Thanis Lim

All Rounder Chef and Food Journalist

Brunei Restaurant Review: FunShabu-Shi Restaurant

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My initial impression of FunShabu-Shi restaurant wasn’t very good. For starters, there’s quite a lot of shabu shabu restaurants in Brunei and my impression was that it’s a hybrid or two in one restaurant – having shabu shabu and mediocre sushi. I also did not hear good reviews about this place. For these reasons – I had not tried out FunShabu-Shi since it’s opening in Dec 2012. My poor impression has changed ever since I had the pleasure to dine here.

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When I entered the restaurant, I was surprised by it’s comfortable and spacious design. When I saw the menu, I was impressed by how professional it looked and the beautiful foodporn in the menu were taken by none other than famous Brunei Photog Jan Shim.

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They also have private function rooms to cater to family functions or gatherings.

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The menu photos showed a wide selection of both shabu shabu and proper Japanese food. It was a very good surprise for me. After half a year of operations, their kitchen staff and chefs have fine tuned their food. Without hesitating – I ordered their Sashimis – the first test of a good Japanese restaurant.

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I’m very happy to see that they have both Hamachi and Shiro Maguro (White Tuna) – two of my all time favourite sashimis – the good news is – fresh and delicious! Thumbs up~~

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Not satisfied with one ~ I ordered another round of sashimis – oh yes ~~ I simply love good quality raw fish slices

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Check out the marbling of these slices of SALMON BELLY!! h0maigawd! Nom nom nom nom ~~

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Hamachi Sashimi – my all time favourite sashimi!

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Shiro Maguro (White Tuna) – Another favourite that’s not common in other Japanese restaurants – this is delicious but eat in moderation.

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Sashimi Carpaccio – various slices of sashimi in a sesame soy sauce with mayo and crispy fried onions. Yum!

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Chu Toro – Oh My Tuna Belly!!

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Next on my list were the sushi ~~ this is a delicious flamed cheese and prawn sushi, toped with prawn roe ~~

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Tama Unagi – Japanese style sliced egg omelet with sliced teriyaki eel ~~ Did I mention their quality of eel’s very good!? Famous Brunei Blogger Nonnie King’s favourite!

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One of my favourite things to eat in Japanese restaurants are these sliced Japanese Egg Omelet (Tamagoyaki)

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Agedashi Tofu ~~ one of my must order dishes too ~

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Keep calm and eat more sushi!!!

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Their Volcano Roll – I loved the sliced fried ginger (or onions) on top of the Maki Sushi.

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Spider Roll – Soft Shell Crab Maki Sushi ~~ Slurps ~~

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I must highlight that their sizzling salmon teriyaki is the bomb! Must try for salmon lovers.

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Deep fried Crispy Prawns

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Various Tempura Prawns and vegetables

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They also have Japanese style Satay – such as this beef roll wrapped okra satay

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Grilled Teriyaki Chicken

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This satay has a good kick to it with Japanese pepper flakes ~

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FunShabu-Shi has plenty of rice dishes and noodle dishes – which are traditional Japanese – but it’s very interesting to see Japanese influenced Pasta dishes such as this Sesame Sauce Pasta with breaded shrimps. I personally love the slightly sweet nuttiness of the sauce and kids will enjoy this!

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Last but not least is this Unagi Teriyaki Pasta served with a hotspring egg – with thinly sliced onions

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Oh would you look at that EGGPORN! The egg yolks go extremely well with the eel, onions and pasta. Try it and fall in love with it! Double Thumbs up! If there was a Facebook LIKE icon for this – I would definitely click on it!

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One of the key advantages of FunShabu-Shi is that they have a chain of bakeries under the FUN restaurants group in Brunei. Their Japanese style Cheesecake are specially made from their very own bakeries.

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Loving the glittery sparkling shine from the edible sparkles on top of this Green Tea Japanese Cheesecake.

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The drinks are pretty good as well and as someone who likes green tea – I am happy to taste that they used good quality green tea powder for this Green Tea Latte.

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You probably tried Coke Float or Root Beer Float but have you ever tried Green Tea Float? Oh my ~ keep them coming!

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Their Iced Chocolate Mint is pretty good too! Good quality drinks with Japanese Food? What a combo!

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Now FunShabu-Shi’s review would not be complete without a review of it’s Shabu Shabu. You have opened your eyes to their great range of quality Japanese food – now it’s time to check out their Shabu Shabu. They have both Ala-Carte and All you can eat Buffets as well.

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They offer quite a variety of sauces but what makes them different is the Japanese influence in their sauces – such as their Teriyaki and other home made sauces.

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Home made chili sambal – I like this ~

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A big plus for their Shabu Shabu is their hand made items such as Gyoza, beef rolls, lobster balls, Siew Mai like dumplings and Yong Tau Fu – they have the advantage of expert Dim Sum chefs from Fun Wok – a fellow restaurant of the FUN restaurant group. These are freshly made daily by their Dim Sum chefs – not like the typical frozen items you see in other shabu shabu establishments.

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Yu Wat or some called Fish paste noodles – they have the chili version of this as well!

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My preferred soup base is their Japanese Home Made Soup – which is a bit like a dashi broth (bonito and konbu). It’s very cool to eat Yong Tau Fu style Yu Wat with a Japanese Soup.

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Yong Tau Fu cooked in Dashi broth – yummy combination from Japanese and Chinese food.

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My Kimchi Soup cooking more home made goodness!

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Dim Sum Quality Shabu Shabu? You betcha!

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Gotta eat your veggies! They help enhance your Shabu Shabu experience by making the soup taste better!

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The more common frozen favourites are available here as well!

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They have premium quality lamb and Wagyu beef slices and various seafood items too

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Now – if you’re really hungry – you can go for their all you can eat FunShabu-Shi buffet which you can pick from their moving belt. It basically includes the shabu shabu items previously shown – plus some sushi items. All items on the moving belt are up for grabs in the buffet. Just grab whatever you like to cook with your shabu shabu or some yummy sushi. Do know that there will be extra charge for wastage or if you cannot finish your food!

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These are some of the available sushi items you will find as part of their moving belt buffet.

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The buffet is also inclusive of these drinks and ice cream.

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As you can see – the ice creams are pretty popular ~

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Unlimited Green Tea ice cream?! ATTACK!!!

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Overall – I feel FunShabu-Shi offers a great selection of quality Japanese food and Shabu Shabu. I was also impressed with their selection of drinks and will definitely try more of the others in future. Be sure to pay them a visit – you won’t be disappointed. I even joined their Fun Restaurant’s Group Membership for discounts from all their outlets! More information on that later!

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To get to FunShabu-Shi – Go to Gadong Central – where you can find places like Mr Baker’s Bakeshop, Lau Di Fang Restaurant and KFC. FunShabu-Shi is just right on top of SUPER SAVE as you can see from this picture. For reservations – call 2339999

Now – Do you want to know how you can get a 30% dining membership discount in not only FunShabu-Shi but also Fun Wok (Chinese), Fun Han Shao (Korean), plus special discounts for Fun Bread Cakes and Fun Donut?

It’s a pretty good deal. You get $500 worth of food vouchers and special discounts for only $288 (discounted from 328) - plus a host of group dining discount vouchers and membership discount benefits- for any of their participating outlets - Chinese, Korean, Japanese Sushi and Shabu Shabu as well as cakes.

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These are the vouchers you get when you join their annual membership for $288 (discounted from $328 at the moment) – you get vouchers that are worth up to $500. I personally can’t wait to use the 50% Group dining (limited number of persons) vouchers – I can bring my family or friends over to FunShabushi and get 50% off my sashimi! For example – my favourite Hamachi Sashimi is 13.80 per order – using this discount for group dining – it’s only $6.90! So worth it okay!!

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Besides the vouchers – the membership also entitles you to special discounts. For example, if you and another friend dine in – you will get 30% off your bill. If there are 3 of you – then you will get 23% off your bill, while 4 and above entitles you to 15% off.

This card is very useful for dates – since two person dining entitles you to 30% discount on three outlets – Korean, Chinese and Japanese cuisine. I must say this is a great bargain and will save you a lot of money in a long run if you love dining out in these establishments.

For example, let’s say you have Japanese or Korean food with your romantic love or friend at least once a month, and you usually spend an average of $50. Using the card, a 30% discount would be $15 discount. In one year – you would had saved $180!

Considering the fact that you get $500 value worth of vouchers – if you add in the extra savings through discounts for their annual membership – for only $288 – you’re likely to get a value of between $680 to $800 depending on how often you use your card! That’s the reason I decided to sign up! SUPER WORTH IT!!

If you need any more reason to join this membership – stay tuned for my update on their Korean restaurant Fun Han Shao – quality Korean style BBQ with quality ingredients!

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