Yakiniku-Kirakuen – Asakusa, Japan

A long travel and walking day ends with a meal very close to our hotel. Also a craving for high quality meat (not me). Short post today…Yakiniku Kirakuen!

Kirakuen Set | ¥3,680 (plus tax)
a helping of various kinds of dishes of five kinds of meat (lol, they tried with the English)
Bibimbap | ¥880 (plus tax)
Kalbi Soup | ¥680 (plus tax)

So the kalbi soup and bibimbap was mine. Didn’t feel much like meat that night and this soup and rice combo really called to me. And it really hit the spot too! And…the $15 for this was well worth it. Delicious.

Funny story about this restaurant. Well first, the wait staff were all Chinese but fluent in Japanese (this was a common occurrence this trip) but one of them was also fluent in English. Three languages! Talent.

On the other end of the restaurant had a table with 3 young foreign guys, possibly military? Different ethnicities and next to them was a table of 3 quite randy Chinese ladies. The ladies were probably drunk and kept asking the guys to “join us” at whatever location they were going to after dinner. It was quite amusing to see. Sounded like a joke at first but the join us statement happened a…lot.

Gyukaku Japanese BBQ – Kaneohe, HI

Gyukaku has been in Hawaii for a while now and I really enjoyed it when they first opened. It was an upscale yakiniku joint that offered good food and good service! I can’t help but notice how it has fallen in the past few years. Not that they’re terrible now but they’re definitely not as good as their hayday. They have also changed up the menu for the worse…we dined there over the holiday break and it was disappointing.

150209-01Warming up…150209-02I went during lunchtime so they offer a set that comes with soup and salad.

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How can a dish sound so good but come out so bad? This is their garlic noodles, they cook it in the kitchen. Can you see how burnt some of these noodles are? Terrible, hard to enjoy when half the dish is not edible.

150209-04Can’t go wrong with wrapping something in bacon. We loved it. Wish they had soaked the toothpicks in water or whatever the trick is, they all caught on fire which made it hard to cook the actual food.

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150209-07Some of our meat dishes. Sorry, I can’t remember everything we ordered. I’m just glad we were there during happy hour so we got these dishes for a good price.

150209-08Smores. This was a cute and fun dessert for the kids. I do miss their old dessert though. They would serve up mini pancakes you would heat up on the grill that you ate with ice cream and maple syrup. It was delicious! I wish they still sold that. Well, this meal was pricey and I don’t think it was worth it. If you want yakiniku, maybe it’s best you head off to one of those all you can eat joints.

Yakiniku Don-Day – Honolulu, HI

Yakiniku Don-Day is a cute Korean BBQ joint located behind the Keeaumoku Supermarket. It’s a unique one because it boasts both indoor and outdoor seating. Folks generally opt for outdoor eating – there’s a huge tree in the middle of the eating area and you are surrounded by wonderful stringed lights. I really recommend you give this place a try! They have good food and good service too. They actually cooked for us the whole way through! Usually my service starts off with them throwing stuff on the grill and then like leaving us to fend for ourselves at other places. Let’s get to the pictures!

140316-02Ban chan is EVERYTHING.

140316-03I give Koreans props for their food – mainly for the side dishes! So much effort is put in, I appreciate that.

140316-04Another ban chan and the dipping sauces!  Check out the edges of these dishes, they have been burned once too many. Hell hath no fury like a dish scorned – what am I saying?

140316-05Ooooohhh – we went with the bulgogi pack. It was delicious! It comes with chicken, pork and beef prepared bulgogi style. The pork was definitely the highlight.

140316-06Can’t eat yakiniku without some tofu stew and rice, yum!

140316-01Hello pretty girls on our water bottle! We also ordered yogurt soju – it was so good!

140316-07We had to drink it all, I don’t know how many shots I had…lost count!

The bathroom situation is…interesting. It’s inside of the restaurant. There are two doors, one for women and one that is unisex that also says Employees Only. Yeah weird. I tried to open the door for the woman’s bathroom but it was locked so I was waiting. The staff then told me to go right into the unisex bathroom so I did. Typical bathroom – toilet and a urinal and their entire stock of alcohol. Yes. And umm…one brand of beer had many cases and they were already past their best used by date…that’s all.

I thought sitting outdoors would allow me to not smell like BBQ after dinner. Unfortunately, I still smelled strongly of BBQ. There wasn’t much wind around and when there was, it blew the smoke into our faces…lol.