Japanese Hot Pot Guide: Nabe, Shabu-Shabu and Sukiyaki Menu Words

Nabe (鍋) is hot pot cooked at your table. Shabu-shabu is thin meat swished in plain broth and dipped in sauce, sukiyaki is beef simmered in sweet soy sauce and dipped in raw egg, and most other names on the menu simply tell you what goes into the pot.

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Japanese Hot Pot Guide: Nabe, Shabu-Shabu and Sukiyaki Menu Words

The word nabe means both the pot and the meal cooked in it, and a nabe menu is mostly a list of pot names: shabu-shabu, sukiyaki, yosenabe, motsunabe, chankonabe. Once you can tell those apart, the rest of the evening follows a fixed rhythm. You choose a broth, staff light the burner, someone skims the foam, everyone eats from the shared pot, and the meal ends with shime, rice or noodles cooked in what is left. This guide gives you the menu words in that order, the questions staff ask, and the short table phrases that make sharing a pot with Japanese speakers easy.

Shabu-shabu is swished and dipped in ponzu or gomadare; sukiyaki is simmered in warishita and dipped in raw egg.

Yosenabe, motsunabe and chankonabe are named for what goes into the pot or who made it famous.

Shime (〆) is the last course: rice or noodles cooked in the remaining broth.

Mō taberaremasu ka, can we eat this yet, is the most useful sentence at any hot pot table.

The pot names on the menu, decoded

Nabe (鍋) is the pot and, by extension, the dish. The full words are nabe ryōri (鍋料理) or nabemono (鍋物), but menus just attach nabe to a name. Two famous pots break that pattern and have names of their own: shabu-shabu and sukiyaki.

Four picture cards: shabu-shabu with a slice of meat, sukiyaki with an egg, a mixed yosenabe pot, and a bowl of rice porridge to finish.
Two famous pots, one mixed pot, and the finish: a hot pot meal ends with rice or noodles.
JapaneseRomajiMeaning
しゃぶしゃぶShabu-shabuMeat swished in broth
すき焼きSukiyakiSweet soy beef, egg dip
寄せ鍋YosenabeMixed hot pot
〆の雑炊Shime no zōsuiRice porridge to finish
もつ鍋MotsunabeOffal hot pot with cabbage and garlic chives
ちゃんこ鍋ChankonabeThe sumo wrestlers' hot pot

Yosenabe comes from yoseru, to gather: seafood, chicken, tofu and vegetables put together in a light broth. Motsunabe is beef or pork offal with cabbage and garlic chives, and is best known as a Fukuoka dish. Chankonabe is the hearty pot associated with sumo stables; restaurants serving it cluster around Ryōgoku, Tokyo's sumo district.

Shabu-shabu: swish, dip, repeat

The pot arrives holding little more than water and a strip of kelp. You pick up one thin slice of beef or pork with your chopsticks, swish it through the simmering broth until it changes colour, and dip it in sauce. The name is usually explained as the sound of that swishing.

Two dips come with it. Ponzu (ポン酢) is soy sauce sharpened with citrus, and gomadare (ごまだれ) is a creamy sesame sauce. A common habit is ponzu for vegetables and sesame for meat, but there is no rule. Vegetables and tofu go in first because they take longer; the meat is cooked a slice at a time.

JapaneseRomajiMeaning
しゃぶしゃぶを二人前お願いします。Shabu-shabu o ninin-mae onegai shimasu.Shabu-shabu for two, please.
ポン酢PonzuCitrus soy dipping sauce
ごまだれGomadareSesame dipping sauce
お肉を追加でお願いします。Oniku o tsuika de onegai shimasu.More meat, please.

Sukiyaki: warishita and the raw egg

Sukiyaki is cooked in a shallow iron pan, not a deep pot. The seasoning is warishita (割り下), a mixture of soy sauce, sugar, mirin and sake. Beef, leeks, tofu, shiitake and shirataki noodles simmer in it and come out dark and sweet.

The dip is nama tamago (生卵), a raw egg that you beat in your own small bowl. It cools each bite and rounds off the sweetness. Broadly speaking, Kantō-style restaurants simmer everything in ready-mixed warishita, while Kansai-style restaurants first sear the beef in the pan and season it directly with sugar and soy sauce. Many places blur the two.

JapaneseRomajiMeaning
卵をもう一つください。Tamago o mō hitotsu kudasai.One more egg, please.
卵なしでお願いします。Tamago nashi de onegai shimasu.Without the egg, please.

Choosing the broth: the dashi question

At shabu-shabu chains and many nabe restaurants the first question is about the broth, dashi (だし). Some pots are divided down the middle so the table can pick two.

JapaneseRomajiMeaning
おだしはどちらになさいますか。Odashi wa dochira ni nasaimasu ka.Staff: Which broth would you like?
昆布だしでお願いします。Konbu dashi de onegai shimasu.You: The kelp broth, please.
豆乳だしTōnyū dashiSoy milk broth
キムチ鍋Kimuchi nabeSpicy kimchi hot pot
辛くないのはどれですか。Karakunai no wa dore desu ka.Which one is not spicy?

At the table: heat, foam and timing

Once the burner is lit, the pot belongs to the table. Grey foam called aku (あく) rises as meat cooks, and removing it is aku-tori (あく取り); the small mesh ladle on the table is for that. The person who happily takes charge of all this is jokingly called the nabe bugyō (鍋奉行), the hot pot magistrate.

These are the lines you will actually need. They are polite, and fine with friends, colleagues or staff.

JapaneseRomajiMeaning
もう食べられますか。Mō taberaremasu ka.Can we eat this yet?
火を弱くしてください。Hi o yowaku shite kudasai.Please turn the heat down.
取り分けましょうか。Toriwakemashō ka.Shall I serve you some?
あくを取りますね。Aku o torimasu ne.I will skim the foam.
だしを足してもらえますか。Dashi o tashite moraemasu ka.Could you add more broth?

Toriwakeru means to divide food onto individual plates. Offering with toriwakemashō ka is a small kindness, and the natural reply is Arigatō gozaimasu, onegai shimasu. Each person eats from a torizara (取り皿), a small individual bowl.

Shime: the last course in the same pot

When only broth is left, it holds the flavour of everything cooked in it, and nobody wastes that. Shime, written 締め or with the single mark 〆, is the closing course: rice or noodles go into the pot. Zōsui (雑炊) is rice simmered in the broth and finished with beaten egg. Udon and rāmen noodles are the other standard choices, and motsunabe is often finished with thick chanpon noodles.

JapaneseRomajiMeaning
〆は何になさいますか。Shime wa nani ni nasaimasu ka.Staff: What would you like to finish with?
雑炊でお願いします。Zōsui de onegai shimasu.You: Rice porridge, please.
うどんでお願いします。Udon de onegai shimasu.You: Udon, please.
もうお腹がいっぱいです。Mō onaka ga ippai desu.I am already full.

Which pot for which evening

RomajiTasteDipGood to know
Shabu-shabuLight and cleanPonzu or sesame sauceYou cook each slice yourself
SukiyakiSweet and richBeaten raw eggStaff may cook the first round
YosenabeMild broth with seafood and chickenOften ponzuA safe choice for mixed groups
MotsunabeGarlicky and strongNone neededOffal; a Fukuoka favourite
ChankonabeHearty, with many ingredientsNone neededLinked with sumo wrestlers
Key points

A practical way to improve

Practise the pot from start to finish, aloud. Begin with the order, Shabu-shabu o ninin-mae onegai shimasu, then answer the broth question with Konbu dashi de onegai shimasu. Next, drill the three table lines while you cook something on your own stove, so your hands and voice move together: Mō taberaremasu ka, Hi o yowaku shite kudasai, Toriwakemashō ka. Finish with the shime choice, Zōsui de onegai shimasu. On Unihongo you can ask the AI Sensei to play the waiter at a hot pot restaurant and take you through the same steps aloud. The session report afterwards lists corrections and vocabulary, so you can see whether ninin-mae and the potential form taberaremasu came out right.

  1. 1

    Choose one clear goal

    Focus each session on a situation or skill you can actually use.

  2. 2

    Practice actively

    Say complete answers aloud instead of only reading or recognizing Japanese.

  3. 3

    Review and repeat

    Keep useful corrections and revisit the same skill until it feels natural.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between shabu-shabu and sukiyaki?

Shabu-shabu is cooked piece by piece: you swish a thin slice of meat in lightly flavoured broth for a few seconds and dip it in ponzu or sesame sauce. Sukiyaki is simmered in a shallow iron pan with warishita, a sweet soy mixture, and dipped in beaten raw egg. Shabu-shabu tastes light; sukiyaki tastes sweet and rich.

Do I have to dip sukiyaki in raw egg?

No. The egg is the standard dip, and it cools the beef and softens the sweet sauce, but nobody minds if you skip it. Say Tamago nashi de onegai shimasu (卵なしでお願いします), without the egg please, or simply leave the egg untouched.

What does shime mean at a hot pot restaurant?

Shime (締め, often written with the mark 〆) means the close of the meal. After the meat and vegetables are gone, rice or noodles are cooked in the remaining broth. Common choices are zōsui, a rice porridge finished with egg, udon, and rāmen noodles.

What is a nabe bugyō?

Nabe bugyō (鍋奉行) literally means hot pot magistrate. It is a joking name for the person who takes charge of the pot and tells everyone what goes in and when it is ready. It is a tease, but most tables are glad to have one.

Can one person order nabe in Japan?

Sometimes. Many restaurants sell hot pot from two portions, written ninin-mae kara (二人前から). Look for hitori nabe (一人鍋), a single-serving pot, or ask Ichinin-mae demo chūmon dekimasu ka (一人前でも注文できますか), can I order just one portion?

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