Sumibi Yakiniku Nakahara 炭火焼肉　なかはら, Tokyo

Our regime of visiting yakiniku restaurants in Japan started only in 2017. Since then we try to schedule at least 1 yakiniku meal when we plan our itinerary for Japan. Sumibi Yakiniku Nakahara is one of the names that often appear when we looked for yakiniku places to book. More importantly they serve the trending #wagyusando.

Hidden on 9th floor of an unassuming building, you would be greeted by this spacious dining hall once the lift doors open. As with many other higher end yakiniku restaurants, there are no trace of any smoky BBQ smell.

Having booked a course menu, I have no idea how many courses would we be having and we basically went to the restaurant with mindset of enjoying an omakase meal. We commenced our meal with a creamy Potato with beef consommé where the beef consommé were in gelatin cube form.

Yukhoe raw beef with egg The soft and tender beef was coated with silky egg yolk that accentuates the natural flavour and sweetness of the beef. A simple yet delicate dish.

Legendary Tongue: Tan-Moto (rear), Tan-Saki (tip) and Tan-Suji (tendon) in 3 different cuts. This is the most popular item on the menu and must be pre-ordered.

From here onwards, the stove was finally heated up and we get to hear the light symphony of meat sizzling on the wire gauze. All the offal/beef were grilled by chef at the table as they are the experts in controlling the heat and time, ensuring that every single piece of offal/meat is cooked to perfection.

You could see the beautiful cuts made on the gyutan before grilling to tenderize the cut, allowing sauces or marinades to penetrate deeper into it. It had a nice chewy texture with a slight crunch.

Up next was a Salad with 20 types of vegetables harvested from Ibaraki Prefecture including yellow carrot, paprika, cactus etc.

After the short vegan dish interval, we were back to our carnivore feast. Starting with this fabulous Sirloin.

Topside (inner thigh/uchi momo) and dry aged bone-in ribeye (?) (didn’t catch the cut) – both were lightly seasoned with a dash of salt and pepper. Beautifully marbled, the cooked meat were tender and juicy. It’s served with yuzu pepper and garlic soy sauce as condiments.

We took another break from the meat as we were served Oxtail soup and the variety of side dishes.

Excited to see more meat presented, Chuck(Kata Rosu) and Rib Finger (Nakaochi Karubi).

This piece looks like bak kwa from its squarish shape.

Large intestine (shimacho) and first of the four stomachs of the cow (mino). Served with yuzu kosho, grated radish and tare condiment. The mino has a chewy texture like cooked squid with a light crisp on the outside. The shimacho is named for its striped form fat, so it was fatty yet chewy. I prefer the mino over the shimacho.

Up next was one of the highlight of this meal – Beef fillet sandwich. There are two course meal options when you make a reservation, so you would have to choose the larger course menu if you wish to have this sando!

It is served with the Bernard Dark Lager from Czech Republic. An unpasteurized beer brewed from four types of malt, with a distinctive full flavour and a light bitterness.

No regrets to stuff myself with this nicely toasted bread with a juicy beef katsu!

If you are still not full yet, fear not as up next is a mini-size Gyudon.

To round of the meal we finished with cold Somen. This is my favourite part of yakiniku meals – to slurp down the cooling fine silky noodles. During my earlier yakiniku venture at Yakiniku Jambo Hanare, we spotted other diners ordering the cold somen at the end of the meal and found it interesting. However being noobs, we were too full from the beef feast. Now I appreciate ending the grilled meal with a icy cold noodles to soothe the throat.

Last but not least – the ice cream.

We finished the course meal within 2 hours, which was pretty quick. Perhaps having a dedicated chef serving us throughout the meal helped. In honesty, there was still some stomach space for more meat. At ¥20,570 (S$250) per pax for the course meal WITHOUT the sandwich, I think there are other more value-for-money places offering yakiniku which might be just as satisfying to folks with ordinary tastebuds like me.

The ¥24,805 (S$300) per pax course meal INCLUDING the wagyu katsu sando is what most diners came for. Afterall this place is the real OG. Once you tasted the wagyu katsu sando here, its hard to find another one that beats them.

Wagyu katsu sando aficionados can also check out Wagyumafia. Their Nakameguro outlet serves up sandwiches starting from ¥1,000 (minced beef), up to ¥23,000 (Kobe chateaubriand) or even the ¥35,000 (Kobe dry aged) if you want to try their top range high-end sandwich. Do note that the outlet is decked out in a casual setting, not a restaurant.

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