A note on the words: yukhoe is Japanese-style beef tartare, marbled raw beef seasoned and often topped with a raw egg yolk. Kalbi is grilled short rib, and harami is skirt steak — a lean cut Japanese diners prize as much as any marbled one. Komtang is a clear Korean beef-bone soup, yukgaejang is its spicier, shredded-beef cousin, gukbap is rice served in broth, and naengmyeon is cold buckwheat noodles — all common ways to finish a Korean-style yakiniku meal.
Yakiniku-dokoro Juju, Nishiazabu on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Hey, this is Hangover Meshi. When it comes to yakiniku in Nishiazabu, it’s Yugentei and Juju, right? Even though I’ve spent this much time around here, I’d actually never been to Juju, so I decided to book a reservation and go. It’s right at the Nishiazabu intersection — I’d guess just about everyone has seen that big Juju sign. Walking up to the entrance, it feels like a pretty ordinary yakiniku place. The layout inside is spacious and unhurried, and there really is a long-established feel to it. I wonder if this is what Nishiazabu used to feel like, a while back.
[Weekday-only Juju course with all-you-can-drink] 11 dishes, 14,800 yen
[Juju Standard Course] 8,600 yen
[Juju Anniversary Course] 11,500 yen
On weekdays there’s apparently a course with all-you-can-drink built right in, at a good price.
That’s a relief! So this time we went with the weekday-only Juju course with all-you-can-drink.
Stir-fried shrimp, kimchi, and scallion wrapped in raw beef! I like that the meat shows up right away. Delicious.
And then the Juju salad. It’s a pretty generous portion, but you can never eat too much salad, right!
This one is delicious too! You give it a good mix with your chopsticks and portion it out.
This is apparently Juju’s specialty, or its signature dish, lol — salted tongue wrapped in finely chopped scallion.
If you sear just one side well and roll it up, the scallion might stay put. Flip it over and it’s a disaster, so be careful, lol. The tongue stays tender and delicious even grilled, and the clean, fresh scent of the scallion pairs beautifully with it — wonderful meat!!!
In front is the Kuroge Wagyu filet, and behind it the premium salted harami!!
Harami is my favorite cut. I decided to start with the filet. It’s already sliced, so you just lay it straight on the grill. Since it’s a lean cut, I grill it to about medium-rare and dig in. Mmm — rich, deep beef flavor, and really good meat. It’s lean, but there’s just the right amount of marbling running through it, tender and delicious.
Harami is already not too fatty and easy to eat as it is, and the salt seasoning makes it even lighter. Even easier to eat.
Mmm, tender and delicious! Even though it’s kalbi, the fattiness doesn’t feel like too much, which is great.
The premium lean cut. This one actually has more fat and is delicious, but it’s the kind of meat where you think, maybe one slice is enough? lol
There’s actually quite a variety to choose from for the finishing dish!
Juju rice (a bowl of raw domestic Kuroge Wagyu loin over rice), or bibimbap.
Komtang, yukgaejang, an egg-and-vegetable-and-wakame soup, or gukbap. There’s also naengmyeon, among other things. We’d already gone through a good number of dishes and were getting pretty full, so in the end I asked for the yukgaejang soup. Packed with ingredients, and it looked seriously good! One bite in, the right amount of spice and the savoriness of the beef stock come together into a comforting flavor — excellent!
The dessert at the end is also a choice. This one was, I think, some kind of seasonal-fruit pudding?
Since all-you-can-drink was included, I ended up going through an endless string of highballs, and even so the whole thing came to 14,800 yen, so I thought the value was actually pretty good. The meat being delicious goes without saying, but the seating is nice and spacious too, with a calm, settled atmosphere. Once you don’t have to worry about how much the drinks are costing, I imagine this becomes a really easy place to use for a dinner with company too!
Yakiniku-dokoro Juju, Nishiazabu (Yakiniku (Japanese BBQ) / Roppongi Station, Nogizaka Station, Hiroo 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?
