Stealth Pork: This All-You-Can-Eat Shabu-Shabu Chain's Meat Is Basically See-Through

What's going on

Shabu-shabu is a Japanese hot pot dish where diners briefly swish paper-thin slices of meat through simmering broth — the name is literally the sound it makes. The ritual is part of the appeal: you cook each slice yourself, in seconds. Shabuyo (しゃぶ葉) is a popular all-you-can-eat shabu-shabu chain where customers pay a flat fee and order as many plates of meat as they want.

One customer recently photographed the pork loin she was served and posted it online, calling it "✨stealth pork✨." The slices were so impossibly thin they were nearly transparent — barely there. The photo spread quickly, drawing a mix of creative nicknames, genuine admiration for the cutting skill, and baffled logic: why would an all-you-can-eat restaurant bother thinning out the portions when customers can just order more?

Comments

✨Stealth pork✨

Shabuyo’s pork loin today was the thinnest I have ever seen and I could not stop laughing 😂

✨ステルス豚肉✨ しゃ◯゛葉さん、豚ロースが過去一の薄さで笑ってしまった😂

View on X

Was there a semi-transparent pig somewhere?

半透明の豚でもいたのか

“Skeleton pork” lmaooo

スケルトンポークは草生える

See-through pig (skeleton)

透ける豚（スケルトン）

The craftsmanship really stands out ww. On the bright side, thinner slices means more plates, so you can really go wild with the “I ate like 20 plates” flex 🤣

技術のすごさが際立ってしまったww 薄いといつもよりたくさんの枚数食べれちゃうので「おれ何皿食べちゃったわw」自慢ははかどると思う🤣

Incredible! It’s even thinner than convenience store prosciutto!

すごい！コンビニの生ハムより薄いです！

Thinner than prosciutto!! You’re right 🤣

生ハムより薄い！確かに〜🤣

Like what even is this lol. This is just prosciutto at this point

ホンマになんだこれ() 生ハムかよ

Honestly prosciutto sliced this thin is incredible though

こうゆう生ハム死ぬほど美味いよね

Hold on — isn’t it actually impressive that they CAN cut it this thin?

逆にこの薄さにカットできる方が凄くない？

Cook Kawasaki must work there…! (Cook Kawasaki is a chef character from the Kirby anime, famous for his impossibly precise knife skills.)

コックカワサキがいる…！

Artistic merit is off the charts

芸術点高いなぁ

It looks like waves lapping at the shoreline

波打ち際みたい

That’s a master craftsman right there

職人すぎる

Are they making pathology slides or something?

病理にでもするのかな

That’s a hakusetsu section — 4 micrometers. (Hakusetsu refers to ultra-thin tissue sectioning used in histopathology, typically 4–5 micrometers thick.)

ハクセツ(4μm)ですね

You’d need to embed it in a frozen block first, then section it… H&E stain? (Hematoxylin and eosin staining, standard in tissue pathology.) Gradually adjust the ethanol concentration while you shabu-shabu it…

一度冷凍ブロックにして切片つくらんと、、、H-E染色？無水エタノールの濃度を変えながらしゃぶしゃぶして、、、

Cutting it this thin is genuinely impressive skill lmaooo. But if you want to cut costs that badly, maybe just… stop doing all-you-can-eat?? 🤣

ここまで薄く切れるってある意味すごい技術だねwwwww そうまでしてコストカットしたいならそもそも食べ放題やめればいいのにwwwww🤣

In an all-you-can-eat setup the total amount eaten is the same no matter what, so all you’re doing is creating more cutting work and more dishes to wash… this makes zero logical sense

食い放題というシステムで、食う量同じなんだから切る手間と皿の量増えるだけなのでは無いだろうか……謎すぎる。

What’s even the point for AYCE? You’re just making more work washing plates… honestly I’d rather they just dumped 1kg on one big platter

食べ放題なのに意味あるのかな器の処理の手間が増えそうだけど… なんなら大皿に1kgぐらい盛って出したいが

My guess is it’s so the meat cooks through properly even when you roll it up. Food poisoning is no joke…

多分、巻き豚をしてもきちんと火を通せる工夫だと思います。食中毒怖いですしね…

Looks like it’d cook real fast tho lol

火の通りが早そう（笑）

Ok that tracks but… it’s still way too thin isn’t it

なるほどにしても薄すぎませんか…

It’s to burn through your time limit while they bring each plate.

持ってくるまでの時間とかで制限時間を消費させるため。

With shabu-shabu the broth and sauce absorbed into the meat does fill you up faster — that might be part of it too.

しゃぶしゃぶだと肉に絡んでくる出汁やタレで腹が張る、というのはあるかもね。

Former shabu-shabu AYCE part-timer here — the meat actually isn’t sliced in-store. It comes pre-sliced and frozen, staff just plate it and let it thaw in the fridge. So this isn’t a manager’s call or a rogue employee thing.

元しゃぶしゃぶ食べ放題バイトですが、実はこういうお肉ってバイトが店内で切っている訳ではなく、冷凍の切られた状態のお肉をお皿に乗せ、それを冷蔵庫で解凍していくと言う方法で作業しています。なので、店長の指示やバイトが勝手にやっていると言うわけではないんですよね

Two remarkable things here: that anyone CAN cut it this thin, and that someone thought this was acceptable to serve. I’ve worked in food service and if I’d put something like this on a plate, my manager would’ve lost it. (I got yelled at just for sloppy plating during a rush.)

これ、ここまで薄く切ることが出来るのがすごいのと、これで出して良いと思ったのもすごいわ。わたしも飲食で働いていたことあったけど、こんなのでだしたら店長に怒鳴られたと思うわ。(忙しくて、盛り付けとかが疎かになって怒鳴られて注意されたことあるから)

Feels like someone just messed up the slicer calibration (´^ω^)

スライサーの調整ミスってる気がする(´^ω^)

My take

Honestly? I might actually be fine with this. Shabu-shabu meat tends to taste better the thinner it is — more surface area for the broth to cling to, practically dissolves on contact. Maybe Shabuyo accidentally stumbled onto something.

#Funny #Food

Source & translation note

Comments loosely translated for tone. Reactions collected from Togetter and X threads.

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