Asakusa Gyuukatsu

Rating: Very good
Meal: Dinner for 2
Price: 3000 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Two gyuukatsu teishoku
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

My wife and I were near Asakusa station on Sunday evening, an unusual thing for us.  We were looking for something interesting for dinner, but everything was closing, so it was more difficult than we had thought.  Luckily we remembered walking past a gyuukatsu (beef katsu) restaurant on the way there, so we made our way back and tried it out.

We got a seat and looked at the menu, which turned out to be very simple.  You could get a beef katsu teishoku with either one or two katsu.  The rest of it consisted of mentaiko (spicy cod roe), ground mountain yam (slimiest stuff in the universe), some rice, pickles, sauces, and a red miso soup.  We got two of the regular and proceed to read about how to eat this meal.

They deep fry the breaded beef, but only to rare doneness.  It is up to you to finish it.  In front of each person is a small squatty container with a small paraffin candle inside.  A flat stone is placed on top, which heats up nicely.  You take a slice of meat and put it on until it's done to your preference, then you eat it.  Kind of fun!

Oh, the best bit was the wasabi.  Usually wasabi is actually a green-dyed horseradish, but occasionally you get the real thing.  It's quite rare, because it's so expensive, and it goes bad so quickly.  But the chunky looking blob of green on our plates looked like the real thing, and this was confirmed as soon as we tasted it.  Such a fresh, green taste that explodes with fire and quickly retreats.  It's like nothing else, and it tasted so good with the beef.

A real fun treat to try something new after all this time here...