焼肉
Japanese BBQ: grill wagyu at your table and pay a third of what a steakhouse charges.
Yakiniku is Japanese barbecue: you grill thin cuts of beef over charcoal or gas at your own table and dip them in tare sauce. It is the best way to eat wagyu without the steakhouse markup, and the cuts are the point: harami (skirt), kalbi (short rib), tan (tongue) and offal (horumon) that never appear on Western menus. Tabelog scores here track meat quality and sourcing more than service.
Tokyo yakiniku ranges from ¥3,000 Shin-Okubo Korean-town grills to Roppongi and Nishi-Azabu counters serving whole-carcass A5 wagyu for ¥20,000. The best value is in Ebisu and Nakameguro, where the top-rated mid-range places fill with locals; reserve a week out for weekends..
Roppongi · Ebisu · Shin-Okubo · Nishi-Azabu · Ueno
Tsuruhashi, Osaka's Korea town, has the highest concentration of yakiniku restaurants in Japan: hundreds of grills within a few blocks of the station, from ¥3,000 horumon joints to 3.7-rated wagyu counters. The station smells of charcoal.
Tsuruhashi · Namba · Umeda · Kyobashi
In Sapporo, yakiniku means jingisukan: lamb and mutton grilled on a domed iron plate with onions and bean sprouts, eaten in beer halls and tiny Susukino counters that smell of smoke. The top-rated jingisukan shops use fresh (not frozen) lamb and sell out early..
Susukino · Sapporo Station · Odori
Yakiniku is the cheaper way to eat Kobe and Tajima beef: grill it yourself in Sannomiya and Motomachi for ¥5,000 to ¥8,000 instead of a ¥20,000 teppanyaki course. The top-rated shops label the cuts by brand and grade..
Sannomiya · Motomachi
Kobe beef vs wagyu explained: the certification rules, which to order, and the top two places in Kobe, Osaka and Tokyo with prices and payment.
Order a few cuts at a time, grill them yourself (tongue first, fatty cuts last), and dip in the tare or salt and lemon. Rice, kimchi and a salad round it out. Set courses (kōsu) are easiest for first-timers. Shirts will smell of smoke afterward; many places give you a bag for your coat.
Cut names are mostly loanwords, so a photo menu plus the words kalbi, harami and tan gets you everything you need.
A yakiniku restaurant above 3.5 is sourcing serious wagyu. Chains sit around 3.0 to 3.2 and are fine for a cheap night. Above 3.7 you are at a place that buys whole A5 carcasses.
Order a few cuts at a time, grill them yourself (tongue first, fatty cuts last), and dip in the tare or salt and lemon. Rice, kimchi and a salad round it out. Set courses (kōsu) are easiest for first-timers. Shirts will smell of smoke afterward; many places give you a bag for your coat.
Lunch: ¥1,200 to ¥2,500 for a lunch set. Dinner: ¥4,000 to ¥10,000 per person.
A yakiniku restaurant above 3.5 is sourcing serious wagyu. Chains sit around 3.0 to 3.2 and are fine for a cheap night. Above 3.7 you are at a place that buys whole A5 carcasses.
Popular yakiniku restaurants fill up on weekends; reserve for dinner groups of four or more. Lunch is walk-in.
Tokyo, Osaka, Sapporo, Kobe each have a dedicated page. Tokyo: Tokyo yakiniku ranges from ¥3,000 Shin-Okubo Korean-town grills to Roppongi and Nishi-Azabu counters serving whole-carcass A5 wagyu for ¥20,000.
Open TabeDog, pick yakiniku, and see Tabelog's top-rated shops around you with hours, prices and payment methods in English.
Find yakiniku on the map