While Vancouver's ramen craze rages on, a Japanese restaurateur is offering a different option for broth-based dishes.

Nabemono, also known simply as nabe, refers to a range of Japanese hot-pot dishes that have been traditionally enjoyed as home-cooked, communal dishes.

Tetsuya Kotoge is giving nabe a modern and international spin at his new eatery Nabebugyo, which opened its doors at 3190 Cambie Street on June 6.

The name means nabe master in Japanese and Kotoge, originally from Kyoto, Japan, told the Georgia Straight in an interview at his new place that this has been his "longtime dream", which has finally come to fruition after a year of renovations.

Kotoge previously operated Bon Crepe at Konbiniya convenience store on Robson Street (which he sold off to new owners).

Each of the 36 seats is accompanied with a hot plate, which diners can cook their own meals upon.

For those new to cooking such dishes, fret not—the menu includes instructions and tips on how to cook your meal, and the helpful staff are available to guide you along.

His opening menu offers a choice of 10 different types of hot pot dishes (plus a children's option).

One of the most well-known selections is sukiyaki. Kotoge's menu offers Kanto-style sukiyaki, with a sweet soy sauce broth. (The Kanto-style version, from eastern Japan, is more broth-based whereas the Kansai-style, from western Japan, is more stir-fry-oriented.)

There's also the classic shabu-shabu, which is less sweet than sukiyaki, cooked in a konbu (kelp) broth, and accompanied by ponzu (citrus-based sauce) or gomadare (sesame sauce) dipping sauces.

As Kotoge wanted customers to have more choices beyond just Japanese cuisine, he expanded his horizons to international dishes. There are options for kim chi, tom kha gai (Thai coconut soup), soy milk, miso sesame soy milk, tomato (Western-style), tomato curry, mizore (grated daikon radish), and vegetarian (with a konbu broth) hot pots.

Each hot pot comes with a variety of raw ingredients to cook in the broth. Meat options include sliced beef or pork (sausage also comes with the tomato hot pot). There's also everything from shirataki (yam noodles) to udon or ramen noodles, shimeji and enoki mushrooms to tofu and mochi (rice cake), and assorted vegetables which come in varying arrangements according to each selection.

Lunch prices range from $11.95 to $14.75 while dinner hot pots vary from $15.95 to $17.75.

As there's no tipping in Japan, Kotoge adds that there's need for no tipping at his restaurant. (He is considering donating any tips left to a needy organization, still to be determined.)

"We just want to make customers happy," he says.