a trip to the Shabway

I just got back from a little trip to the Shabway restaurant which has Japanese Shabu Shabu whose name of the restaurant is obviously a pun for the Subway, Sandwich chain.
There were a lot of non-Japanese people there, it looked like we were the only Japanese guest there while all the clerk looked like pure Japanese. They reminded us of Japan a lot in a way of quick service, greeting, as well as Japanese language they spoke.
I ordered regular beef Shabu-Shabu tray (I don't remember what it was called.) that cost $7.99 including a bowl of rice and some veggies and some udon noodle.

Today's words and expressions
rule of thumb http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?gwp=13&s=rule%20of%20thumb
threshhold above which they can hurt performance