A note on the words: yakiniku is Japanese-style grilled meat, cooked by you at the table. Karubi is marbled short rib, harami the outside skirt, mino and senmai are two cuts of beef tripe, namul a seasoned vegetable side, and tare the dipping sauce. The shop in this post was formerly called Ryukaen. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).
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29 Junky 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.
Yakiniku in Roppongi this time! I wanted somewhere calm, to eat and talk quietly — so, not one of the boisterous places but a hidden-gem grill house. Usually quiet, and genuinely good. It was a favourite of mine — and when I turned up, the name had changed!
And to “29 Junky”, no less! A considerable swerve in the funky direction.
When it used to have the handsome old name “Ryukaen”!!!
Inside, though, only the sign had changed — everything else was the same. A relief^^ The whole room is tatami seating, so you can settle in and relax while you eat. And perhaps because it faces a police station, people find it hard to walk into? It stays open quite late and is still never busy.
Right — Ryukaen for the first time in ages. I mean 29 Junky. Let us eat!
First? Beeer!
Three kinds: rakkyo (pickled shallot) kimchi, napa cabbage kimchi and cucumber kimchi.
The rakkyo kimchi is excellent!
These go straight onto the grill as they are — grilled, or rather deep-fried in their own way.
Heat turns them fluffy and sticky, with a sweetness like chestnut.
That mellow sweetness with the toasty char is delicious!
“Prime tongue”! One does want the good meat first, after all — so, the prime cut.
Marked on the surface but finished towards rare inside, it releases a flood of juicy savour. Thick, springy, excellent meat! And harami (outside skirt) is a great favourite of mine! Leaner and meatier in texture, and the more you chew the more juice seeps out!
Prime karubi! That fine web of marbling running through it is irresistible too. Ideal with beer.
Over the charcoal, the fat drips and hisses and fragrant smoke rises.
Mark the surface crisp, then straight into the mouth. The instant you bite, the marbled fat melts all at once and the savour of the lean and the sweetness of the fat arrive together — this is what karubi is for. It goes brilliantly with the tare, and makes you want a bowl of rice.
Loin Junky! Not “prime loin” or anything so ordinary! It uses kuroge wagyu loin, with a fine balance of lean and fat and plenty of marbling. It is a refined cut, so grill it briefly, just searing the surface, and keep it towards rare! Eating it, the fine-grained loin gives way softly and the savour of the lean and the sweetness of the fat spread out at once.
If you are having yakiniku, you have mino — it is guaranteed to be good, so I order it wherever I go!
And among the offal cuts, liver is another certainty!
I found myself wanting the home-barbecue feel of pork belly, so I added that too. Mark it well, grill until some of the fat has rendered off and the edges crisp — delicious. Bite in and the gentle sweetness of pork fat spreads out; taken hard with the tare, it is made for beer.
The meat course being more or less complete, we moved into the zone of small things to drink over.
It feels like something one should have ordered first: spicy bean-sprout namul — a fine thing to drink alongside.
We ate plenty! It was delicious!
Beyond the name, I never did work out what changed from Ryukaen — but the meat is good enough to put you in a suitably junky mood. Still quiet, still an extremely comfortable room to eat in; that is what I love about it. I shall have to keep coming and eating to keep it alive! So when the urge for yakiniku in Roppongi strikes you at night, do give it a thought!
May you meet something good to eat today too.
29 Junky (yakiniku / Roppongi Station, Roppongi-itchome Station, Nogizaka 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?
