share because we all enjoy different ingredients and flavors, so having a personal pot allows everyone to customize their meal. I love spicy food, so I always order the Mala broth. The service here is excellent. Special shoutout to Wendy and Jamaica for always being so friendly, attentive, and welcoming. My family and I truly appreciate your hospitality every time we visit. Is it loud? Yes, but not "concert loud." The atmosphere is lively, the music is great, and it's very family-friendly. It's also perfect for large parties and gatherings since there's a separate private room near the entrance. Tips for First-Time Visitors: Most of the parking spaces in the front large lot have been blocked off, so give yourself extra time to find parking around Flushing. Make sure everyone in your party is present since the entire group must be present to be seated. Once seated, place your order first, then head to the buffet area to grab your food. Don't forget to stop by the sauce station near the entrance and create your own dipping sauce! Finally, save room for dessert! Soft serve ice cream: Matcha, vanilla, lactose free vanilla and the famous Dole Whip! Choice of cup or cone. Bottom line: Spring Shabu Shabu continues to be my favorite hot pot restaurant. Great food, excellent service, and a fun atmosphere so stop by and give it try!

I haven't been here for about three years now and so much has changed, and not for the better. We…read morecame around 6:30pm as a party of four (3 adults and 1 infant) on a Friday and were quickly seated, which was different in years past where we had to wait. Pricing has increased since the last time we were here which is understandable with the increase in cost. They do not validate parking anymore. Waitress had greeted us and asked for the soups right away since we had been here before. We had requested if we can get a pot of plain water for the baby so that we can boil stuff without any sodium. She said sorry that will have to cost extra. But then I referred back to their ad that children under 3 eats free. And the whole explanation was yes but they could not have their own pot. She says this is just company policy and that it's not my decision. A few minutes later she came back and said I talked to management and they said it was ok for you to have a pot of plain water. After this, she doesn't come back to check in on us or ask for any refills on the soup and had to flag her down. Plates were slow to be cleared. Food - in the past we loved the fresh noodles here, but not anymore. Maybe it's due to less people, but the noodles are old and stay clumped up together. Everything else was pretty typical with the vegetables and the various types of fish balls. I don't think we will be returning here anytime soon. There are so many hot pot places to go to that are higher quality and better service. It's sad because they were once so popular, but I don't think they have adapted to the changing restaurant options in flushing.

Good value if you have the membership. You save on pricing and can earn points with each meal,…read moreredeemable for rewards like a free drink or specialty dish. If you get the membership (currently $28/year), it pays off after 2 visits and you get 3000 points (worth a free meal) on your birthday. I got the Gold menu (the middle option), which was enough variety for me. Honestly after a few plates of meat, they all start to taste the same so it doesn't matter what cut of wagyu you're eating. There is a buffet of vegetables and side dishes that you can help yourself to, along with a soda machine and a watered-down tea machine. Nothing too impressive here. Overall, worth visiting if you have the membership and you really know your different cuts of wagyu. Otherwise, if you just want AYCE hot pot, there are plenty of other places in Flushing.

Our daughter took us here while we were visiting NY for her graduation for Wagyu Shabu. I normally…read moredon't like places with many prices, but since our daughter chose it so we enjoy with her. The prices on the windows are very confusing and more like false advertising for me, the lower prices are for the members which we're not since this is our first time and definitely our last, unless our daughter wants to come here again. So the price is the more expensive one. For me, I prefer straight forward pricing, so this didn't give me good vibes, it's not the money, just the way they advertising and we have to know what we can only have with the price we chose. The restaurant just gives us the specific menu for what we selected to have then we don't have to be denied for what we chose because we selected gold instead of top of the line menu. The place is clean and nice. For $78/per person and only have Australian Wagyu Beef (not really Wagyu) then it's over priced. We did have some premium beef which I liked because of the marble of fat on the beef quite tender and tasty, but only a sampler or whatever they called it. Service with one person is quite inadequate but she's very attentive and pleasant, since she had to run the whole restaurant, sometimes forgets things. The tomato broth was good and everyone liked it. The seafood plate is OK and our sweet shrimps are sweet. Some snow crab legs, jumbo shrimps, fish fillets, nothing to make me go wow. The appetizers tempura is crispy and good. The raw octopus is tasty. The vegetables are fresh and clean. After they denied me the premium beef sampler, I let my daughter to order everything else and I just enjoyed with the family. My daughter seemed to be happy and ate a lot, so I was happy. I've eaten enough shabu, hot pot to know that Australian or American Wagyu are overrated, many of them are tough and chewy, not as tender as normal ribeyes or Brisket that I like. This restaurant Wagyu beef does have marbles of fat in it, so it's tender and not so chewy. So, for the GOLD menu, I don't think it's worth the $78 but for special occasions, it's OK. I just don't like the confusion of many menu, many prices, and not getting my own menu and get denied for something on the menu because I didn't pay enough.

An absolute pleasure!…read more The amount of choices left me in disbelief. Frog legs to stone crab... noodles to rice... beef to chicken. An absolute feast that is well worth the money. I can't wait to come back to fill up my belly again. Staff was 10/10 as they were bring out fresh food frequently so nobody had to wait for anything. Place is big and lots of seating. Parking lot is shared with other things such as the hotel and arcade so parking on the street and taking a walk may be best.

Came here on a Saturday night and it was not packed. I guess I should have known when I called and…read moreasked whether I need to make a reservation, they said to just walk right in. I use to really like this place but after today, I won't be back. The buffet use to have high quality and fresh food but that was about 10 years ago. Nowadays, it's overly priced and the quality and variety just doesn't match up. No lobster, no higher end meats, etc. The steak that they do offer, was very tough to chew. For a place that charges so much, only offers mediocre food at best. You walk out there feeling ripped off. The service was attentive and very thorough though. No complaints there. If you're thinking about coming here for dinner, make sure to skip this place.

Pretty solid place. Weekday lunch is $30, and weekend lunch is $40 per person. I like that buffet…read moreincludes cooked foods, hot pot and soft drinks. Hot pot ingredients available are quite extensive, similar to other purely hot pot places I've been to so it's solid variety for $40. They also of course have a sauce station. Cooked foods includes lots of lobster - fried, steamed, lobster fried rice, etc. Pretty cool. I liked that the steamed lobster was just steamed with no salt or anything, so I was able to give some to my very young kiddo. Service was alright. They were kind and took away our used plates quickly, but they didn't refill our hot pot quick enough and the pot started burning and it smelled very very burnt for a few minutes. We were worried the fire alarm would go off tbh. Something very similar happened a couple tables over. For dinner service, they offer the mini tubs of Haagen Dazs ice cream. For lunch, they only offer regular scooped ice cream, but the chocolate ice cream they gave us was delicious. Place was spacious with lots of seating, they have several private rooms as well ranging from 10-20 people. The bathroom was in very poor condition though, like leaking toilets, broken doors, etc. Bathroom definitely needs an upgrade or just fixing.

Man, talk about AYCE seafood! It felt like walking through a Chinese supermarket with all the…read moreoptions you could pick from, including live lobsters, crabs, conch, oysters, snails, etc. They also have cooked seafood, but you definitely had to be quick. Those trays of freshly cooked cheese lobsters were gone in minutes! There was also peking duck, sushi, grilled fish, dessert, so a bunch of options for everyone. Service was pretty good, they came frequently to clean our plates and bring fresh ones. For 4 people, it came out to around $300 after tip on a Friday night. I know weekend pricing is a bit more. Definitely a place to check out if you're a big seafood fan!

This is a hidden gem on the third floor. Even the escalators to the third floor a somewhat…read moreobscured. We opt'd for the $70pp AYCE buffet. Loved the lobsters and crab. The duck was also very good. My wife liked the oysters. The fish filets suffered a bit from heat lamp dryness. Service is excellent. The dining rooms is not overcrowded and is clean. I will certainly return!

The restaurant is a bit confusing to find as it is two restaurants on one floor so look for thr…read morerestaurant sign. Went with a group of friends over the weekend. We opted for the seafood hotpot. There is a variety of seafood such as crab, lobster, shrimp, clams, oysters, sushi, etc. You can cook it in your hotpot or have them cook for you as well. There are different sauces that go along with each seafood. The raw oysters were my favorite as it's easy to eat. The lobster baked with cheese was my favorite because it was cooked so well. There are also a variety of meats - beef, pork, lamb, chicken that you can cook. Soft drinks are included as well. It wasn't too crowded when we were there and servers were very attentive. Recommend for groups or if your celebrating an event or get together.

Fun late-night bbq spot that's actually good and has premium Wagyu meats. Their yakult beef short…read morerib was actually really good, i ordered second. Love how there's also sashimi. Love the vibe inside. Super fun and the staff members were very kind and helpful.

Came here with my boys and we had a good time. It's a safe space to be a big back but I've had some…read morebetter experiences in queens. Overall pretty good and worth a try. We got the all you can eat deal with the wagyu which came out to around $80. Definitely work it! We got this cool wagyu tower that came with an assortment of meats and then we did way too many à la cart orders to count but the food was pretty good. Next time I would order way more ribs. Ambiance was pretty dope. Good setting to talk and catch up but the drinks were ehh. Service was also kind of blah. Our waiters took a little while and it felt like I had to chase them down.

went for timmy's 26th bday!! we got a vip room with karaoke and it was funnnn…read more beers are $1 and meats and sashimi are super fresh. i liked it $70/pp

Came here and tried again with my mom the family. The quality of seafood seems to have declined…read morewhile the pricing have remained the same or increased since my last visit. Would definitely look to other ayce seafood options in the future..

Food was really good! Service was fast and ambience was very calm. Definitely a spot to go and have…read morea catch up session with your friends!

Very friendly staff affordable menu definitely should try, I love their miso soup, it's spacious…read morewith chargers incase you need to charge your phone while you eat great restaurant over all!

Going here as a non Asian who's unable to read the menus original text makes it really difficult to…read moreunderstand what your ordering. The menu should be revised so customers who can't read Japanese know exactly what they're ordering. For the 180 dollars I spent this was an extremely disappointing experience. A majority of the food received did not look like the photos on the menu. The meat was low quality and seemed cheap. The portions were tiny and you have to keep ordering multiple of the same things. Unlike Korean bbq or Chinese bbq when you're ordering the portions given are just sample size. 3 to 4 small cut portions of meat. The chicken wings served look nothing like the photos and are honestly really bad. When checking out my bill had an extra drink on it that I never ordered and it took 15 mins to be corrected. It felt like they thought I was lying and needed to review video or something because I had 3 other waiters come talk to me while I waited for a resolution. The best part of the experience was the marshmallows we got at the end and the free fruit provided but I wouldn't recommend this spot to anyone nor would I want to come back in the future If these are the standards the restaurant goes by

Finally gave it a try after walking past many times. Not a bad price for all-you-can-eat. However,…read morethe beef and fish were not the best quality, and the portions are quite small--you need to order multiple portions of the same item for a group of four. We ordered the chicken wings for the kids, and they were pink both times. They offered to remake them, but we just gave up. The meat quality is worse than any good Korean barbecue I've had. Would not return.

Came here with two friends for an early dinner (4pm) on a Tuesday. We accidentally made a…read morereservation on Resy for the following day thinking it was for the day we went, and the hostess helped us get sorted. We were seated promptly, since there was no one else waiting to be seated, and the wait staff was quick to arrive and get our items into the sacks (to keep our stuff from smelling like hot pot all day), and helped us place our order. We got two broths-- mushroom and spicy (mild heat). Y'all, the mild was too hot for us and we were scooping out the peppers out of the broth to make it manageable. The wait staff noticed we were suffering and said the trick to eating spicy hot pot is to dip it in oil, and even brought us some. IT WORKS. Anyway, 10/10. Great tasting food, helpful and caring staff, and overall, a very fun decor/vibe.

Chong Qing Lao Zao is a never-to-be-forgotten absolutely amazing hot pot restaurant…read more I will offer my own extensive comments at the end ... But the Eater review of Chong Qing Lao Zao absolutely nails it. * * * Eater sez: Fans start lining up well before the wooden doors swing open at noon, eventually to walk through corridors that lead them to a bi-level dining area that evokes an old Chinese village, complete with a water wheel, koi, and a faux fire at the foot of each table. One private section is elevated on stilts. Chongqing Lao Zao stands out from the high concentration of nearby hot pot spots -- Hai Di Lao, Liuyishou, 99 Favor Taste. * * * Samuel C sez: a) Like many hot pot restaurants, there are lots of exotic ingredients including all parts of many animals. I did lots of those included thousand layer tripe and beef liver coated in egg. At this restaurant, simple is actually better than exotic. The most famous boiling oil (there are nine to choose from) is a scorchingly hot Chongqing drowning in hot peppers concoction. The oil is hot as blazes in both senses of the word. The simpler the ingredient we put in the oil, the better the results were. Plain old Chinese Cabbage was to die for. Plain old ramen noodles and plain old fish cake became superstars in the hot oil. Thousand layer tripe, not so much. b) Shiitakes are not such a plain ingredient. They become ultimate gourmet delights in the hot oil. c) All the tables around us were ordering some form of Wagyu beef roll. Or rather all the Chinese tables were ordering Wagyu beef rolls. The Anglos were more random. I suspect the Chinese customers were on to something. d) It is tempting to order tons and tons and tons of ingredients for your hotpot because they look so damm good. In practice, three hot pot dipping items per person plus a side dish for the table will leave you waddling out of the restaurant barely able to walk. If that means you just have to come here multiple times to get all the good stuff, Well ... multiple times is not such a dumb idea. e) You definitely want at least one side dish. We ordered a Fried Sesame Bread with Chinese green onions inside. That was the best thing on the table ... On a day when there were a zillion amazing things on the table. The Chinese tables often ordered a fried rice with spicy organs inside. I strongly suspect that fried rice is well worth doing as well. f) They make their own rice wine which is sweet and very milky. They sell it by the jar. You want a whole jar of it. If your table has sake lovers in multiple, you will want several jars of it. g) The room decoration is magical between the sturdy oaken village-gate door, to the waterwheel inside to the stairs and levels and platforms which make you feel like you are in a mountain village. The room would have made this a destination experience even if the food had been mediocre. That the raw ingredients, the prepared dishes, the wine and the boiling oil were amazing sends Chong Qing Lao Zao over the top. * * * Does Yelp offer an eight star rating? If it starts one, Chong Qing Lao Zao would be first in line to get the eight star rating. Even with all the amazing restaurants in Flushing's Chinatown, This is one experience you do not want to miss.