Kaizen Shabu - Santa Ana

Amazing experience and food in every way! We just came in from Dallas, never had Shabu Shabu. And we had the most AMAZING experience!! Food was INCREDIBLE! The owner and his whole team had the most amazing service I’ve experienced in a long time! Can’t recommend enough!Food: 5/5

Brought the family to Kaizen last night for my mother's birthday. The food and service were flawless. You may be paying a bit more than other Shabu spots, but the quality is far superior. We ordered the prime rib eye with the beef bone broth and tom yum. Both were fantastic. And for those of you who prefer a lemongrass spicy kick to your broth, the tom yum was obscenely good! The staff was awesome also! I'm excited to have finally found a spot that makes me feel like I have the quality Shabu I used to get in Tokyo!

Our favorite must stop spot when we visit LA. Meat is high quantity. Appetizers are very enjoyable.Food: 5 5

The food here is always amazing! staff is always very friendly and on top of things multiple check ins to ask about refills anything we need. the place is small so counter space is limited but they have outside seating available.

2nd visit here. My first visit was great. I had other friends who routinely go here as well that speak highly of this place. So I suggested this location for a birthday dinner as the birthday girl was craving for Shabu. Reservations made on Yelp was super easy same day. We all ordered different things. I got the Santa Ana Szechuan which was great if you love spicy. Spicy miso and Sukiyaki were a hit. Unfortunately, coconut curry was not. It tasted a little bit too sweet. They have hot drops which was really bomb. Goma was good. Ponzu was just alright. Fried shrimp was good. I asked if they could do spicy garlic edamame. But it wasn't spicy. Reason for minus two stars was the service. The owner did introduce himself with a nice greeting. Unfortunately, we were not happy with the service. We consistently had to request for refills of water, although I left 3 cups on the side of the table showing it being empty hoping they would get to it. But did not. No one asked if we were doing okay. Checked on us to see if we needed anything. I asked for hot drops our waiter gave myself and my friend sitting beside me hot drops. But did not ask the other two in the party if they wanted it. We had to request for hot drops again. However, I did see other tables receiving better service than us. I advised the waiter we have a birthday and requested if they can put a candle on the ice cream. In which they did. We had kids with us so we ordered an extra ice cream. I would've assume a birthday ice cream would've been free at least but it wasn't. Not a big deal. We added churros but did not receive churros. Instead we received wafers in the ice cream. Moving forward with the bill. We received the bill everything was correct. Hand them a card. Waiter stated they charge 20% gratuity for a group of 6 or more. Our party had 4 adults and 2 kids. One of the kids being a two year old. I felt that was unnecessary. Very understandable if it was all adults though. But my friend already had her card swiped and she said just to leave it. Experience today makes me not want to come back. But the food is good. PS pay your parking meters! We received a ticket. We forgot to check on it we only put an hour and a half but ended up staying 2 hours. Just know it is strict.