A note on the words: gyutan is beef tongue, sliced thick and grilled over charcoal. A teishoku, or set meal, pairs the main dish with rice, soup and pickles on one tray. The grades on the menu run upward from ordinary aged tongue through jo (premium) and tokujo (extra premium) to gokusen, the top grade. Tororo is grated yam, white and slippery, spooned over rice. Hitsumabushi is a style where the meat is served over rice in a wooden tub and eaten in several ways across the meal. Nanban miso is a fermented soybean paste made with chili. Yoshoku means the Western-derived dishes Japan has been remaking as its own since the nineteenth century — beef stew among them.
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Gyutan Keyaki Azabu-juban on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Hello, this is Hangover Meshi. This time I decided to try Keyaki, the beef tongue place that got people talking after the Ad-Machi Azabu-juban feature. Apparently the head shop is in Sendai, and Azabu-juban is its first landing in Tokyo. Well, you have to go at least once, right? I turned up on the day without booking, and it was not all that crowded — I got straight in, which was a relief. Ordering works by scanning a QR code and adding them as a LINE friend. Being able to order from your own phone is certainly the easier way to do it.
Tokujo grilled tongue set meal, 5 slices: 2,700 yen
Jo grilled tongue set meal, 4 slices: 2,200 yen
Gokusen grilled tongue set meal: 3,500 yen
Thick-cut three-kind assortment set meal: 3,000 yen
Tokusen gyutan hitsumabushi set: 3,000 yen
Sendai aged grilled tongue set meal: 1,800 yen
Quite a lineup! The basis of it is the grilled tongue set meal, running from ordinary aged up through jo, tokujo and gokusen.
Beyond that there seems to be one where you can order a three-kind assortment, and a gokusen hitsumabushi set. Which to choose…
But you really have to go for the gokusen, and I am weak to the words “limited quantity” anyway. Gokusen it is.
There was something like +300 yen? Or was it +500 yen?
Anyway, you could swap the oxtail soup for beef tongue stew, so I added that as well.
With the gokusen grilled tongue set meal you get to choose how many slices it is cut into. I think the options were four, six and eight.
Four would somehow feel more thick-cut and satisfying, but
there are five condiments, and I also wanted to enjoy it plain and with just salt, so I asked for eight slices.
I put in the order, chatted for a while, and then the set meal arrived!
Oh wow. That looks delicious.
Actually — even cut into eight it is plenty thick, is it not. Cut into four this would surely be too thick, ha. Probably.
The condiments are gyutan nanban miso, fresh wasabi, gyutan “edible” chili oil, salted lemon, and crunchy gyutan soy sauce
Right then, let us work through them one at a time.
First, plain. Yes, gokusen indeed. Seriously tender and delicious. How to put it — the flavor of the meat itself feels concentrated.
It is plenty good on its own, but a little salt brings out the sweetness and savor even more. Doing the whole thing this way would be entirely satisfying. Next, the lemon salt. Lemon obviously works, but this is meat that holds up perfectly well without lemon’s brightness, so plain salt is enough. The gyutan nanban miso is just plain good on its own, ha. Even without eating it alongside the tongue, I feel like picking away at it as a drinking snack while working through some booze.
Barley rice and tororo come with it, and this barley rice really does go with beef tongue.
The beef stew I ordered as an addition — or rather, as an upgrade.
And this too is delicious.
Deeply rich, the sort of beef stew you get at a yoshoku place. And the tongue, simmered until it falls apart, is tender enough to break up with chopsticks. You do not need teeth for this. If you can upgrade from the oxtail soup, I think you should!
Gokusen beef tongue. Having eaten it, I can say this really is delicious! A bit pricey, but beef tongue does cost a fair amount these days as a matter of course. Even if it is more than the ordinary tongue, being able to experience this quality feels well within the acceptable range to me. It was seriously good, so why not try the gokusen at least once? They seem to do bento boxes as well, so maybe next time I will order a bento here. I want to go again!
Gyutan Keyaki Azabu-juban (Beef Tongue / Azabu-juban Station, Roppongi Station, Akabanebashi Station)
Tabelog lunch rating ★★★☆☆ 3.6
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
