All-you-can-eat yakiniku, curry, and ice cream, all for just 10 bucks at this Tokyo restaurant

If you’re hungry, strapped for cash, and/or indecisive, this Akihabara restaurant is for you.

Few places in Tokyo are better equipped to separate you from your money than Akihabara. The neighborhood is block after block of stores selling electronics, anime merchandise, and Japanese souvenirs, with wares being at a variety of prices that can drain budgets both small and large.

As such, you might find yourself faced with the difficult choice between filling your suitcase with cool stuff to take home and filling your stomach with food to sustain yourself through the rest of the day. But if you’re in the neighborhood at lunchtime, there’s an option that’s guaranteed to fill you up, no matter how big of an appetite you’ve got: all-you-can-eat yakiniku (Korean barbecue) for just 1,000 yen (US$9.70)

Only a block away from the Akihabara train and subway stations is Daishucho. We might not have noticed the fifth-floor restaurant if not for the sign out on the sidewalk in front of the building, proudly advertising its 60-minute, 1,000-yen all-you-can-eat yakiniku lunch deal, which is offered from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Stepping out of the elevator brought us to the entrance of the slightly weathered restaurant, and as we stepped through the door, the owner greeted us cheerfully and directed us to an open seat.

Most of the other diners were businessmen eating alone, meaning the air was filled with the sizzling sound of grilling meat. At lunch, Daishucho operates like a buffet, so we took our plate over to the refrigerator case, inside of which were lined up trays of beef, pork, chicken, and mutton.

▼ Sirloin and chicken

▼ Ginger marinade pork loin, beef short rib, spicy marinade pork loin, and kimchi pork

If you wanted to, you could make a whole meal out of nothing but meat, but there’s also a salad bar and container of white rice that you can serve yourself from.

Honestly, this alone would make the all-you-can-eat lunch a great deal, but next to the rice container are two more pots. One is filled with miso soup, and on the day we stopped by the traditionally thin soup had crab in it.

And inside the third pot you’ll find curry, meaning that the all-you-can eat yakiniku lunch is also an all-you-can eat curry lunch.

And as a final bit of generosity, you get dessert too, since the lunch set includes all-you-can-eat ice cream!

▼ There’s even chocolate sauce available.

It’s all further proof that Akihabara isn’t just a great place to shop, it’s now a great place to eat too.

Restaurant information
Daishucho / 大酋長
Address: Tokyo-to, Chiyoda-ku, Kanda Matsunagacho 1, First Building 5th floor
住所　東京都千代田区神田松永町1 ファーストビル5F
Open: 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. (every day), 4 p.m. – 11 p.m. (every day except Friday), 4 p.m. – 11:30 p.m. (Friday)

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