It’s certainly become a widespread belief that dog is eaten in some Asian countries, most notably China and Korea.  However, it never caught on in Japan, which is why we were blown away to learn that there’s a restaurant in Ikebukuro, Tokyo that offers a selection of dog meat dishes.

The name of the restaurant is Fun Fun Shop and despite the signboard that reads “Chinese Cooking” they actually offer a range of dishes into Korean and Japanese as well.  Having none of us ever eaten dog before, we sent our most iron-gutted reporters to see if the taste could possibly justify the unpleasant act of eating man’s best friend.  And we answered your three most likely questions, before you ask them!

How does Fun Fun Shop get dog meat?

We can’t say for sure how Fun Fun Shop goes about getting the dog meat but we have to assume they import it frozen from China, not that that made our reporters feel any safer about eating it. You’d think Japan’s food inspection or customs agencies would have a problem with this.

According to the menu, they have 6 different dishes of dog meat.  Looking at the prices you can see how we assume the dog meat was imported since, pound for pound, it rivals some of the finest beef or lobster in the world.

Hearty Dog Nabe                     [Small] 3800 yen (US$47)   [Large] 5000 yen (US$62)
Fried Dog with Skin                2000 yen (US$25)
Dog Guk                                   1100 yen (US$13)
Dressed Dog Meat                 1680 yen (US$21)
Dog and Tofu Nabe                 1600 yen (US$20)
Single Serving of Dog Meat  1800 yen (US$22)

How did it taste?

If you think it tastes like chicken, you’d be partly right.  Our reporters ordered a Fried Dog with Skin and a Single Serving of Dog Meat.  They took on the fried dog first and found that the skin was very fatty and chicken-like.  The actual meat though was kind of like dry pork. All in all it wasn’t so great.

When the Single Serving of Dog came up, whoo boy! It was so gamey that they felt like we were eating a wild hare shotgunned outside of Jim-Bob’s shack in the Ozarks.  For Japanese tastes it’s like eating a wild boar, which is like pork but very dry.

Their final verdict is that this taste isn’t really for Japanese people but probably the few Chinese or Korean people doing business abroad who want a taste of their home countries.

You monsters! How dare you?!

Probably if you’re asking this, you haven’t read this far into the article, but we’ll answer it anyways because it’s a valid question.

When it comes to eating meat, let they who are without infliction of pain onto living things throw the first stone.

Many people find eating dog is repulsive because we have met many dogs and would not like to eat them because of their personalities. However, that’s not to say many cows, chickens, and pigs and they have some personalities too.

We simply can’t look down on some people in China and Korea for eating dogs while we eat cows and chickens, it would be somewhat hypocritical to do so.  Even vegans, whom we respect, are denying certain life forms their right to live in the strictest sense.  When it comes to choosing what to eat, morality is just a matter of where you choose to draw the line.

Putting all ethical discussion aside, dog meat just isn’t very good.  None of our reporters who tried it will want to do it again, if not for the uncomfortable mental hurdle of eating it, then because it kind of sucks.

Photos: RocketNews24

Store Information:
Name: RakuRakuYa (Website）
Address: 2F Oono Building 1-29-6, Nishiikebukuto, Toshima, Tokyo (Google Maps)
Hours: 11:30AM-4:00AM, Lunch from 12:00PM-2:00PM, no holidays

WARNING: Some of these photos contain images of dishes containing dog meat. While not graphic, they may be disturbing to some readers.