A note on the words: motsuyaki is grilled pork offal skewers, while motsunabe is a warming hot pot of pork offal simmered with cabbage and garlic chives, finished here with champon noodles. Motsu-sashi is a plate of raw offal, dote-nikomi is offal simmered in rich, sweet miso and served at this shop with garlic toast, and nomihodai is an all-you-can-drink plan that on this course included sake.
Table of Contents hide
Miroku Azabujuuban ten 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, a drinking party at Miroku in Azabu-juban! Speaking of Miroku, it is known as a delicious motsuyaki (grilled pork offal) restaurant in Akasaka, but I had no idea they had a branch in Azabu-juban too! Having motsuyaki once in a while is great, isn’t it? When the weather gets colder, I feel an urge to eat it. So for this visit, we had reserved a set course with nomihodai (all-you-can-drink)!
This time we were seated in the tatami room on the second floor. The ground-floor counter looks like they grill right in front of you, which seemed like it would have been nice too.
Miroku Great Satisfaction Course (with 2-hour all-you-can-drink, 2.5-hour table stay; includes sake) — 6,000 yen
Miroku Regular Course (with 1.5-hour all-you-can-drink, 2-hour table stay) — 5,000 yen
Chef’s Recommended Course (with 2-hour all-you-can-drink, 2.5-hour table stay) — 5,500 yen
This time we went with the Miroku Great Satisfaction Course, which comes with the premium all-you-can-drink plan, the one that runs to sake. Looking forward to it!
Crisp-fried skin, shime-saba (cured mackerel), and cream cheese marinated in soy sauce.
This cream cheese marinated in soy sauce has a rich, deep flavor and is exceedingly good! These three snacks hit the sweet spot brilliantly! Every one of them is tasty and pairs so well with alcohol!
Nankotsu (cartilage) and tan (tongue)! The nankotsu has a firm, satisfying crunch. The tongue is tender and delicious!
This is the one you want, of course! Delicious! Harami (skirt, the diaphragm)! You definitely want to enjoy it with plenty of karashi mustard!
Garlic toast and dote-nikomi actually go together quite nicely.
The dote-nikomi has a pleasantly sweet seasoning. The fluffy, tender offal is delicious!
Nodobue (windpipe) with its distinctive, crunchy texture. Texture-wise it might be close to something like kikurage (wood-ear mushroom), perhaps? As you chew, the flavor oozes out, which is delicious.
Shiro (pork large intestine) generously coated in sauce is so good, isn’t it? The fat melts with a juicy burst of flavor. Really gets the drinks flowing!
And finally, the motsunabe hot pot.
These plump, generous pieces of offal with garlic chives and cabbage are so good. When this season comes around, you really crave motsunabe!
Once it has simmered thoroughly, you eat the hot pot first, and once that is finished you can choose between zosui (rice porridge) or champon noodles.
This time we chose champon noodles! Delicious!
And lastly, apple sorbet was served for dessert, concluding the meal.
We made generous use of the all-you-can-drink, so 6,000 yen might actually be a bargain for all this. Eating all the way through the champon noodles leaves you with a high level of satisfaction in terms of volume too! That said, I felt like I would have liked a few more skewers, so next time I come I might try working through skewers off the a la carte menu! Akasaka is great, but the Azabu-juban shop was comfortable and very enjoyable!
Miroku Azabujuuban ten (Izakaya / Azabu-juban Station, Akabanebashi Station, Roppongi 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?
