A note on the words: shabu-shabu means thin slices of meat swished briefly through hot broth at the table, so lamb shabu is that done with lamb. Aburi means seared with a flame, usually a blowtorch passed over the top, and a piece of sushi is a hand-pressed finger of vinegared rice with something laid over it. Negi is the Japanese leek or scallion and tare is a sauce, so negi-dare is a sauce loaded with chopped negi; tsuke-dare is the separate dipping sauce you take each mouthful through. Hinabe is the Japanese reading of the Chinese huoguo, a hot pot of spiced broth; its pan is often divided so that two broths can simmer side by side. Kushi means a skewer. A highball is whisky lengthened with soda. Shime is the closing dish of a drinking meal, usually noodles or rice. Ryugan is the Japanese name for the longan, a small dried fruit. Toki is angelica root. Akaboshi, the red star, is what people call Sapporo Lager.
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Azaya on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Hello, this is Hangover Meshi. Dinner this time took me to Ikebukuro! To a lamb shabu place called “Azaya.” When you say lamb shabu, Kin no Me in Shimbashi and places like it are famous, but I had no idea there was somewhere in Ikebukuro where you could eat it. It has only been open about a year, apparently — this should be good. As for getting there, it may be closer to come out of the north exit of Ikebukuro. Straight along Tokiwa-dori. It is in an easy spot to find, so I do not think you will have any trouble, ha.
Under 1% of the lamb distributed in Japan!! Made with Icelandic lamb [The lamb shabu course sheep lovers have been waiting for] 4,980 yen
Medicinal herbs x lamb = superb [Ladies, take note!! The lamb shabu course eaten in a medicinal-herb broth] 5,980 yen
The staff packed in everything they recommend! [Azaya recommended course] 4,980 yen
You can apparently add free-flow drinks too: 2,200 yen for the standard free-flow, 400 yen more for the Akaboshi free-flow, and 3,000 yen if you go premium. Nice to have the free-flow option! This time, since I was here, I chose the lamb-shabu-led [The lamb shabu course sheep lovers have been waiting for]! Looking forward to it.
First, a highball to toast with!
Properly cold and very good!
And at the same time, the first item on the menu arrives: the seared sushi.
Sushi with negi-dare, and sushi with cheese. The Icelandic lamb is fresh enough that you could apparently eat it raw.
They sear it with a blowtorch right in front of you. That toasty smell makes it look very good indeed.
Once the searing is done, I start with the negi-dare one, in a single mouthful!!
Hmm, good.
Lamb, delicious! That fresh lamb aroma might really suit the negi-dare.
On the cheese side, the part where the rich cheese has caught and browned under the flame is the good bit. If you love sheep, this might be irresistible.
This one is the style where you eat it with garlic and salt.
The garlic suits it brilliantly, ha. The fat is light and clean, which makes it an easy skewer to eat.
This one looks fiery at a glance, but they seem to use a sweet Korean chili, so it does not taste as hot as it looks and you can eat it without worrying. The chili flavor and the cumin aroma go superbly with lamb.
Right, at last, the main event: the lamb shabu.
Hinabe style, with a spicy broth and a non-spicy one.
The round objects floating in them are, when I asked, a spice called ryugan. Ryugan…! What a name, ha. Trying each of the broths, the red one has its heat held back and is very easy to drink. A complex spice aroma spreads softly through your mouth, but it is not strongly salted either — gentle enough that I wanted to put it in a thermos and carry it around. A spice called toki is what gives it its character, they said. I see, I see.
And then the vegetable platter.
As is usual with hotpots of this kind, the broth keeps deepening in flavor as you cook the ingredients in it from here! I am looking forward to seeing how it develops from that first taste. You start with the mushrooms. And this is the tsuke-dare. Unlike the broth, the dipping sauce is made quite strongly flavored. It is delicious eaten with no sauce at all, and it also works to dip occasionally and get a sharper, more defined taste.
And now, at last, the meat arrives!
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Look at how it is piled! It turns up in full mountain formation.
Lamb fresh enough to eat raw. Take a slightly generous helping, swish it and eat, they said.
So I grab a good clump with my chopsticks and in it goes to the hotpot. The color changes before your eyes and it looks wonderful.
And eating it — it is unbelievably soft, ha.
None of the muttony smell you get with lamb at all; what stands up instead is the aroma lamb alone has. Since they said you can eat it raw, I tried it raw as well, and it genuinely works raw too. It is cut very thin, so putting it in your mouth feels like it dissolves. Yes, good. And this mountain of lamb has real volume to it, ha. It fills you up.
And then two portions of rice appear. Put the swished lamb on top of these and eat them as meat sushi, they said.
Well, that is good, ha.
Little by little the broth deepens with the stock from the meat and vegetables. Right about then comes the shime, a ramen.
The broth has deepened and is good, but dipping the noodles into the tsuke-dare makes it a fairly hearty thing, which is just right for the close!
Well now, that filled me up! Thoroughly satisfied.
So then, this lamb shabu — the volume, yes, but what is good is that the lamb shabu itself is so delicious! It is not the usual shabu-shabu in an ordinary broth but hinabe style, loaded with spice, which is the best part. The combination of the spices in the broth and the lamb is outstanding! Since it is the kind of lamb you can also eat raw, the style I would recommend is picking at it raw now and then and enjoying the white broth and the red broth however you like. And above all, that mountain of lamb is a serious quantity, so whatever way you try eating it, I do not think you will run out any time soon, ha.
Azaya (Jingisukan / Ikebukuro Station, Kanamecho Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.7
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
