[deangold]

Bob's Shabu Shabu. In addition to great Mongolian Lamb Hotpot, we had cuke salad and spicy dumplings that were both great. The menu is different, expanded a little with a few price increases.

[Bob Loblaw]

DanielK, on Apr 18 2008, 11:35 PM, said:

We did the "family meal" this evening. That's 8 courses for 4 people for $70.

Is this offered every night? And do they also do this at Bob's Noodle?

[Sthitch]

I just figured that I would link to the Bob's 88 website. By the way, the menus get my vote for the worst I have ever seen on any website, they are just really bad scans of the actual menu.

[Bob Loblaw]

Sthitch, on May 7 2008, 12:55 PM, said:

I just figured that I would link to the Bob's 88 website. By the way, the menus get my vote for the worst I have ever seen on any website, they are just really bad scans of the actual menu.

Thanks. I remember looking for their site a while back, but had trouble finding it. I still don't see anything about the family meal. And yeah, the menu scans are terrible...

[DanielK]

Bob Loblaw, on May 7 2008, 12:13 PM, said:

Is this offered every night?

Yes, but you have to ask for the "family menu", and they only have 1 or 2 copies translated to English. It is NOT on the website.

Quote

And do they also do this at Bob's Noodle?

Not to my knowledge.

[synaesthesia]

Bob Loblaw, on May 7 2008, 12:13 PM, said:

Is this offered every night? And do they also do this at Bob's Noodle?

Yes they have a set menu. Not quite the variety of choices they had at Shabu Shabu the last time I went. Because I think Shabu you can pick from a group of three items per course. At Noodle they just say this is what it is and that's it. I don't remember there being an English translation of the one at Bob's Noodle.

[Bob Loblaw]

Thanks for the responses. I think my sister and I are gonna take the family here for a pre-Mother's Day dinner on Saturday. Can't wait to have the Lion's Head meatballs again...

[bookluvingbabe]

Mr. BLB and I went for lunch last week and the food was very good but the service was desultory. I quite enjoyed the lion's head meatballs, the scallion pancakes were tasty and I ate much of Mr. BLB's garlic chicken while I was waiting for long stretches of time for my food to come out. (I liked it, he didn't think it was all that...) (Note that the slow food coming out was not a service issue--asking for water several times, having to ask twice to have our order taken, and not being to get the check...those are service issues. Slow food doesn't bother me much--I just assume what I ordered took time to cook...)

[deangold]

Given our usual time of dining together (after 11pm being most common), Kay & I have a limited array of choices when we are unwilling to go to Annandale etc for the hordes of late night Korean options available. So Bob's is one of our three most frequent stops. But we have fallen into a rut where the wait staff joked with us as they repeat our regular order to us before we can say anything. If we vary, we get "What, no Lion's Head (or "no cucumber salad?")?

Last night we really threw them a curve by ordering 4 dishes we had never had before. A different server brought us each dish and each said something about our choices! Each dish was better than the dish preceding! We started with a plate of Taiwanese cabbage and a Taiwanese Lamb. The cabbage was just cabbage, dried shrimp and some seasonings in white sauce. We added a little chili paste from the Shabu Shabu condiment bar and it was heavenly. The Taiwanese lamb was thin slices of lamb stir fried with Chinese watercress. It was very earthy and quite good. Then they brought out a Taiwanese Hamburg (sic) which Kay has never had before. it was better than the version I ave had at Bob's 66! The crunch from the crushed peanuts & sugar was amazing. The last dish was a cold noodle (88 Noodle) with a sesame paste soy & brown sugar sauce laced with chicken, lily bud, green onions, crushed garlic, ginger and more. A little hot chili oil and it was the perfect end to our meal.

A large sake, a 25% tip and change back from our $50 bill. Plus lunch AND dinner for Kay in leftovers!

[DPop]

The Mongolian Hot Pot that they are currently runninng on special is delicious. Spicy, fatty pieces of beef in a broth that becomes incredible after about 15 minutes of cooking. The Flat Noodles with Shrimp were as good as anything I have had outside of Joe's and a nice change from the beef. This and a couple beers for under $40 is a steal.

[deangold]

DPop, on Jun 8 2008, 10:10 PM, said:

The Mongolian Hot Pot that they are currently runninng on special is delicious. Spicy, fatty pieces of beef in a broth that becomes incredible after about 15 minutes of cooking. The Flat Noodles with Shrimp were as good as anything I have had outside of Joe's and a nice change from the beef. This and a couple beers for under $40 is a steal.

Try it with the lamb as well. If you order the broth hot, you get really hot!!! I will try the shrimp with flat noodles soon!

[synaesthesia]

The xiao long bao here are pretty good, especially given that the meat encased in them is pretty delicious by itself, and the skins are very tender. We had a mixed steamer of some with plentiful soup, and some not so much. I wish we would have been given the wide body soup spoons to eat them with so that we could get the ginger and dipping sauce, as well as the soup all in one easy place instead of either extreme burning hotness in ingesting the whole thing together or all the broth going and coating my bowl instead.

Salt and pepper shrimp were delicious, but seemed a little on the small side compared to usual and I would have liked a little bit more coating. The sha cha beef noodles were good though perhaps a tad bit gloppy.

[Marty L.]

On another thread, Dean wrote that Bob "is apparently no longer affiliated with Bob's" 88. Any word on whether that's true? If so, is he still affiliated with Bob's 66? Anyone eaten at these places since (if) Bob left?

[Scott Johnston]

Bob is in Taiwan right now. From my understanding Shabu Shabu is turning into a Korean restaurant. I am not sure about 66. When I called I got a few messages in broken English. I have not actually gone to either location. maybe someone can stop by and find out.

[DanielK]

Bob's 88 is gone.



It's now a Korean-run sushi place, advertising a sushi buffet at lunch.

I drove by this morning before they were open, so I couldn't stop in. I went by 66 as well, but the Bob's Noodle signs are still up there, the place still looks occupied, and the Bob's 66 menu was still up on the glass. So the jury is still out on that one.

[ol_ironstomach]

DanielK, on Nov 22 2008, 11:39 AM, said:

Bob's 88 is gone.



It's now a Korean-run sushi place, advertising a sushi buffet at lunch.

Yikes?! I was there on Tuesday for shabu-shabu and while Bob had indeed sold it to Korean owners a while back, the staff then were still Chinese, as was the menu. The only change we noticed was that they were using Korean-style tofu.

But that was Tuesday. If the shabu-shabu is indeed history, my mom's going to be disappointed.

[DanielK]

ol_ironstomach, on Nov 23 2008, 02:36 AM, said:

Yikes?! I was there on Tuesday for shabu-shabu and while Bob had indeed sold it to Korean owners a while back, the staff then were still Chinese, as was the menu. The only change we noticed was that they were using Korean-style tofu.

But that was Tuesday. If the shabu-shabu is indeed history, my mom's going to be disappointed.

I don't know that shabu shabu is off the menu, but the paper signage on the windows facing outside is all about the sushi buffet.

[deangold]

Not feeling up for a drive to Honeypig (well actually the drive home from Honey Pig) we called the "new" Bobs to see if they are open and they were. But now they are just open till Midnight on Friday and Saturday. The voice on the phone sounded like the ame manager as before but when we got there there were only two waitresses both of whom seemed new. The chef in the kitchen seemed to be a familiar face.

As we left the one waitress left, leaving only one waitress to handle the then 2 tables. We ordered Mongolian Hot Pot, Lion's Head and Cucumber Salad. The lion's head was, if anything, even better than before. More meaty and less fatty but in a good way! The broth was deeper and richer. The cucumber salad was also very good, but different then before. It too had more richness and was a little hotter. Both dishes were at least as good as they were under Bob and the Lion's Head was different but to us it was far better!

The Mongolian Hot pot came with much more lamb, but the veggie platter was the same one you get with the shabu which didn't work for me. In the past the veggies with the Mongolian has a green that looked like sawtooth herb from pho but longer and wider. It really added the final flavor to the hot pot. Also the platter was about 1/3 tofu skin. The platter we had last night did little to flavor the intensely spicy broth and was little influenced in return. All in all a miss, but I would try it again to see if the veggie platter change was permanent or just a flaw because of the lack of staff. There was only one server handling a late slam.

The long portion at the street side of the restaurant was closed off so we could not see what changes they had made but the little dining room past the door is spruced up a little and the fish tanks are moved off to the side and more tables are in the room.

We will be back to try more of the menu as the cooking standards seem to be, if anything, higher than before! Also, for those who were at the infamous Presidents Day lunch, the liver seems to be on the menu.

[deangold]

In need of soup, we headed back and tried the original shabu shabu. Still as good as ever. Theshaved ice was a trial to order (it took two waitresses to tell us that they didnt ahve any of our choices and that all we could ahve was mixed fruit which included at least two of oour original choices. Despite thelanguage barrier, the meal was great but a little more than of old.

[DanielK]

deangold, on Dec 24 2008, 11:01 PM, said:

In need of soup, we headed back and tried the original shabu shabu. Still as good as ever. Theshaved ice was a trial to order (it took two waitresses to tell us that they didnt ahve any of our choices and that all we could ahve was mixed fruit which included at least two of oour original choices. Despite thelanguage barrier, the meal was great but a little more than of old.

Last night, the staff confirmed for us that the entire kitchen and most of the waitstaff stayed on through the ownership change.

We also had a great meal last night - the "family meal" for 6. For $100, you get 4 appetizers, soup, 2 meat entrees, a seafood entree, a whole fish, a noodle or dumpling dish, a vegetable, and a dessert. We started with a plate of Seaweed w/peanuts, spicy beef stomach, bean curd w/gluten, and drunken chicken. The stomach was fabulous - super tender, but could have been spicier. Next followed Bamboo shoot and bean curd soup; my daughter always has two bowls of this. For main dishes we had the Lion's Head Meatballs (Dean is right - the broth is better than ever), Short ribs w/black bean (nicely peppery, though I thought the ribs were overcooked), shrimp w/asparagus (nothing special, though the asparagus were very fresh), eggplant w/fish sauce, and a Steamed Tilapia w/garlic & ginger. The "juicy buns", xiao long bao, were excellent as usual. And somehow, everyone had room for shaved ice w/fruit!

They are definitely up to their old standards. Still in the rotation!

[happyguy]

I swear to god that sometimes I want to venture into these places and try it...Dean's stories and comments sound very tasty at times...then other times I am scared to death of triple fried monkey anus in a fat back broth of frog balls sounding dishes

[Escoffier]

happyguy, on Dec 25 2008, 11:13 PM, said:

I swear to god that sometimes I want to venture into these places and try it...Dean's stories and comments sound very tasty at times...then other times I am scared to death of triple fried monkey anus in a fat back broth of frog balls sounding dishes

Oh just go for it, Chris, you might discover you really like that "triple fried monkey anus..."

[synaesthesia]

Lion's Head Meatballs - YUM! Sooo good....
Salt Pepper Pork Rib - tasty, but the meat was virtually non-existent on the majority of the pieces I got
Shacha beef noodle - kind of a grease bucket, but almost to be expected with shacha
Shaved ice - I like that they now load up on the syrups so you're not left with a pile of unflavored ice at the end - no tapioca =( but mangoes! and lychee

I can get by with some of the servers on my pidgin Mandarin, but some of the folks seem to speak fairly limited English and no Mandarin either. Though they are certainly nice enough.

[synaesthesia]

Dean mentioned this in another thread. This place seems to be closed for now. Sanitary and building safety violations. Happened 1/27. Didn't see any progress inside...

[DanielK]

I haven't seen it open since Jamie's report. I think this one is gone.

[DPop]

If the doors are truly closed for good, this is really sad news. Where to go now when I need my shabu shabu fix??

[deangold]

DanielK, on Apr 3 2009, 12:55 PM, said:

I haven't seen it open since Jamie's report. I think this one is gone.

Last time I was by it looked like the neon was taken down. Not sure if it was or if I just have bad eyesight!

[Ericandblueboy]

DPop, on Apr 3 2009, 01:33 PM, said:

If the doors are truly closed for good, this is really sad news. Where to go now when I need my shabu shabu fix??

Paya Thai has hot/fire pots. I have no idea if it's any good. I never went to Bob's so I don't know if it was any good. Hot pots are what we serve in the winter when there are lots of guests yet no one wants to cook - so make the guests cook for themselves

[DonRocks]

Ericandblueboy, on Apr 3 2009, 01:57 PM, said:

Paya Thai has hot/fire pots. I have no idea if it's any good.

It is.

[Escoffier]

DPop, on Apr 3 2009, 01:33 PM, said:

If the doors are truly closed for good, this is really sad news. Where to go now when I need my shabu shabu fix??

I don't know about you, but I just ask Grover to get the ingredients and we have it at home...