A note on the words: yakiniku is Japanese-style grilled meat, cooked slice by slice on a grill set into your table. Rosu is the loin, a leaner cut, while kalbi is short rib and the fattier standard; shinshin and marukawa are further named cuts that a specialist will list one by one. Tan is beef tongue and harami is the skirt, taken from the diaphragm. Horumon is the general word for offal cuts. Kimchi needs no introduction, but namul are the seasoned vegetable side dishes served alongside it, and yukgaejang is a Korean soup of shredded beef and vegetables in a chili-red broth. Shime is the closing dish of a drinking night, usually rice or noodles or a bowl of soup.
Yakiniku Rosuken, Azabu-juban main shop on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Hey, this is Hangover Meshi. Tonight’s dinner is a yakiniku place on the Roppongi Hills and TV Asahi side of the Azabu-juban shopping street, “Yakiniku Rosuken.” It has been on my mind for a while. I’ve reached the age where rosu inevitably tastes better to me than kalbi, lol. So off I went to a place that makes rosu its selling point. I had booked a private room and was shown to one at the back. The room holds two tables and you use one of them, so space-wise it does feel like being tucked away in a corner, lol
Rosuken Tasting Course with 90 minutes of all-you-can-drink: 11,000 yen
Rosuken Tasting Course: 7,000 yen
Rosu & Horumon Course: 5,500 yen
Early-bird Course: 5,500 yen
This time, the Rosuken Tasting Course with all-you-can-drink. If 11,000 yen includes the drinks, that may well be rather good value.
Well, you know. The thing without which nothing begins.
The style here is that they grill everything for you.
And from here, the assorted rosu.
Rosu, shinshin, marukawa and so on — we worked through the rosu cut by cut, with an explanation of each as it came.
Lean it may be, but the meat carries just enough fat that richness and juiciness live side by side in it, and it’s very good.
This one, for instance, was really delicious.
This is rosu as well. This one has a little more fat to it.
“Rosu” turns out to cover quite a wide range with plenty of variety in it, so that was educational ^^
And this is harami.
Harami, my favorite meat of all! It really is better when it’s cut in solid chunks like this.
Being the diaphragm, it apparently counts more as horumon, but in my own mind it’s simply a clean-tasting lean meat.
Good meat — one slice is enough to satisfy!
For the closing course the style is that you order whatever you like from the shime menu.
Honestly I was pretty full by then, so I went for the yukgaejang soup! The half size was just right.
So — Rosuken, not bad at all, is it. Nothing sat heavily and it was clean, tasty yakiniku. Well, if there is one thing, it’s that they grill everything for you, which in itself is fine. And they talk to you a great deal, which is also very enjoyable. But I had taken a private room precisely because I wanted a good long conversation, and the conversation went nowhere at all, which was a shame lol. Well, now I know, so I’ll have to pick the place to suit the occasion! The rosu was of course delicious!
Yakiniku Rosuken, Azabu-juban main shop (Yakiniku / Azabu-juban Station, Roppongi Station, Hiroo Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.4
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
