yakiniku

We used to think that the 45-minute all-you-can-eat lunch of cook-your-own grilled meat lunch for 950 yen (US$7.60), offered by the Jimbocho Shokuniku Centre restaurant, was pretty hard to beat in terms of value for your money. However, we’ve recently learned that there’s another yakiniku restaurant in Tokyo that offers an even better value!

If you love meat and are looking for a bargain, read on to learn about our meal at Asakusa Buta Yashiki Horumon Sakaba.

We recently discovered that a restaurant in the Tokyo’s suburb of Honjoazumabashi called Asakusa Buta Yashiki Horumon Sakaba offers a 30-minute all-you-can-eat lunch service for 780 yen (US$6.30).

restaurant

It operates under the same system as the Jimbocho yakiniku restaurant and supplies really fresh meat for a great value. You will need to have a liking for offal though, as horumon yakiniku mostly consists of various organ dishes like heart and liver. Our reporter Mr. Sato had the honour of checking it out — but should you?

A bargain!

The restaurant is just a one-minute walk from Honjoazumabashi Station on the Toei Asakusa Line. Lunch time service had actually finished five minutes prior to Mr. Sato’s arrival, but fortunately, they let him in. Because who could possibly deny an international superstar of his stature?!

There are actually two all-you-can-eat lunch sets available.  You can choose either the 45-minute lunch set for 950 yen (US$7.60) or the 30-minute set for 780 yen (US$6.30). Because Mr. Sato had only just made it to the restaurant in time, he was limited to just the 30-minute option. For those wanting to enjoy the 45-minute lunch, it is best to get there as early!

Free rice and a bowl of miso soup.

Along with the meat dishes, the lunch course comes with free rice refills and one bowl of miso soup. Although you technically get as much rice as you can eat, we do need to warn you that the last order for rice is 10 minutes prior to your finish time, so Mr. Sato was only really given 20 minutes to order as much as possible.

rice miso

As for the meat, you can choose from one of the following three sets which contain different cuts of meat or offal that have been seasoned with salt, tare (a sauce for grilled meat) or, in the case of the daitoro abura (the fatty part around pork intestines), in miso:

Set A – asadore liver (tare flavour) and asadore heart (salt)
Set B – udeniku (fatty midsection of cow) (salt) and daitoro abura (miso).
Set C – katabara (shoulder fat) (tare) and daitoro abura (miso)

Once you’ve made your choice, your 30 minutes of all-you-can-eat will start! You can then order up to an additional two servings of each of the following meats: asadore liver, udeniku, daitoro abura, momoniku (leg meat) and katabara – all of which are then available in only salt or tare seasoning.

menu

Recommended dishes

The restaurant’s recommended choice of meat is the daitoro abura with miso seasoning. It’s also the costumer favourite and most popular dish! Mr. Sato, being curious about the asadore, ordered Set A, which consisted of asadore liver and asadore heart. After getting a taste of Set A, he’s now a fan of both dishes.

Quality meat

Mr. Sato was quite pleased with the meat quality here! Although the meat was fattier and came in smaller portions than some of the yakiniku restaurants Mr. Sato has patronized, it was still really delicious.

cooked meat

In fact, due to how small the portions are, when the meat arrives, he recommends cooking it all on the grill at once. After it’s nearly cooked and ready to eat, it’s probably best to order your next round of meat.

horumon1

For meat lovers

If you’re hardcore about your meat, then 30 minutes for 780 yen is a great value for the money. It’s a great place to stop for lunch if you want delicious meat with a generous side of rice AND if you are a speedy eater. 30 minutes is not much time to down a lot of meat, so this place is definitely for those who can eat their way through a cow in less time than than it takes to watch an episode of 24!

Restaurant details
Asakusa Buta Yashiki Horumon Sakaba
Address:  Tokyo, Sumida-ku, azumabashi 2-2-4 Festy One building, Level 1
Business hours: Weekdays: lunch 11:30 a.m. – 2 p.m. / dinner 5 p.m. to midnight (open until 2 a.m. on Saturdays) and 1 p.m. to midnight (public holidays), closed on Mondays

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