Hello, this is Alfred. If you've been following my FB and IG, you'd know that I'm in Japan now. We've had many meals in these few days, and we've tried various Japanese cuisines. To keep up with our latest news, please follow our Facebook and Instagram. Every time I upload a video onto YouTube about restaurants I tried in Japan, there are always viewers asking how I reserved my table. Before we head out for the meal, let me share with you how I do it. First, the simplest way is to call them by phone. Before the pandemic, during my trip to Japan, I often called to reserve seats. But to call them, there's a 90% chance you'll have to talk in Japanese, and you'll need a local number for registration, because around the day of your booking, the restaurant may call you to re-confirm your booking. In case of no-shows, restaurants may seek fines or compensation. Japan restaurants fear no-shows. What can we do if we don't know Japanese? You may ask your hotel to make the resevation for you. Usually, the more premium the hotel, the more likely they'll be willing to do it. If you ask the hotel for help, they may still ask for your local number, but some hotels will vouch for their guests; meaning that if the guests don't have a local number, the hotel will provide their info to the resto. If the guests are no-shows, the hotel will seek fines from the guests on behalf of the restaurant. Besides calling, there's another way that's been easier to use these days - online reservation. There are many restaurant booking websites now, some with smaller database, and some bigger. The websites may have different client bases; some target at fancier and pricier restaurants, some at more affordable ones. And they have different practices for bookings, with some requiring local numbers, and some requiring deposit payment. Some even need diners to place their order when they reserve seats, then make full payment. Websites that require full payment may have certain markups. I personally have seen websites that have doubled the original prices set by the resto. It's best to first know the resto's prices, so that you won't suffer much loss. Today, I would like to share with you a platform with a site and an app; it is OpenRice. You heard me right. It's the OpenRice you use in Hong Kong. Just use your account registered in Hong Kong to make reservations, no local Japan numbers required. In the app, you can filter your regions, food and restaurant types to search for a restaurant you want. I'm now in Kanto, Tokyo. I click here. There are a few circles, showing types of cuisines: like sushi, izakaya, shabu-shabu, yakiniku, tempura, and ramen. This list is a collaboration with Tabelog. The restaurant info and booking passes in Japan are ranked based on the overall ranking on Tabelog. I'm actually making a booking now because there's a resto here I want to try. Now I pick the date for reservation. As you see, click "Reserve table" here. Before we proceed, please note that it'll charge a HKD100 deposit. If you show up for your reservation, this deposit will be refunded after your meal. We're going to Beef Kitchen today. Specializing in yakiniku, it has multiple branches, with the Ebisu branch being highly reputed and selected as one of Tabelog's top 100. They offer a la carte and set menus. We chose set meals, priced at JPY5,800+ per head. Each of us paid an extra JPY1600+ for 2-hour bottomless drinks, including beers, highball and sake. As you can see, we showed our Booking Pass on our OpenRice app to get our table. There we have our booking number. Just let them check the info. Starting off, we have several Korean appetizers. Except the kimchi, you can have unlimited refill for the others. We can have some to refresh our palate. Next up is steak tartare, cut into strips. Mixed with egg yolk, its seasoning is quite heavy, so it doesn't taste metallic, but it's hard to taste the umami of the beef. This is a beef offal stew, with a soup similar to Korean ox bone soup, but richer and thicker. Next to it is some yuzu sauce, which you can add to your second bite to change up the flavor a bit. Their signature is black wagyu, and this plate includes 3 cuts, namely outside skirt, rib eye, and ox tongue. Let's grill the ox tongue first. You can see that the ox tongue is quality and fat, so that it can reach this state. But the mouthfeel'd be better if it was thicker. Then they served a mini salad as palate cleanser. I'd like to praise them for strictly following the serving order of the menu design. I'll make a video to talk about this in details. The outside skirt is close to the diaphragm, so it has stronger flavor. Despite the fibrous texture, it's soft, tender even for this piece today. It is super juicy. We grilled the rib eye as well. It's not like super marbled, but its flavor is rich with fat, and its juice keeps dripping. This restaurant is of a newer school; it's quite a trend in Japan to have yakiniku with other dishes as intermissions at times. Even the meat may come with different sides or seasonings, so that the meal is more delicate and designed. This element is present here, but it's not the direction this resto is taking. The two dishes just served are daikon wonton soup and guillet beef cheek. The beef cheek is nicely grilled. This is Today's Special, and it's "tomosankaku" today - a.k.a. tri-tip steak. It has a light taste, but a nice fatty scent. It comes with a slightly gingery sauce. Like many restaurants, when it comes to cuts that are hard to handle, the staff will come over to help. This is top blade, and it comes with egg yolk and rice, making it sort of a sukiyaki set. Like I just said, many yakiniku shops are getting gimmicks. At the end, we got rice and noodles, and a few options to choose from. Each of us picked one. Beef bone soup with rice is a bit too salty. The curry rice is quite spicy, considering it's Japanese. There are a few desserts; this is almond tofu, and this is Kyoto egg pudding. We're totally full after the rice and the dessert. Its portion is big enough for a set. We booked a table for 5PM today, and it's the first round for dinner. Like our many visits to other restos, we're the first to be seated in the first round. At about 5:15PM, diners arrived one after another, and it's full by 6PM. It's now 7PM and we're done with the meal. People are lining up outside. In these few months, I've tried many yakiniku shops, and a few of them is similar to this one - a yakiniku shop that is more new-fashioned, western, and less traditional. I tried another shop the day before, and it was double the price of the one today, but all in all, I think I had better food and more joyful experience today. Lastly, I would like to clarify that regarding OpenRice, the sponsor of this video, the ad involves only the reservation part. It has nothing to do with the restaurant. I made the reservation myself, and the resto didn't know I'd take videos. Also, I paid by cash after finishing the meal. This is it for today. If you would like to try this resto, check out the description box below. See you next time.
