yanaka tansei, yanaka

Self-service cooking is not really a thing in British restaurant culture. In Tokyo, there are endless numbers of yakiniku, shabu-shabu, sukiyaki, and okonomiyaki restaurants, many of which leave the diner in control of the cooking. Thus yakiniku (literally "grilled meat") was high on my agenda to try. I've had Korean barbecue in London, but the staff hovered constantly, lunging for our spatulas if we so much as looked at them, adjusting our pork belly every five seconds as if afraid we might flip it ourselves. I don't blame them -- they probably have a million clueless customers coming in every day, either over- or under-cooking their food -- but it's frustrating when you're actually looking for the experience.

We had planned to visit Nezu shrine, and then Yanaka Ginza, a famous street selling traditional wares, and while searching I found Yanaka Tansei nearby. It had a decent amount of reviews (yes, some English language ones), and all sounded positive.

Lunch sets are decently priced. More expensive than where we had been eating previously, but the quality of the meat spoke for itself. Our server didn't speak much English, but he was quick to hand us an English menu and was very accommodating of our ordering process. We started off with a side of cucumber kimchi and the Tansei set, which came with four slices each of prime beef shank and prime beef short rib.

After we made our order, the server brought out our personal grill and lit it, followed quickly by the sides included in the set lunch. Rice was a decent portion, the typical sticky, short-grain style, and unlimited -- you only had to ask for more. Miso soup was good, unremarkable. A surprisingly delicious salad of butter lettuce came dressed with a sweet sesame dressing. The trio dish came with spicy pickles, a light, vinegary sauce, and a nest of bean sprouts. The cucumber kimchi maintained a fabulous crunch, bright with garlicky, piquant seasoning, the perfect palate cleanser between slices of the fatty beef. 

Tansei set, clockwise from the top: short rib, shank,
tongue

The star, though, was the beef. Shank in particular was excellent, deeply flavoured and nicely marbled, without the oily quality of some wagyu. Short rib was definitely fattier, rippled through with white, but again with excellent flavour. With only ten to fifteen seconds each side on the grill, the meat melted on the tongue: savoury, nearly sweet, as good as any fillet steak. The meat came with a dab of wasabi, real sinus-clearing stuff, and a dish of sweet, spicy, dark brown sauce which was ridiculously moreish. It felt shameful to dip such quality beef in any condiment, but the sauce begged to be eaten (hell, I put it on everything: lettuce, bean sprouts, my chopsticks...). We immediately repeated an order of the Tansei set, adding on two slices of salted beef tongue.

The tongue was thicker, scored to allow for quicker cooking, and far more robust than the delicate slices of shank or short rib. We had intended to share, but it was nearly impossible to split the tongue which resisted chopstick, knife, and tooth. It certainly tasted good, its chewiness a great contrast to the softer cuts, nothing at all like leather despite its toughness. Still, we all kept coming back to the beef shank.

This was probably one of the most expensive meals of the trip. Two ¥2500 sets, an extra ¥800 for the tongue, ¥400 for the kimchi, and ¥500 for two orange juices brought us up to ¥6700 pre-tax. The final cost was probably pushing £55. But again, for a meal for three people, with superb quality ingredients, that kept us happily full till dinner time (and even then, we only had light snacks), who could complain?

Date of Visit: 07/09/2019

Address: 7-18-16 Yanaka | Ostia 1F, Taito 110-0001, Tokyo, Japan

torihana, nakano-shimbashi

One of the most frequent things you hear about eating in Japan is that it is hard to go too wrong. I had heard the same thing about Italy, but had had more than a few bad, and expensive, experiences (admittedly in especially touristic areas). I tried my best to research dining options in advance, but this was not easy for restaurants outside Tokyo's seething core -- particularly English language reviews -- and Nakano-shimbashi, while hardly unknown, was nowhere near as thoroughly documented and reviewed as, say, Shibuya.

Nevertheless, it thronged with places to eat. Izakayas, traditional Japanese pubs, littered the streets with their enormous paper lanterns. They lacked the window displays of plastic food, but nearly all of them had hand-written menus and set meal deals advertised on the pavement. All in Japanese, of course.

Torihana was a small yakitori restaurant around the corner and down the street from Nakano-shimbashi station. I don't think it has multiple branches, but upon Googling, another Torihana exists in Shinjuku, again a yakitori joint. Even on Tabelog, Japan's excellent restaurant review and ranking site, Torihana in Nakano-shimbashi only has 16 reviews, with 3.14 stars out of a possible 5. Not exactly stellar, but Japanese diners/reviewers do seem especially discerning. In nearly all cases where I compared native reviews with foreign ones, the Japanese were far more critical.

But the English language reviews for Torihana, of which there were a few, were very complimentary and claimed that staff were very friendly and accommodating, even with a language barrier. Perfect.

Got to love the desk fans

It was small, as such izakayas tend to be. It had bar seating for 12 from where one could watch the chef and his grill in action, and then three shallow tables on elevated ground, each of which sat 6. We were directed to one of these, as the bar was mainly full. For a Thursday night, it was busy -- we saw plenty of come, eat, and go during the time we ate. I loved the casual atmosphere of these places, as many couples seemed to come for a few sets of skewers and a beer, and left in under 40 minutes.

As we sat down we received a Japanese menu, and then an English one. The woman who seated us disappeared for a while -- maybe five minutes -- before she returned with a younger server. She took our drinks order and then waited while we decided on our food. When we ordered it became clear that she had been sent to our table as the sole member of staff with any English, a completely unnecessary but lovely effort. There was minor struggle regardless, but after some pointing and cross-referencing with the original menu, we were able to place our first order: one skewer each of the shiitake mushrooms, chicken meatball, chicken, and chicken hearts. I was keen for my brothers to try heart, which I maintain is the most accessible of offal: less mushy than liver and sweetbreads, and lacking the, er, scatological character that kidney or tripe can sometimes have.

Our food arrived after 10-15 minutes. Yakitori can take a little longer than some preparations, as everything is grilled fresh, and a busy restaurant may only have one or two small grills and as many chefs. The atmosphere was worth soaking in: the place was full of laughter and charcoal smoke, and the faint smell of cigarettes as diners smoked at their tables.

Chicken heart, de-skewered

The food was delicious. Fresh ingredients, freshly cooked, some marinated with only the barest seasoning of soy sauce and tare... it was a dream. Mushrooms were as good as steak, full and fleshy. Chicken and chicken meatballs were well-handled, succulent, with excellent flavour from the grill. And the hearts even better: beefy, toothsome but not tough, perfectly cooked. A worthy death for four chickens.

From left: asparagus, chicken hearts, eringi mushrooms
wrapped in pork belly, chicken skin

For our second order, we got a couple of each skewer. We were so impressed with the cooking of the mushrooms that we ordered two more: asparagus and eringi mushrooms wrapped in pork belly. Asparagus was frankly astonishing, blackened in places yet still verdantly green, tasting of smoke and grassy freshness, lifted by flakes of salt. The pork-wrapped eringi confused us for a few moments, the mushrooms so meat-like we couldn't figure out where the pork belly began -- a thin strip encasing the most flavoursome, juicy mushroom you could imagine. We ordered more chicken hearts, just as delicious as before. And then, as a challenge to my brothers, skewers of chicken skin.

Chicken skin

I've never got the squeamishness behind chicken skin (isn't that the best bit of the roast chicken?). Fatty, salty, crispy, but perhaps the weakest of all the skewers we'd tried, which surprised me. I would love to return to try the chicken gizzards, any of the vegetables, or the rice dishes. Who could resist a grilled rice ball, or a pheasant rice bowl? We went for a light meal, but one could definitely eat substantially here.

Pricing was again very keen. Our meal cost ¥4500, with Ian drinking two large beers, Adam orange juice and a shochu (Kozuru Kuro). To be well-fed and watered with incredible food, all for under £35 total will never fail to blow my mind. And that does not even account for the brilliant service, which despite the language barrier was generous and friendly. During the latter half of our meal, we had been attended by a lovely young waiter rather than our original waitress, but as we were walking back to our Airbnb, she stopped us to say thank you. What incredible hospitality and warmth.

Date of visit: 05/09/2019
Address: 2 Chome-28-7 Yayoicho, Nakano City, Tokyo 164-0013, Japan

genki sushi, shibuya

Conveyor belt sushi has been part of the UK food scene since 1997, when YO! Sushi trundled its subpar offerings under our noses. I've never been, the novelty never tempting enough to override my distaste for mystery fish of mysterious age. Not that I ever expected to get sick from it, but the idea never had enough appeal to separate me from my money.

Conveyor belt sushi restaurants, or kaiten-zushi as they're known in Japan, have a longer history in their native country -- but not by much. The first was opened in 1958 by Yoshiaki Shiraishi, a sushi restaurateur who struggled with staff shortages, and the genre has experienced both peaks and troughs since its inception all those years ago. Right now, it seems to be doing pretty well, with increasing technological advances being made to ensure the freshness of the sushi and streamline the ordering process.

Genki Sushi is a popular kaiten-zushi chain with multiple outlets across Japan, but also internationally, with restaurants in Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, the US, and more. I had originally planned to visit a Genki Sushi -- a kaiten-zushi chain -- on the recommendation of a friend who had loved the ordering system. There's a tablet at each table with multilingual options, and paginated sections for each category of dish: appetisers, sushi rolls, sushi, sides, drinks etc. You touch whichever item you want, add it to your basket (you can choose multiple orders), and once you're done, you press a button to electronically send your order to the kitchen. After a little while, once a dish is ready, it is shot directly to you on a little cart that stops at your table. You take it from the cart and press a button on the tablet to send it back to the kitchen.

As novel as this sounded, it didn't exactly shoot Genki Sushi to the top of my dining itinerary, until my friend showed me a video. The cart that delivered her food... was modified to look like the Shinkansen. It was impossible to resist. It wasn't until the planned day of our visit that I discovered that the central Tokyo branches of Genki Sushi do not have customised carts. Devastating. But, well, we were in Shibuya anyway, and too hungry to bother with searching out other options.

Novel! The cart wasn't dressed up, but it was pretty cute nonetheless. We made several orders as you could only pick a few items at a time. We also had a time limit of 45 minutes, but the process was so prompt that we didn't feel pressured by a deadline. This was clearly a popular restaurant at lunchtime, and we saw plenty of foreigners at tables among the native Japanese. There always seemed to be a queue, but it moved quickly: we had had to wait no more than ten minutes before being seated.

Clockwise from the top: salmon, cheeseburger,
kanpyomaki (dried gourd shavings)

Pardon the subpar photos. I'm the only real fish fan of our group of three, so we ordered hardly any real sushi or sashimi, which was a shame considering the extensive offering. But it was heartening to have so many options even for those less inclined towards raw fish. Drinks were also ordered off the tablet, delivered by a member of staff rather than the conveyor, but another brilliant element was the unlimited self-service hot tea. A small tap dispensing hot water sat at the top of each table. On the other end, with the condiments, was a brown canister filled with green powder and a teeny spoon -- matcha! Cups were stacked on a higher level shelf, so you retrieved your own and could fill it as many times as you wanted with hot tea. Genius.

Tempura udon, tempura shrimp sushi

Tempura prawn sushi was perfectly tolerable. The batter wasn't as crisp and light as it should have been, but that wasn't expected, and the prawn was nicely cooked. Udon was pleasant, with a surprisingly strong taste of the sea, the noodles bouncy and the serving substantial. Fried chicken tasted good, though even lousy fried chicken is still pretty good when fresh.

Beef rib sushi

Beef rib sushi was chosen mostly because it was fish-free, and looked desperately unappealing when it arrived -- flabby, fatty, and grey -- but it was a surprise hit, with a fabulous, deep, almost bacon-like flavour. Other dishes were more forgettable: kanpyomaki (dried gourd shavings), inari sushi, hamburger sushi, which had a funny, pate style texture, bland salmon. Still, it was an entertaining experience, even if the sushi itself was lacking. The rice itself was good, too, if not exactly high quality, with a good sticky quality. Individual grains were still separate and distinct, and unlike the fridge-cold rice you get in the UK, it was served just warm.

I don't regret going to Genki Sushi, and I would certainly recommend going at least once for the novelty of it. Even more so if you are near a branch offering decorated delivery carts. It seems to me that if you know what to order, you can easily get yourself a good quality and generous meal without breaking the bank. We didn't leave hungry, and we paid under £35 total for at least 11 small plates, two soft drinks, and one cocktail.

Date of visit: 05/09/2019
Address: 24-8 Udagawacho, Shibuya City, Tokyo 150-0042, Japan

matsuya, nakano-shimbashi

Our flight touched down at Haneda at approximately 07.00 on a Wednesday, 04/09, and we were due to check in at our Airbnb by 10.00. The three hours grace seemed overkill at first, but collecting our Suica cards, riding the airport limousine bus to Shinjuku, and then navigating the labyrinthine station took us longer than expected. Still, we were early (just!) to arrive at Nakano-shimbashi station, where we met our host who led us to our accommodation, a brief five minute walk over the bridge.

Nakano-shimbashi is an attractive area. Only some 10 minutes by the Marunouchi line from Shinjuku, it was amazingly quiet in comparison to the mania of the city centre. We were told a local speciality in the immediate area was tonkatsu -- pork cutlet, breaded and fried in panko -- and what better meal to kick off our time in Japan.

Matsuya is a chain restaurant selling tonkatsu in various set meal combinations, as well as a short selection of sides, drinks, and so on. At the Nakano-shimbashi branch, a touchscreen vending machine waits immediately by the entrance, with plenty of language options for non-Japanese speakers. You feed your money into the machine (or swipe your Suica card against the reader) and select your food from the interactive menu. Once you press the button to complete your order, it spits out a ticket for each item that you hand to the waitstaff as you sit down.

We went for dinner, at this time quite late thanks to our unpacking, jetlag napping, and a brief exploring of the immediate area. The restaurant was nearly empty, and we sat three abreast as the waitress took our tickets, tearing them and handing us back the stubs. She returned quickly with water, and it was a short wait for our food to arrive.

We ordered three set meals. I opted for the tonkatsu set with a heap of grated radish; Ian, the cutlet and fried chicken combo, which offered a large serving of rice for the same price as the regular (which he smartly took); and Adam was the traditionalist, ordering the tonkatsu meal in all its simple glory. Plus two large Cokes and an Asahi.

Not too shabby, right?

And damn, it tasted as good as it looked. Each set came with rice, miso soup, and a feathery heap of shredded cabbage. The cutlet itself sat cutely on a metal grid to keep it dry and greaseless. Not that it was necessary; the Japanese seem incredibly skilled at producing the healthiest deep-fried food around. Mine came topped with grated radish, spring onions sliced thin, and a side of ponzu sauce. The cutlet itself was delicious, the panko light and crisp, the meat having a good, porky flavour. Grated radish lacked the heat I was expecting, instead lending texture -- soft, moistening the crumb in a moreish way (think tempura ramen) -- and its wateriness was super refreshing.

The pork cutlet and Japanese fried chicken combo was also a looker. The chicken was fried in a standard batter, all white meat, and again fresh and tasty. Rice was very good, not exactly a premium item but pleasantly sticky, far better than most served in the UK. The miso soup was also very good, likewise heads above any I've had in England, with serious depth of flavour and a few slippery leaves of seaweed lurking at the bottom.

As you can see in the photos above, chopsticks, napkins, and sauces were self-service. The specialty and tonkatsu sauces were delicious, not unlike those you receive with okonomiyaki and takoyaki -- savoury, sweet, tangy, with a clear soy sauce base. The perfect foil to fried food (... and good on rice... and on shredded cabbage). This was great food, especially for the price -- it was well under ¥2500 for the three of us, with drinks, and you wouldn't leave hungry. Everything was fresh, nicely presented, and service was polite and prompt. In the UK, such high standards from a fast casual chain, at this price point, would be very unlikely.

We did revisit Matsuya, with only slight reluctance since I wasn't keen on repeating any meals during the trip. But the easy convenience of it being within a ten minute walk of our Airbnb, the brilliant vending machine ordering system, and the friendly service made it hard to resist a return. On Tuesday (10/09), we had had a long day in Akihabara, and weren't keen on getting back on the Metro when it was so late. Plus Adam wasn't hungry and wanted to stay in the Airbnb, so Ian and I thought it was best to stay local.

We were boring and had the same meals again. Grated radish tonkatsu, a fried chicken combo, and an ice-cold beer. Oh, and some extra pickles.

Cheers / kanpai / sláinte!

Funnily enough, unlike last time, Ian's came with a bowl with a pestle and some roasted sesame seeds. A neat condiment, both whole and milled.

It tasted just as good the second time round.

Date of visit: 04/09/2019 (revisited 10/09/2019)
Address: 2 Chome-23-3 Yayoicho, Nakano City, Tokyo 164-0013, Japan