‘Skel Pork’ goes viral

A post about paper-thin pork at Japan’s Shabu Leaf hot-pot chain drew millions of views after a diner nicknamed the slices “Skel Pork.” The X post showed pork so thin the customer compared it to a “face pack,” a sheet mask for skin care, and the image spread to about 3.4 million views. Japanese reports and reposts identified the restaurant as Shabu Leaf, the all-you-can-eat shabu-shabu chain run by Skylark Restaurants. (skylark.co.jp) Shabu-shabu is built around thin meat that cooks in seconds in simmering broth, so slice thickness is part of the product, not a side detail. Shabu Leaf’s menu centers on pork and beef courses served with vegetables, sauces and broth at hundreds of locations in Japan. (skylark.co.jp) (japantoday.com) Shabu Leaf said the serving was the result of a slicing error and said it would tighten operations to prevent a repeat. The chain’s public response followed the same pattern it has used in earlier incidents: confirm the facts, apologize and promise retraining or other prevention steps. (corp.skylark.co.jp) The post landed at a moment when Japanese social media has been quick to turn odd restaurant presentations into punch lines. In December 2025, another Shabu Leaf post went viral after a customer was served soba still frozen into a neat block. (maidonanews.jp) (skylark.co.jp) Shabu Leaf has also faced harder scrutiny than a joke post can bring. In February 2024, Skylark apologized after a video showed an employee’s improper conduct in a Shabu Leaf kitchen, and in April 2026 Japanese media reported a separate foreign-object complaint involving a pot at one branch. (corp.skylark.co.jp) (news.livedoor.com) This time, the chain’s problem was not contamination or misconduct but portion appearance: meat cut so thin it looked nearly transparent before it hit the broth. The customer’s joke gave the mistake a name, and the name traveled faster than any formal statement. Shabu Leaf’s own site is still advertising pork-heavy courses, including a March 31 notice that pork-belly service was suspended and a new pork loin was being introduced. That made the viral photo land inside a menu change customers were already watching. (skylark.co.jp) The company says another serving of “Skel Pork” is unlikely. For a chain built on neatly sliced meat, that is the point: customers are supposed to swish the pork in broth, not hold it up to the light. (skylark.co.jp)