Ikinari Steak House

After the extravagance of a 28,000 Yen steak dinner (Red One, Motomachi), and a 36,000 Yen Teppanyaki grill (Kagura) - both with Kobe beef - it was time to come back down to earth.

On Okubo Dori, Shinjuku, Tokyo close (within 2 min walk) to the Meiji Dori junction, there is Ikinari Steak.

It also offered "Pepper Lunch" set - beef with rice, on a sizzling hot plate, which you mix together with various sauces - which I was unable to identify because most were in Japanese.

And it offered steak by weight. Depending on the cut, the steak might be 5 yen per gram. So if you ordered a 200 gm steak, it would cost you 1000 yen.

Other cuts could be 6.5 yen per gram. Or you could order the special of the day. And every day.

I do not know if it was because we didn't speak Japanese, so we were not asked how we wanted our steak done, or if they had a "steaks should be medium and if you want it otherwise, go elsewhere you philistine!" policy.

Or maybe because the steaks came on a hot plate with a serving of corn, and when the steaks are done to your liking, you either place them on the corn (or other veggies if you had ordered them), or remove them to your bowl of rice.

In any case, the steaks were Black Angus steaks and I think it was good value for money. Of course it was not Kobe beef or Wagyu, but it was still pretty good steaks for pretty good value for money.

We passed this steak house everyday as we walked between the train station and our AirBnB apartment, but we only had dinner there on the last day.

Sad.

But of course, if you are on a journey to discover the very best Japanese Beef, here are some of your next stops:

Matsusaka Beef.

Yonezawa Beef.

Akita Beef.

Oh heck! Here is a list of all the Japanese beef you can salivate over.