Yakiniku BanBan

Rating: OK
Meal:  Dinner
Price:  3180
Payment:  Cash only
Dishes: All you can eat yakiniku including pork, beef, chicken and vegetables
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: Yes

Sadly, I forgot to get a picture of the front door of this place which is the flashiest thing about it.  They have flashing lights around a small door that leads up a flight of stairs to the restaurant proper.  It's a bit dingy, but what do you expect when people are constantly cooking meat!

I'm sure there are other items to order ala cart, but the attraction of this place is the 2980 yen (3180 plus tax) 90 minutes all you can eat yakiniku and drink bar.  I have been meaning to try this place for some time ever since moving in town as they don't appear to be open during lunch.  As you may (or may not) know, I'm not hugely partial to yakiniku.  I like the idea in principal but am always frustrated by the ridiculously high prices and the annoying ala cart ordering.  The all you can eat aspect short circuits that frustration, so I figured, why not give it a try?  I wasn't sure if they would do it for just one person, but there weren't many people and they didn't seem to mind me taking up an entire table.

The non-meat food available was rice and soup.  The rice was passable, and the soup actually quite yummy and I went back for 3rds on that.  The meat itself was fine I guess...I'm no expert.  But it certainly wasn't amazing and I don't think I would spend that much on the experience a second time.  It was very filling and I made the mistake of ordering one more plate of pork/chicken plus some extra veggies.  By the time it was all consumed I was pretty much stuffed.  Shoulda stopped at what he brought out the first time, oh well.



I did try the "shochu" drink bar, with a fizzy water chuhi, but was rather disappointed.  All I could taste was the fizzy water and despite the owner's assurance that there was osake in there somewhere, if there was it is probably safe for a child to drink.