JVlog #15: Tokyo Dining - Gyumon (Yakiniku aka Japanese BBQ)

Good Day Everyone,

Hubby and I recently headed out for dinner in the Shibuya area of Tokyo to a yakiniku restaurant. Yakiniku literally means grilled meat in Japanese and is the term used to describe a Japanese BBQ where you grill bite sized pieces of meat at the table - a kind of do it yourself concept.

We had read really positive reviews on TripAdvisor about a restaurant called Gyumon which uses halal certified meat and given that halal meat is quite difficult to come across in Japan, we were super excited to try this place out :o).

Gyumon is a good 10mins walk from Shibuya station. To get to the restaurant you head towards the Shibuya Police Station and walk along the main road that runs parallel to the Tokyu Toyoko train line on the map. Once you pass the Police Station, after about 5mins of walking there is a 7-Eleven convenience store on the left, and just after that there is a narrow little side street, still on the left, that you turn into and Gyumon is on the right, just before a shoe store. If you walk past the 7-Eleven and come to a large cross road junction then it means you've passed the little side street that you needed to turn into. Here is a Google map link, in case you ever wish to find it.

Gyumon is a tiny little place which you can easily miss if you blink. As you can see from the photo above, it has no obvious name on the front in English, but there is a little board with newspaper/magazine cuttings and the halal sign in front of the restaurant.

 

The restaurant is spread over two floors but despite this there is limited seating. I'd recommend making a reservation if you can or getting there when it first opens, which is what we did, otherwise you will have to queue outside.

The interior of the restaurant is kind of basic and sparse with posters and drawings on the walls, but don't let that put you off because what it lacks in visual aesthetics, it more than makes up for in it's food :o).

Above each table is a long silver extraction flute and underneath that is where the BBQ grill containing the charcoal is placed.

 Like the interior, the menu itself is also pretty simple.

We opted for the set menu which comes with three different types of beef (beef shoulder, beef round meat and beef rib loin), a bowl of rice, a bowl of salad and a drink, all for ¥4,000 plus tax. We then supplemented this with a second bowl of rice as we were unsure of the portion size. We also added a portion of vegetables for the grill because my hubby isn't much of a meat eater.

The meat portions were quite generous as was the portion of rice and in hindsight we could easily have done without that second bowl of rice. The meat comes lightly seasoned and with two different types of sauces; chilli and BBQ.

Now hubby and I are no meat experts, but I can honestly tell you that this was some of the best meat we've ever tasted. It was very tender and juicy but also very flavoursome without the chilli and BBQ sauce. It was great fun cooking the meat ourselves, as and when we wanted to eat it, thus ensuring it was always nice and hot. You can see us in action in the short video below.

We thoroughly enjoyed our first experience of a yakiniku restaurant and would highly recommend Gyumon. Although the food is very simple, it is extremely tasty and satisfying with generous portion sizes. Plus the staff are really friendly too.

Have you ever tried a yakiniku restaurant? Are there any restaurants in Tokyo that you would recommend? I'd love to hear your suggestions :o).

Love Sheen xxx

JVlog #9: Japanese Supermarket Shopping

Good Day Everyone,

In this week's Japan vlog I take you grocery shopping with me to our local supermarket here in Japan. Most supermarkets in Japan tend to be based in the basement section of the shopping malls, rather than stand alone stores, like we often have in England.

The supermarkets themselves are quite different to the ones back home. The ones in Japan tend to focus predominantly on the 'food' items, unlike stores in England which often sell items ranging from clothes and shoes to gardening tools and household appliances...a sort of 'everything all under one roof' kind of thing. Items such as cleaning products, detergents and toilet tissue etc whilst available in the supermarket, the space dedicated to them is very small. I don't actually recall ever seeing shampoo, conditioner and body wash etc in our local supermarket, apart from in a small travel kit available by the checkout, as most people go to the drug store for such items.

The supermarkets in Japan tend to be a lot smaller than in England. Most don't have large shopping trolleys, instead you have a little hand basket which you either carry or wheel around in a small trolley. Our local supermarket has a fishmongers in store and the fish section is in fact one of the larger sections of the supermarket, as you may expect in Japan :o).

I've yet to see an in store bakery. In fact the bakery section is one of the smallest sections of the supermarket and in our local one you can't really buy anything much more than basic white bread. It's hard to come across the range and diversity in bread that we have in England where you can buy anything from gluten free to multi-grain. Shopping malls do often have separate bakery stores in the food halls where you can buy a wide variety of bread based products such as baguettes, sweet and savoury pastries, and bread rolls. However, it's rare to find anything that's not made from the white constipation inducing stuff. Living in England and Singapore we rarely ate bread and when we did it was wholemeal multi-grain. However, as our cooking/eating options are much more restricted in Japan due to the lack of an oven/grill and halal food options, white bread has made a forced appearance back into our diet :o(.

With tax, one of these melons costs £24 / $36USD

Fruit is VERY expensive in Japan, especially melons, and some strawberries will cost you £1 per strawberry! In fact, if you watch the video below you can see the groceries I bought, all for the price of ONE melon!

As you would expect there is plenty of rice, noodles, tofu and dried fish options. In fact, where in England you often find sugary drinks and sweets at the checkout, in Japan it tends to be dried fish and nuts. 

I hope you enjoyed this little tour of our local Japanese supermarket :o)

Love Sheen xxx

JVlog #5: SOGO Food Hall & Malls

Good Day Everyone,

I typically try and post a video on a Friday but this past week has been a little tough. The weather has been incredibly cold in our part of Japan. Yesterday I woke up to a blanket of snow and it rained all day. The wind was the icy, migraine inducing kind, so I went about my day wearing my winter beanie. All this cold wet weather has taken a toll on my arthritic joints and as a result I've been in a lot more pain than usual. So I apologies for the quality of this video. My editing is not great, in fact its quite jerky in places. All this tech stuff is new to me and I'm learning as I go, so please bear with me :o)

In this video, we take you around the food hall in the SOGO department store. Typically, most malls and department stores in Japan have a food hall in the basement. Often there will be a fishmongers and a supermarket too. The actual restaurants tend to be on the higher floors. As you will see from the video, the food halls sell everything from fresh fruit juice, salads and cakes to bento boxes, sushi and chocolates. Everything is presented and packaged beautifully.

We also show you a few other interesting things such as the Bay Bike rental scheme...Think Boris Bikes in London and the free tissues that we are always being given. Japanese brands/companies give out free packets of tissues as a means of advertising. The tissue packets usually contain an information leaflet and tend to be branded. They actually come in really useful these days as with the cold weather one of us always has a runny nose ;o)

Dried mushrooms and fresh leeks and carrots from the market

One of the things that we love about Japan, and in particular Yokohama where we live, is that there is always something going on.There was a market of independent retailers at the Bay Quarter mall where we picked up some vegetables, dried mushrooms and tried some cherry blossom honey. It was delicious! The cars had changed again at the Nissan HQ Gallery and so we popped in to have a look. There was some sort of event going on at Nissan where people (when I say people, it was predominantly grown men ;o)) were bring in their own remote control cars to race against each other at a track that had been assembled.

We ended the day by having a bit of an impromptu facial at a place that my friend had told me about which was very relaxing. On our way home we popped into Kaldi Coffee Farm which sells a range of specialist foods and drinks, including imported brands. The great thing about shopping at Kaldi is that a member of staff always greets you at the entrance with a free cup of hot coffee and on this particular day they were giving out free chocolates to try too. You really can't beat Japanese hospitality :o)

I hope you enjoyed this insight into our life in Japan and once again I'm sorry about the not so great quality of this weeks video.

Love Sheen xxx