A note on the words: yakiniku is Japanese barbecue, where thin slices of beef are grilled at a burner set into your own table. The cuts have their own names — tan is beef tongue, tan-shio is tongue served simply salted, harami is the diaphragm, sold in the United States as skirt steak, kalbi is short rib, zabuton is a richly marbled slab off the chuck, and shinshin and ichibo are lean cuts from the round and the rump. Choregi is a Korean-style leaf salad dressed with sesame oil, yukgaejang is a spicy beef and vegetable soup, and a don is anything served over a bowl of rice.
Table of Contents hide
PONGA PREMIUM on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Hey, this is Hangover Meshi. Yakiniku this time! It’s on the ninth floor of GEMS Roppongi, the building near Roppongi Hills that I end up at often. I go to the restaurants in this building fairly regularly, lol. This time, the ninth floor! Grilled fish, then yakitori, and now at last the time has come to grill beef. Inside, we were shown to a private room. The private rooms have a grill set into the table, but there’s also a grill on the counter off to one side, in what looks like a zone where the staff do the cooking for you. Wondering whether they would or wouldn’t, I had a look at the menu.
First, a Hakushu highball!
Then the salad. They portioned it out and plated it for us.
It’s these little things that make the best drinking snacks. Korean seaweed is so good.
A big block of tofu with kimchi on top. Another one you want sitting on the table from the start.
And this is PONGA’s signature tatami-negi tan-shio.
Thin slices of salted beef tongue laid out flat, with a thick, neatly arranged layer of chopped scallions on top. Wow. That looks good.
It looked difficult to grill, and sure enough they grilled it for us. Keeping the scallions from falling off looks like real work.
One bite and the salted tongue is juicy, the scallions inside are soft and fluffy — just delicious!
And this is the zabuton katsu. Tender, juicy zabuton, breaded and fried. It has the savory depth and sweetness of a beef cutlet, and it’s delicious.
Sea urchin on top of wagyu! And on a gold plate, no less. Well, that’s Roppongi for you.
Tender and delicious. Meat sushi really works on its own terms, and it’s curious how well it goes with sea urchin.
Shinshin, premium kalbi, ichibo and zabuton. This one you grill yourself.
The lean cuts get eaten with this sauce with an egg yolk dropped into it!
So good!
Was this the sirloin, or was it the chateaubriand?
Grilled quickly and eaten with the egg. Loaded with sweet fat, melting away. Delicious!
The liver is fresh and springy. Tender and delicious!
This thick-cut harami is superb too. Very tender, and harami really is the cut for the second half of a yakiniku meal!
A gentle savory depth inside a moderate heat. Yukgaejang soup is a fine thing, isn’t it.
Finishing with meat as well! Ah, delicious! The soy sauce was a dark one, something like tamari.
Completely full! They cooked the difficult items for us, and being able to eat in a private room, talking at our own pace, left me thoroughly satisfied. Meat sushi with sea urchin on a gold plate, very Roppongi, plus good meat — it was simply a very satisfying yakiniku experience. It would work for a business dinner or something of that sort too. It had been a while since I’d eaten this much good meat, and I’m glad I did! Recommended!
PONGA PREMIUM (Yakiniku (Japanese BBQ) / Roppongi Station, Nogizaka Station, Azabu-juban Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.6
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
