A note on the words: the storefront sign describes the restaurant as steak and churrasco — churrasco being the Brazilian style of open-flame grilled meat — though the menu itself keeps things simple, built around grass-fed beef, roast chicken, and curry.
Nikukai UNO on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Hey, this is Hangover Meshi. So, for lunch this time I went to a meat restaurant called Nikukai UNO, located roughly between Akasaka and Tameike-sanno. I’d known about it since it opened, of course, but lunchtime always looked pretty crowded, and I don’t really come out to Tameike-sanno much in the evenings, so I never managed to get there — until I happened to be passing by at lunchtime and it looked like I could get in, so I went straight in.
It’s really crowded inside! We got lucky — there were about two seats open when we walked in — but they filled up right away, and a small line formed outside. Wow, this place is popular.
150g Grass-Fed Beef and 100g Roast Chicken Plate — 1,200 yen
200g Chicken Curry — 1,100 yen
Grass-Fed Beef Curry — 1,200 yen
The menu is refreshingly simple — just combinations of curry, chicken and grass-fed roast beef!
Well, chicken plus roast beef, I suppose. So that’s what I went with.
Looking into the kitchen, they’re mass-producing salad ^^
Every plate gets vegetables on it without exception, so it’s a really efficient setup.
I imagine they get a huge number of customers, so they’ve optimized things right down to the limit.
And it comes out right after you order ^^
That was fast lol
The chicken is hidden under the roast beef, but so this is 150 grams of roast beef.
It looks like more than I expected — a real volume of it. And on top of that there’s 100 grams of chicken too, so it fills you up quite a bit!
The meat itself has a fairly firm bite, and it really gives you that I’m-eating-meat feeling.
Since it’s such solid meat, salt and pepper alone are more than enough.
There’s a soup on the side, and something like bread — small, butter-laden rolls.
Honestly, the meat and vegetables alone are enough to fill you up, so you could skip the bread and still be fine.
For 1,200 yen, this feels like really good value. No wonder it’s popular.
And this is the curry. The amount of meat is probably about the same, honestly (I’d guess so, since splitting it differently would be a hassle to run lol), but with curry and rice piled on top, it looks just as substantial. This one looks like it’ll fill you up too ^^
So, this is a place where you can eat this much solid meat for around 1,200 yen — great value. No wonder there’s a line; I feel like I understand why it’s so popular. At lunch, you just hand your payment straight to the staff (cash only) and get your change. At first glance that seems fast, but I have a feeling a ticket-machine or cashless-only system might actually be quicker. Cost considerations, I suppose! I’m a little curious how things work in the evening ^^
Nikukai UNO (Steak / Tameike-sanno Station, Akasaka Station, Kokkai-gijidomae Station)
Tabelog lunch rating ★★★☆☆ 3.4
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
