A note on the words: yakiniku is Japanese-style grill-it-yourself barbecue, cooked over a burner set into your table. Kalbi is short rib and mino is the first stomach of the cow, one of the horumon cuts — offal, the organ meats that are their own genre at a yakiniku table. Tare is the sweet-savory soy dipping sauce. Kuppa is a soup eaten to close out a yakiniku meal, and yakiniku-don is grilled beef served over a bowl of rice.
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Sankoen on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Hi, this is Hangover Meshi. This time, one of the long-standing yakiniku houses of Azabu-juban — “Sankoen“! I get the feeling Azabu-juban has an unusual number of yakiniku places. And a lot of them seem to be old-established shops that have been around a good while. Maybe yakiniku was a big thing here once. This time I went to one of them, Sankoen! Their weekday-lunch-only yakiniku-don is the famous item, you know. I have memories of going there quite a bit at lunchtime.
This may be my first time coming at night. Our seats were on the second floor. Not full, but plenty lively. The order-taking looked pretty frantic too. It must be hard going when you are short of staff.
We looked over the menu and decided to just order a la carte as we went.
First, a beer!
To start, some meat ordered more or less at random. Salt-grilled beef tongue. The well-worn roaster is part of the charm. Grill it until it sizzles and — yes, tender and very good.
The heavily seasoned tare sauce works nicely. It is the old-fashioned kind of yakiniku you can keep popping into your mouth as a drinking snack.
This is the salad. Salads at yakiniku places are always excellent, partly because the dressing is good, but also because it is mixed all the way through — literally dressed. Which is how every salad ought to be, if you ask me.
And then the grilled premium mino tripe. Grill it well and enjoy that crunchy bite. One of the horumon cuts I always order when I come for yakiniku!
Liver at a yakiniku place is delicious too. Give it a quick sear and eat it before it toughens up.
Last came kuppa to fill up, and that was that!
Yes, that was good. For a neighborhood yakiniku joint the prices may be a touch on the high side overall! Well, it is Azabu-juban. That said, the meat is unquestionably as good as the price suggests, so you can order with confidence. I learned afterwards that, by some accounts, the place had closed for a while and then came back. I hope the yakiniku-don keeps going too — it is a famous old-established yakiniku house, after all! May it carry on for a long time yet! Maybe I will come back once I have made the rounds of the yakiniku places again.
Sankoen (Yakiniku / Azabu-juban Station, Akabanebashi Station, Roppongi Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.5
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
