Shabu, Steins for coffee-chess, Momentum climbing

Date night in Park City started at Shabu on Main Street for sushi, glasses of delicious vino and some green tea to finish off. We were put into a cute and cozy back corner booth built to fit 2 people no bigger than ourselves. 

Downstairs at Shabu, the basement vibe is edgy industrial chic with cozy dim booths, welded metal art installed into stone walls. Cool light fixtures.

Blister Beans, $10.  Done just right here. We inhaled these addicting nutty green beans. Always gotta order these.

Hamachi Nigiri, $9.  Great start. Smooth, buttery, firm, fab.

Tempura Shrimp Roll, $12.  Can't ever go wrong with basic classic tempura shrimp.

Egg Foo Yong, $8.  Crispy and delicious most of the time, but some bites were just too mushy. 

Maguro Nigiri, $9.  Delicious, buttery and smooth.

Ocean Trout Nigiri, $9.  Delicious, silky tender, but a tad stringy at the ends.

Another Hamachi Nigiri, $9.  Fish was deliciously cut, but why the sloppy scallions?

Salmon Skin Roll, $9.  I've had good salmon skin here before, but this time it was too hard, thick and crusty.

Spider Roll.  Fat, crisp, delicious crab...

Miso Ramen with Beef.  This would have been extraordinary if the broth was anything other than miso. Chicken, pork, vegetable...anything! Enoki shrooms were a fat bundle oozing tremendous flavor along with the sweet scallion. The meat was amazing, plenty, seared, rich and tender. Noodles were okay. Any golden brownish broth would've killed it, anything but white miso.

Mochi Ice-cream.  Who does not LOVE mochi ice-cream?! Brain-freeze cold, sweet, chewy, powdery...heavenly.

After sushi, we decided to ditch the movie (can't remember which one) and relocate to the elegant lobby of Steins for apres dinner coffee, chess battles and deep conversation. What a glorious night chillin' in the lobby at one of Stein's mountain rustic game tables next to their main restaurant the Glitretind which is pretty fabulous, particularly the brunch buffets during ski season. Tonight, we keep it simple to stay alert for our battles with cappuccino and house coffee.

Earlier that day Brett Davidson took us on a belaying trip to Momentum Climbing in Sandy, Utah for some fantastic top rope climbing action. Momentum is an awesome and enormous indoor climbing gym designed for pros, but equipped for newbies and youngins. Take I-15 and exit 10600 South and look for Momentum located right next door to REI in a shopping mall, off the highway.

xoxo

Shabu Freestyle Asian Cuisine in Park City - dinner

We went for impromptu girlie bites at the newly relocated Shabu, just a few doors up from the post office, right across the street from Harry O's on Main Street. This time it's downstairs, not upstairs! We all agreed that the new Shabu was a major improvement in decor and vibe—industrial welded art popping in and out of walls, cozy booths, and anything underground is just cool. Since Kitty was with us, we asked the chef to go gluten-free on whatever he could. 

Cucumber, hamachi, avocado, jalapeno, shiso.  Delicious, but dangerous and a little tricky to eat, so just be extra careful waving that sharp-end stick around.

Blistered Green Beans, gluten-free.  Way lighter than the normal preparation with all the gluten. I almost forgot how flavorful natural green beans were. A favorite.

Wagyu Beef Hot Rock, australian raised wagyu beef strip loin, ponzu dipping sauce.  We love interactive eating, especially if it involves searing our own wagyu on a sizzling hot rock—way cool! We resorted to getting this instead of the namesake "shabu-shabu," only because the fondue set-up would not fit. Next time we'll get a bigger table. 

Miso Glazed Black Cod, asian noodle egg foo young, wok vegetables.  Ruth ordered this as-is, the way the chef intended, gluten and all. Miso cod is a classic favorite that's really hard to mess up. The foo young is like fat veggie latke, dense frittata, crazy packed omelette. I kept picking at Ruth's plate—delicious!

Skewered Thai Beef Salad, marinated beef, coriander greens, mint, mung bean sprouts, caramalized shallots, red pepper strips, chili-lime dressing.  I think I was so enamored with cooking the meat on that rock I didn't even notice eating this.

Black Cod, gluten-free.  Turns out, gluten-free anything calls for a super-light nonsaucy dish. Natural flavors of the veggies are brilliant! We decided that we ought to go gluten-free more often ;)

Deep fried strawberry ice-cream.  

Shabu—Freestyle Asian Cuisine

(435) 645-7253

Located a couple doors up from the post office, downstairs.

442 Main Street

Park City, UT 84060

Open Tue-Sun 5pm-10pm

Official Website for Shabu