Hungry Tiger

Rating: Very good
Meal: Dinner for3
Price: 6000 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes:  BBQ ribs, regular hamburger steak, lamb rack and hamburger combo
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

Well, this was a surprise!  For many years now we've spied a restaurant called Hungry Tiger as we would drive by on the toll road.  It was high and inaccessible, and we assumed it was a "family style" restaurant that is common around here and not very appetizing.  Every year on New Years day we usually try to go out and find somewhere to eat, but since everything is closed we usually end up eating at one of these family style restaurants.  It's become something of an ironic tradition now.  The year before last we tried going to Hungry Tiger and were shocked to discover it was closed!  This year we are trying a new diet (keto) starting Monday and knew we wouldn't be able to eat out on New Years day, so we decided to eat at Hungry Tiger on Sunday instead.  It was not what we expected.

Apparently this is a Yokohama only chain that specializes in high quality hamburger steaks (known as "hamburg" here) and regular steaks.  The menu isn't very complex and they have English menus as well.  The main thing that jumped out at us was the pricing...nothing was under 1200 yen.  Definitely not your typical "family style" restaurant.  My son ordered some ribs, my wife wanted chicken but they were out so she had their standard hamburg, and I had a lamb rack hamburg combo.  We ordered the soup/salad/rice combo for one of the dishes.

All of us were quite pleased with the quality and taste.  My son loved his ribs, though wanted more, and the hamburg was very good, consisting of a huge hunk of high quality ground meat that finished cooking on the hotplate, cut in half face down.  The lamb was tasty too, though a bit tougher to chew.  All of it was drizzled in a couple of gravies.

A really enjoyable experience overall, and the restaurant itself is quite different than the usual you see here.  I suggested maybe we make Hungry Tiger the yearly New Year's tradition...as long as you don't go on New Years day!  That's the only day it's closed.