A Taste Of Japan #3 - Yakiniku Ushiwakamura

Yakiniku is essentially Japanese BBQ. While it means "grilled meat", it usually refers to a style of indoor dining where you BBQ the meat at you're table. This current form of yakiniku has it's roots in postwar Japan in Korean restaurants in Osaka and has spread across the country to become one of Japan's favorite styles of eating.

(Yakiniku "Like" for 1 person)

You can throw a rock anywhere in Tokyo and find a yakiniku place. That doesn't mean it will be good though, especially somewhere like Shibuya where my wife and I were recently. She really wanted to eat yakiniku so we tossed a proverbial rock and got lucky, enter Ushiwakamaru 牛若丸 渋谷.

When we arrived it was a bit empty which is usually a bad sign. Most good eateries in Japan are busy all the time. It wasn't yet 6pm though so we took that into consideration.

Most yakiniku places will have two types of menus, one an all you can eat "tabehoudai" and the other you just order by the dish/slice. We ordered tabehoudai for $29 each. This is actually the low end course, but it had specifically what we were looking for so there was no reason to go with the more expensive courses. For an additional $20 we could have gotten all you can drink, nomihoudai, but we weren't in the mood to get plastered. So we just decided to share some beers.

On the tablet behind the beers is where you order form. This is becoming more common in the US, but in Japan it has been normal for a long time. I remember visiting back in 2011 and some of the bigger chains were already using these. Now most places do except for the small independent restaurants.

The first order of meat came out. It consisted of chicken, harami(skirt steak) & kalbi(short rib).

We supplemented it with a delicious salad topped with a unique sesame flavored dressing.

Kalbi is always the go to meat for us. Since Niigata though https://hive.blog/hive-120586/@rt395/a-taste-of-japan-2-oven-bar-stove-in-niigata, I am becoming more and more a fan of harami. We noticed that the harmami here was exceptionally good. It had the right amount of chewiness which released a good amount of flavor with each bite. When we added in the various dipping sauce it made it taste even better.

The dipping sauces were also unique. We couldn't quite pin down the flavor of the sauces which made us notice something else, this was most likely a Korean run restaurant. That explained the difference in the flavors than what we are used to.

Vegetables are also part of yakiniku. Typically onions, corn, a green pepper and mushrooms are included with any tabehoudai basic course. In the more expensive courses you can get more exotic vegetables like okra, or marinated vegetables. Onions were enough for us though!

As we ate the restaurant began to fill up. It seems we had just arrived early. Even with the crowds, the service was good. Each time we ordered, the meat came out very quickly. Our drinks were filled right away and table was cleaned quickly. It was a good dining experience. I'd give it 3.5 stars.

I always like writing these blogs about food. I can enjoy the flavor & experience a second time which makes me look forward to the next time I can eat these foods!

Ushiwakamura 牛若丸 渋谷 is located in Shibuya right off Centa Gai street close to Hachiko, the famous Starbucks and 109 at 〒150-0042 東京都渋谷区宇田川町26-11 白馬ビル3F. They don't have a website, but complete information in Japanese can be found here: https://r.gnavi.co.jp/9sa5xk6n0000/