A note on the words: yakiniku is Japanese-style grilled meat cooked at your own table; harami is the outside skirt, mino a cut of tripe, tare the dipping sauce; cholegi is a Korean-style leaf salad dressed with sesame oil. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).
Saiankaku on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Drinkers, thank you for waiting. It is Hangover Meshi time.
Work ran late and there was hardly anything still open! I thought about ramen, peered in, and every seat was taken; and the further you get from the station the fewer shops there are. This may be an enforced diet by way of skipping dinner… — and then, a yakiniku shop that looked as though it might still be open!
Grilled meat at this hour? Really? But needs must! Right — in we go!
Inside there was a single other customer.
Perhaps in the same predicament as me, I thought, feeling a certain sympathy, and took a booth seat.
Solo yakiniku in the middle of the night — I shall order a few things at a time!
First, this glass! It goes right through me!!!!! Delicious!!
Cholegi salad! Translated on the menu as “Korean-style salad”. Fair enough.
You would not believe it costs 600 yen! A considerable amount. Far too satisfying. It looks like enough for four! For one person it may be too much, but skip the rice and think of the cholegi as the rice instead, and it satisfies completely! I am grateful for the quantity!
Now, meat! It is the middle of the night, so let us go healthy. Healthy.
I ordered loin and prime harami. I hesitated over the prime loin, but thought the standard loin would feel leaner, so went with this. And grilling it — charcoal really is the best thing, is it not? Eating yakiniku alone at this hour does make one feel a little forlorn, but this charcoal warms you! In the heart!
Starting with the loin: the instant the fat drips onto the coals, fragrant smoke wraps around the meat, creating a charred savour gas could never produce. Thinly sliced yet with real chew — thoroughly satisfying! I am glad I chose the standard loin. It takes the tare well and makes you want white rice — but I have my cholegi!
And then the prime harami. Thick, well seasoned with the tare, delicious! The presence of a single slice is on another level entirely. Cut it open the moment the charcoal has coloured the surface and the inside is still juicy and faintly rare. Juices flood out with every chew, and the deep savour peculiar to harami combined with the toastiness of the charcoal is unstoppable. Should I have rice… no. Restraint.
Honestly, this alone is quite filling!
Since I was here I decided to enjoy it a little longer, ordered another highball, and asked for prime mino. Mino is a great favourite of mine anyway, but it goes superbly with charcoal!!! Seared briefly over a fierce flame, the surface chars slightly and turns fragrant while the inside keeps its spring — exactly right. And this tare is toasty and delicious too!
Mino in one hand, highball in the other. A completely different mood from the one I walked in with — pure happiness!
Three meat dishes was probably too much. Completely full. Deeply satisfied!
So — a yakiniku shop that rescued a late-night dinner refugee. I chatted a little with the lady running the place and she was extremely kind! She looked after me in all sorts of ways — much appreciated. The warmth of charcoal precisely because it was so late, the meat, the highball: thank you! Next time I find myself adrift, I shall certainly come here. Or indeed come at a more respectable hour for dinner^^
May you meet something good to eat today too.
Saiankaku (yakiniku / Kamiitabashi Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.5
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
