A note on the words: yakiniku is Japanese tabletop barbecue, where diners grill various cuts of beef over flame. Yaki-suki refers to thinly sliced beef quickly seared at the table and dipped into raw beaten egg, sukiyaki-style. Horumon denotes beef or pork offal, here white horumon grilled with green chili. Duck blood curd (congealed blood jelly) is a Taiwanese specialty mentioned here purely as a visual comparison for the sous-vide raw-style beef. Shime is the closing course of a drinking meal, served here unexpectedly as cold noodles in a creamy basil soy-milk broth.
Satsuma Ushi no Kura 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. I wanted to eat yakiniku! So looking around near Azabu-juban for a place to have grilled meat, this is the spot I found: “Satsuma Ushi no Kura Azabu-Juban”. Walking down the Azabu-juban shopping street from the Roppongi side, you will see a 7-Eleven on your left, and it is right down in the basement! When you arrive, there is a bus-stop style sign set out that really catches the eye.
Miyabi course — 8,200 yen
Yakiniku kaiseki course — 8,200 yen
Gyutan tsukushi (all beef tongue) course — 6,700 yen
For the Miyabi course, you can add all-you-can-drink for +2,000 yen!
Well then, that works for me, so I went with the Miyabi course with all-you-can-drink for 10,200 yen.
And so the course begins!
First up, the salad! You occasionally hear about “enzyme salad,” but I wonder what part of it is the enzyme?
Looking quite nice!
Starting from the top right: simmered turnip with thin fried tofu, sea bream cured like prosciutto, simmered beef; bottom row from the left: kimchi, vegetable namul, Korean-style seasoned vegetables (broccoli here, ha), and sous-vide raw-style beef. That sous-vide beef looks uncannily like duck blood curd, the kind you often see in Taiwanese cooking – beef, of course, not duck! Having appetizers come out first makes for great beer snacks, so I quite like that.
Mmm, looks delicious!
Thick-cut premium tongue with salt and thick-cut steak. Lean cut and short rib with scallion and salt.
Starting with the thick-cut tongue, following up with the scallion-salt short rib combo is the absolute best!
Next came the sukiyaki set with an egg and a bite of rice!
Apparently a comparison of lean cut and melt-in-your-mouth marbled cuts!
Delicious! The marbled cut simply melts and pairs perfectly with that single bite of rice.
Sauce-grilled premium short rib, sauce-grilled premium loin, premium outside skirt with ssam lettuce leaves for wrapping, and white horumon grilled with green chili!
Saving horumon for the very end is quite a neat touch.
Somehow, the closing dish takes a surprisingly adventurous turn with basil soy-milk cold noodles, ha.
Well, with its refreshing crispness and mellow creaminess, it was actually quite delicious. Even though I was a bit startled when it first came out.
Finally, things wrapped up with sherbet for dessert.
And so, since it was all-you-can-drink, my impression is that I ended up drinking quite a bit.
I had been wanting to eat yakiniku for a while, so this course was very satisfying. Considering the all-you-can-drink option, it feels fairly reasonable for Azabu-juban, so if the chance arises, I would like to visit again!
Satsuma Ushi no Kura Azabu-Juban (Yakiniku / Azabu-juban Station, Roppongi Station, Akabanebashi 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?
