Halves Boiling Pot + Grill | Japanese Hotpot Shabu + Yakiniku BBQ

Came here twice and each time they are severely short staffed. The female waitress, Hanh, is the rudest person on both occasions. She said that the entire table has to order from the All you can eat menu and she even charges babies for the all you can eat! That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. There are so many better places - don't go here. Not worth the money. The food is also limited.

The meat was very good, the way to cook it is fascinating 👌. In taste 11/10.

The owner needs to hire more staff. We come here all the time and they have 1-2 waiters for the entire restaurant. The food is good however, the wait time takes away from the experience. I see the waiters struggling and running around due to the limited staff they have. A message to the owner, Jack, you can’t just think about your pocket all the time. Hire more staff and don’t be greedy. It took you a whole years to buy a new working tv for the bar. Shame shame

It’s the best of both worlds when you can combine shabu shabu and teppan grill! Halves is located in a plaza at the intersection of Auto Center Drive and Towne Center Drive in Foothill Ranch. There is plenty of parking except during peak hours. Our servers were attentive but also a bit too introverted.

Halves offers a decent beverage menu, whether you like your drink leaded or not. Besides sake and wine, they also carry craft beers so of course I had to try one on my recent visit. For dinner, it’s a no-brainer to go with their best seller which they coincidentally named the “Halves”. Enjoy two tender meat selections of your choice (I opted to boil the American Wagyu and grill the Angus Short Rib), fresh vegetables, and noodles in a savory broth of your choosing while grilling premium ingredients on their smokeless bbq grill. I always appreciate when you can customize what you’re eating. I enjoyed the bbq dipping sauce for items off the grill and the sesame dipping sauce for the shabu, but the ponzu sauce was disappointing and too sour. If you enjoy DIY dining, shabu shabu, Yakiniku or both, then you def I recommend paying a visit to Halves!

Very ordinary place with very medium quality food but is unreasonably expensive.service was bot OK. Waited for 10 min in almost empty restaurant to get seated. Another 15 min for napkin.
Overall not worth the price

For the money, I recommend going to another place for hotpot. This is 42.5 dollars before tip and tax which is fine, but I also never had a tonkustu broth being so foamy and overflow when the heat is up, but then when the fire is down, it takes 5 mins to broil up which is frustrating to wait. However, in the end the waiter helped find the right temperature that cooks fast . But the portion is just small and veggies are not free refill

first time doing halves, and what a surprise!! explosion of flavors!!! and fantastic service!! now i have to find it at home🫤

Halves in Foothill Ranch offers a really unique dining experience! You get the best of both worlds with the option to have half shabu shabu and half Korean barbecue at your table. The food is fresh and the variety of options for both cooking styles makes it fun to mix and match flavors.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

The grill is recommended. For shabu, the konbu soup is plain, not flavored. Service is awesome.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 4

Service: 5

Been here a few times and it just gets worse and worse. Really wanted to like this place but it's just terrible.Food - their rice is either from the previous day or they don't know how to prepare it properly. Way. Over. Priced. The meat is meh.. and it is cheaper and better quality if you pick it up at some Japanese market and eat it at home since you have to cook it yourself either way.Service - what service? It's like these people bring their problems to work or don't want to be there. Were constantly ignored when asking for service. I don't smell that bad do I?Half the service, half the quality.... fits their name quite well.Did I mention they are way overpriced?

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 1

Service: 1

A little out of the way if you live around Irvine like me, but the food quality was worth the drive.We went around 8pm on a Saturday evening, was not crowded and we got seated immediately.Went with an order of halves (beef toro + 3-meat-combo), satisfied with the meat quality as well as portion.Only slight complaint was that my friend found a fly in her soup after she's thrown in all her meat, likely from one of the veggies. When she told the server about this, they were quite stingy about replacing the whole meat plate...Overall positive experience, recommend.Halves

Great atmosphere and food. Gave it a 4 star because it was more if a fusion food instead of authentic shabu shabu/yakiniku. Having said that, still a great experience. The A5 wagyu was delish! Had the halves ribeye shabu and A5 grill meat with spicy tonkatsu broth.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 4

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Wagyu, Halves

This was our first time and we really enjoyed the food, service and entire experience! We will be back!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

love the broth. good meat. nice service

Vegetarian options: vegetarian broth is great

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Hot Pot, Shabu Shabu, Grill

I love coming here! The food is great, and the staff is always so friendly and attentive. My favorite KBBQ place! They get busy on weekends though so I recommend going during the week.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Miyazaki A5 Wagyu Grill, Hot Pot, Wagyu, American Wagyu, Halves, Beef, Beef Belly, Shabu Shabu