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What is Yakiniku?                                                                              >>Find Yakiniku Restaurants

Yakiniku is a cook-it-yourself Korean style BBQ that came to Japan after World War II from Korean immigrants. The beef and vegetables are all cut into thin bite-sized pieces that grill quite quickly. After you grill it, dip it in tare, a soy-based sauce with flavored with sugar, sake, garlic and sesame, and enjoy. Yakiniku is extremely popular in Japan among people of all ages, from the smallest child to the oldest man.

Since you get to cook it yourself on basic grill, you don't just have the pleasure of eating it, but you can savor the smell and watch how quickly it cooks. People love to go to Yakiniku restaurants because it is something that they can share with their friends and family. It is a great way to interact and have a good time with all those you want to be around. Unless you like burned mean don't think about taking a date here. It is said that this is one of the worst kind of places to take someone on a date because while you are trying to get to know your date, your food will most likely suffer. Also, the atmosphere is not conducive for a date; it is not romantic but rather loud because of all the people drinking and sharing stories with their friends.

I have to cook Yakiniku myself? How do I know what to order?

Have no fear, Sunnypages is here to help you order.

1.Order drink. Beer goes best with yakiniku! (Our personal opinion.)
2.Say “kanpai” (cheers) and drink some beer. Then order your meat, vegetables, kimchi (a traditional Korean fermented spicy vegetables.), etc. When you order, you order for the table, not just for yourself, so have everyone pick out their favorites and share. If you can not speak Japanese, point to the picture on the menu or print this article out and show the waiter what you would like.
3.Pour tare on your small plate. The Japanese usually use soy-based tare for beef and lemon-based tare for Gyutan (beef tongue). It's ok if you add garlic or chili pepper.
4. You're served raw bite sized pieces of meat. Pick up a few pieces of meat at one time with your chopsticks and put them on grill in the middle of table. Don't grill too many meats at one time, otherwise you might burn them. About one or two pieces per person at a time works the best.
5. Once the color of beef changes (usually 10-20 seconds), take it from grill and dip it in the sauce! The meat tastes best right off the grill!!

Sunny's Useful Tip

 - Make sure to order for the table. The food at yakiniku is meant to be shared.
 - The portions come in sizes meant for one person. For example, when someone orders, they might get one karubi, three rosu, and two harami.

What can you order at a Yakiniku restaurant?                               >>Find Yakiniku Restaurants

Beef: King of Yakiniku!

Sunny recommends -Yakiniku

Harami is very popular, especially among women, because of it tender texture and low fat. Fat  content is between Kalbi and Rosu.
      

Sunny's useful tip -Yakiniku

Almost all yakiniku restaurants serve different grades of beef. Beefs are graded as Toku jo Kalbi (Prime), Jo Kalbi (second high quality), Kaibi (normal quality).
Start with the normal quality beef so that you can judge the quality of the yakiniku restaurant and if you want something better, go for Jo (second highest quality) or Toku jo (Prime), but usually the normal grade is good enough at most yakiniku restaurants in Tokyo.

Other meats -Yakiniku-

   Gyu tongue is a starting dish that is one of the most popular among the Japanese. Dip it in lemon based tare but don't cook it too much.
 
   Thinly sliced beef liver is rich in vitamins and minerals. Dip it in Say-sauce based tare. Raw liver is also popular with the Japanese.
 
    Mino is a cow's stomach that has a hard texture and good taste that is said to be good for your skin.

Sunny's useful tip -Yakiniku-

There are different kinds of tare available, usually spicy, sweet, and lemon. Spicy and sweet are used for most everything but the lemon base tare is used only for gyu-tan, beef tongue.
If you still want spicier tare, put “doubanjiang” (red-colored spicy paste) in the tare which located at the side of your table.

Pork, Chicken

 - Sausage, Pork, Chicken

Seafood

 - Squid, Shrimp

Sunny's useful tip -Yakiniku-

There is a wide range of food offered at yakiniku restaurants so try a lot of everything, not just meat. Another way to eat your meat is to wrap it in a large piece of lettuce and enjoy.

Vegetables

 - Mushroom, Onion, Corn

Rice

 Rice topped with sauteed and seasoned vegetables, beef, a fried egg, and gochujang (chile pepper paste)

  Bibimbap served in a heated stone bowl.

Soups

   Tofu and kimchi served in a red hot spicy soup.

  A spicy soup with Kalbi

Sunny's useful tip -Yakiniku-

Don't overcook the meat or it becomes too tough, becomes rubbery, and tastes awful. Particularly when you have red beefs, such as Kalbi, Rosu (Loin) and tender rosu, we recommend you eat them medium rare so that you can really taste the succulent meat.
You can ask server to change your grill if the grate starts to become burned or if it is not as hot as it should be.
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