How EXPENSIVE is Japanese Food Really? | Budget Travel Tips

budget Japan it often feels like those two words don't go very well alongside each other like salmon and chocolate or British and happy and yet over the last decade traveling Japan has gotten a lot cheaper partly thanks to a recent construction boom in hotels catering to overseas tourists and especially thanks to a completely worthless yen can go a long way with mouth-watering watering prepared with fresh ingredients easily found for under a thousand yen about eight dollars or six pounds the absence of a tipping culture certainly helps on the wallet as well so in this video Let's discover 12 amazing delicious dishes and restaurants where you can find a hearty meal for a thousand yen or less see how much band for your buck you can really get while traveling around Japan boy am I going to be absolutely stuffed by the end of this video [Music] from noodles and Sushi to Burgers and Curry you might be surprised by the sheer variety of mouth-watering options you can find around Japan with some familiar Brands and some you may never heard of before by the end of our reasonably priced culinary Odyssey will have gone everywhere from train stations and basements to bustling downtown street corners and we begin our journey with the restaurant you can find on every street corner secure home of the Good on Beef Bowl in Japan's second biggest fast food chain with two thousand stores nationwide serving up disturbingly good Valley for money so when it comes to fast food restaurants in Japan there are three big chains that dominate skier Madison and Yoshinoya my favorite skin because of one particular Bowl topped with cheese as I'm about to show you in a minute but it's fast filling actually bloody delicious so let's go and check it out come with me and Yoshinoya some people swear by one or the other but the truth is they're all pretty damn good matsy is often marginally cheaper than the other two Yoshinoya is said to have the best dude on sauce in the world whereas skier is famous for its variety of toppings and if you're like me a gluttonous cheese feed you'll no doubt be won over by the good on with three kinds of cheese oh yes look at that bad boy udon smothered in a bucket of cheese this is the reason I like skier I used to eat this a lot I got like weirdly addicted to this many years ago when I was trying to lose weight before the original journey across Japan I would walk 20 000 steps every day and at the end of my 20 000 steps when I was basically limping through sendong I would come in here to skier and devour a bowl of this it's probably offsetting some of the great work I'd done burning off those calories walking but I needed that I needed to know I was going to get this at the end of it to have the motivation to power on three now all right admittedly the somewhat microwaved beef isn't the best quality and it can get a little stringy at times but after being marinated in sweet savory sauce and served alongside chopped onions it's a hearty comfort food and an absolute steal for 580 Yen a bowl while udon is reliable fast food it lacks the diversity of flavors after all melted cheese can only take you so far that pains me to admit it fortunately though our next dish comes in a variety of flavors across the country making it almost impossible to ever get tired of with its braised pork Rich broth and bright yellow noodles next up is ramen so this is send nikor literally child of send nights my favorite Ramen Shop in town it might not be the most picturesque Ramen but it is the most delicious look at that thick cotelli style broth two types of broth in Japan is kind of transparent and clear and kottery very thick like this one here it's like drinking pure gravy and the best thing of all this bowl the chashu ramen with all this pork here there's 990 Yen absolutely bargain while this bowl of ramen was 990 Yen due to the extra helping of braised pork sorry I couldn't help myself a typical bowl of ramen in Japan clocks in around 650 to 800 Yen with more so-called premium restaurant chains such as ichiram charging up to 980 Yen for a standard bowl and then cashing in on the toppings it's a right cheeky rip-off considering in Tokyo you can grab a bowl of Michelin star Ramen topped off with white truffle oil no less for an incredible 1000 yen now that is some serious value for money go [ __ ] yourself for me Ramen is something of a once a month guilty pleasure because I do feel pretty damn guilty when I've had it it is very salty very fatty but I think in terms of pure value for money Ramen is a solid 9 out of ten but this is so damn filling we've also got these delicious looking gyoza crispy juicy I can't fit them in my budget because this was 990 Yen so I'm gonna gift these to the nice cameraman you know no hungry mouths go left unfed on a 400 pound shape but seriously hurry up and eat them when you're fired a bit we're late today there's a view is there anything you've done eat them eat them so I've actively been dreading this next place more than any other on the list it is unfortunately very good daily for money it is the size area the family Italian restaurant ah let's go oh I've got for Beard I hate this place so much Japan does family restaurants pretty damn well you'll practically spoil the choice between Denny's Cocos Gusto and my personal favorite Royal host all come with food menus bigger than the Bible drinks so cheap it practically feels like thievery for as little as 230 Yen you can drink all that soft drinks and coffee your heart desires some family restaurants are on the higher end such as Royal host but the food is top-notch but a little pricey with an average meal clocking in around 1500 to 2 000 Yen other family restaurants specialize in certain foods such as bikini donkey literally surprise donkey which specializes in Hamburg steaks drenched in cheese my uh second favorite after Royal house and while Guster is the largest family chain with 1300 locations nationwide the cheapest and most bang for your buck option is size area serving up so-called Italian style food with prices so cheap they look like a bloody printing error starting in particular with the wine 100 yen wine how could that be drinkable seriously are we gonna try it you bet we are I get the Impressions those areas aimed at younger folks not because of the artwork but if you take a look around I can't see anybody in here who's over 19 years old so I feel like I've come to like a children's birthday party or something a children's birthday party with a hundred Yen wine intriguing in a plastic Beaker no less Botanical Mass oh oh that is interesting in a sort of [ __ ] way I noticed they didn't pour it a little bit and let me sort of taste it like oh yes fruity undertones they just sort of slap the beaker of wine down in front of me has all the sensibilities of paint stripper I don't know whether to drink it or use it to redecorate my studio drunk on cheap wine I ordered the 400 Yen margarita pizza and the carbonara pasta for 500. after all how bad can they really be well it turns out they're so bad the waiting staff simply refused to bring them over interestingly our first dish to come out was one we didn't even order and they seem to have brought us some sort of battered shrimp [Music] rub for me just I was about to eat it but instead we have our Margarita Pizza look at that doesn't that look appetizing viewers don't you just want to tuck into that honestly if you serve this to an Italian person then probably punch you in the face look at it anyway here we go oh no the dough is like chewing gum the cheese is really really salty not in a good way and the tomato is this sort of flavorless disgusting mess it makes even microwave Pizza seem like Michelin star food right this is nothing short of an atrocity but the pasta's arrived as well so let's tuck into that oh it's like it's got this really weird bitter smell to it look at that jiggle jiggle jiggle egg on top there at the end of the day don't judge a book by its cover don't judge your carbonara bites probably bitter acrid smell no no this is an insult to the people of Italy I think we're like the only people in here really eating anything everyone else is just using the free drink bar we're the only ones stripping after all of this stuff ready for money it's probably a 10 out of 10. but for quality for Taste it's a one it's a one out of ten there are other places that are better than this and we should have gone there but you don't get red wine there what you did here so swings and roundabouts now I realize not everybody watching this video might be able to come to Japan and try the food and snacks for yourself featured in this video but what if there was a way well there is today's sponsor is Tokyo treat and Sakura okay the monthly snack box is packed full of confectionary from around the country while Tokyo treat focuses on popular Japanese sweets with limited edition items such as Sakura Pepsi and sucker kitkats sakuruko serves up more traditional artisanal snacks from around the country supporting local sweet companies and given its cherry blossom season perhaps unsurprisingly this month's theme is Sakura and it starts with a booklet revealing how all of the snacks are made and where they come from complete with allergy information honest to God I don't know how they fit so much stuff in these boxes as I always say it's like those broken physics to fill it all in I'm going to indulge in some Sakura jellies I'll go out we also have these uh shiso sembe crackers let's try these very nice not only is it packed full of crackers sweets snacks but also Crockery to have my tea on because that's right it also comes with Sakura flavored tea cherry blossom tea delicious so whether you'd like to indulge in all this for yourself or give it as a gift and be the best friend in the world you can find out more details to Tokyo treat and sucker Road Sakura special spectacular seasonal wonderbox in the description box below check it out back to the video hmm I like that I've been looking forward to this next place perhaps more than any other you don't get quite as much flavor quite as good value for your money as Coco ichibanyas the Mantra always says good smell good curry let's go and find out Japan's biggest Curry franchise is over 1400 stores nationwide with the aroma of the curry wafting through the air down the street sneakily and subconsciously reeling you in long before you spot it and at that point it's already too late you belong to Coco ichibanya now and they're tantalizingly personalized menu of mouth-watering flavors and spices raw look at the options here how overwhelming is that pork curry beef Curry you can change your portion of rice but it's the spice level people get excited about the most if you are a maniac you can go as far as spice number 10 and you'll be carried out here and put in an ambulance while kokorochibanyan might not have the cheapest cats Curry around in some places you can find it as low as 500 yen here the rich flavor and quality of the pork is simply unbeatable for the price point especially if you throw my old friend cheese into the equation look at that beautiful thick creamy Curry with dollops of cheese sprinkled in beautiful beautifully spiced I'm actually going to regret not getting a spicy one to be honest I only know one man who could handle level 10 spice he's dead now but he died doing what he loves in terms of benefit buff very filling meal very good quite possibly my favorite thing on this entire list Curry it's often there to save you at the end of a long day good smell good car I need to stop saying that tagline until now everything on our list has been a restaurant time then for a street food that's beloved throughout Japan simple Savory and so damn hot it'll Scorch your mouth no matter how long you wake for the bloody things to cool down next up it's takoyaki fried octopus balls there is no food in Japan but I have burnt my mouth on more times than takoyaki the batter so hot and gooey it's Fresh Off The Grill drizzled with mayonnaise and sticky sweet Worcester sauce fish flakes eerily blowing in the wind it almost looks like they're alive Metallica Mass I waited a solid five minutes for this to cool down to no avail it's still incinerated my mouth scientists are currently trying to find the conditions the perfect conditions to ignite Fusion right using lasers and heat and energy they need to look further than a takoyaki stand in Sendai trillion degrees Centigrade sun in the palm of my hand given this for just 560 Yen and it could keep you full for half the day it's probably a 9 out of ten in terms of value for money deliciousness well that that's a solid 10 out of 10. I know a lot of people might be put off by the fact it's octopus right inside but don't it is really nice the first time I had it I was like oh octopus not sure about that but by the second time that's fine by the third time I was in love all right so you probably couldn't survive the whole week living off of takoyaki alone that would be Keen to find out so let's consider a more well-rounded alternative this next one I almost avoided putting on the list altogether as you don't typically associate sushi with value for money however there are certain conveyor belt restaurant chains that aren't too harsh on your pocket money so let's go inside a kaitenzushi restaurant and see how far we can make a thousand yen really go 690 Yen for the magarov zakushi set look at that beautiful all the different cuts of magarone over here we've got salmon this was about 110 Yen it's a joke bargain price and also the tamagayaki fried egg also 110 Yen all of this for under a thousand yen I think my math isn't very good question is how edible is it really especially as the reviews for this place were 2.9 stars out of five on Google four out of five Whimsical business worryingly low for Japan you never see it that low so let's find out why not bad actually the rice is quite decent it doesn't taste as fresh as normal but it's actually not as bad as I thought it's still better than British Sushi rather surprised this is the Otoro fatty tuna the most expensive prize tuna actually on that bone yeah is it good no but is it edible yes I thought this was going to be like a two out of ten it's more close to a five something about it it's a bit too flavorless there's something not quite going on there but for the most part to a British tourist coming here I think this would be a life-changing experience which it's kind of sad but you think how much better suit she can be compared to this I think if you just ate this and he walked out of here you'd still be hungry afterwards so for that alone I'm gonna give it about a five or a six a six out of ten although maybe it was a case of speaking too soon because I hadn't eaten the last piece that was really horrible all right oh oh dear but if you are gonna Splash out on one good meal on your trip to Japan do make it Sushi it is one of those dishes where you can genuinely taste a huge difference when it comes to the quality of the ingredients not like our next option where it pretty much tastes the same the whole world over gosh what is this fine establishment McDonald's let's go and take a look she might hate me right now who's featuring McDonald's but the truth is the fast food chain is arguably Japan's most popular fast food option operating the most restaurants in the country with 2 900 stores nationwide a whopping 1 000 more than even secure but as someone who's never set for the McDonald's I found myself drawn to the more exotic Japanese items on the menu what is this the McDonald's Japan menu is subtly different you know most people cite the good old sloppy mess that is the teriyaki burger which to be honest I'm not a fan of people swear by it people die by it but the real one that you should come for is the samurai map they released this about two years ago two different Burgers each one representing two warring Samurai factions and it proved really popular because the burgers are kind of soaked in soy sauce and they are lack of a better word delicious they're being so much food today I've run out of words this is Shaka Shaka potato Shaka Shack is an automatic beer meaning to shake and what you do take your plain Bland salty fries stick them in the Shaka Shaka bag add the ninja garlic mayonnaise powder oh look at that powdery goodness you put it in the bag and then you shake it and it goes everywhere all over the table in your eyes it's a [ __ ] [ __ ] show my old accounts well then you take out a fry it's so awful don't get that one don't get the garlic sauce stick with the samurai mat but this was only about 800 Yen so very good value for money just avoid the Shaka Shaka potato that was just I just ruined some perfectly good fries [ __ ] still McDonald's is McDonald's you didn't fly a million miles around the world for Shaka Shaka mcfries uh at least I hope you didn't so let's go back to some authentic Japanese food and next up is a personal favorite and a restaurant I generally visit once a week for a hearty bowl of udon noodles with 800 stores nationwide marugame semen is Japan's most popular udon franchise serving up authentic sanuki udon from Kagawa prefecture famed for the square-shaped flat edges and satisfying chewiness sanukudon is made from wheat flour and served in broth flavored with Dashi fish stock and hiboshi sardines it's a Heavenly combination rich in Umami flavor especially if he throws some additional tempura battered toppings into the mix which you can given this hearty bowl of udon costs just over 500 yen it's daylight robbery I tell you robbery seriously that is insane value for money and the tempura 180 Yen per piece and I'm going to dip that in there like that nice crispy Ebby a lot spicier than I thought it would be crikey wasn't supposed to be this way in terms of bang for your buck I think udon could be like a front runner in this whole video it's a solid nine maybe even a 10 out of 10. while udon might be formidable value for money there's still one that's even better the standing sober noodle restaurants you can find around Japanese train stations such as this one in Sendai where for 500 yen not only do you get a piping hot bowl of soba noodles but they come topped off with two chunky pieces of Juicy Fried Chicken how the bloody hell do they turn a profit sober noodles are a little bit Bland but when they're in soup they really come into their own especially when they've got fried chicken with them as well that that kind of helps too but for 500 yen like that's a 10 out of 10 for value and again we're in a train station here in Sendai station people run in here after work or before they've got to get on their train you order it at the vending machine and it comes like this took about 30 seconds to prepare I gave them the ticket came over here and went straight back over the table to collect it when it comes to fast food in Japan it doesn't get faster than this one thing I love about the standing sober restaurants is uh you don't feel too full at the end of it you can only sit down and have a big meal and you're like about the end of it it's nice because they've stood up hit with the digestion years ago when I was uh on Journal across Japan I bumped into a food fighter really nice girl if you could eat a whole bucket of karaoke chicken and the way she got around it her secret was she would periodically stand up and jump up and down and apparently that made the food go down her digestive system so so standing up the sober restaurant I feel the same I'll just jump soon I'll get arrested and deported while we're here there's another popular chain you can find at pretty much any major Japanese train station it's a bit of a wild card and not something you'd necessarily associate with Japan and it's uh well it's bread bread isn't it look at this greasy compilation of baked good there's enough oil in here to power at 747 jumbo jet I I don't really eat this anymore I've become a bit more health conscious over here shall we say and nothing about a cheesy bacon quiche a bacon stuffed Panini or Curry bread Curry pan uh is is anything that's that's good for your body but look at this this is really popular look at that tasty Curry within right in Japan they can't just have simple baked bread but they are good at ramming every baked good with as much cheese and cholesterol as possible bang for your buck it's a solid eight out of ten if you eat this you'll be full for the next six hours even though let's face it it's not the most well-balanced meal but if you're stuck in a station anywhere around Japan and OnStar you can find Aveda France and uh why not it's a good place in the morning for breakfast and if you like pesto you're gonna love the paninis here foreign particularly if you're staying in a location for an extended period of time are supermarkets where you can grab yourself a hearty Bento for around 600 to 800 Yen the bentos are pretty well balanced between the rice proteins such as hamburgers fish or chicken and a mixture of vegetables and pickles personally I'm not the biggest fan as the freshness and flavor can be a bit of a letdown compared to everything else on this list let's face it there's a reason I didn't bother eating this one on camera but value for money it is a great option especially if you're a family hold up in an Airbnb for several days for our final option we're journeying out into the evening air for a dining experience at the complete opposite end of the spectrum and one that I am very very happy to film oh yes I'm not gonna lie going to an Izakaya in Japan is a little bit expensive certainly over a thousand yen for the most part but there are some chains that are cheaper than others like Humber the Retro is a kaya set in the 1960s come on inside you're in for a treat on this one foreign the 1960s sure era Izakaya this is all under a thousand yen from the yakisoba and this massive sprawling plate of Yakitori with chicken pork and cheese wrapped in bacon to a chicken wing and all you can eat cabbage isn't this insane a thousand yen crazy and a single one of these tiny teeny yakitoring skewers is just 60 Yen this is the cheapest Yakitori you can get in Japan probably because it's ridiculously small tiny but delicious one of the reason the prices are so cheap in humbei is to reflect that exciting post-war era when after a decade of rationing cheap food was once again accessible for the masses but to step in Humvees to go back in time with the posters the music the atmosphere the only thing they need to work on is the English menu which is some uh some questionable items on it including priests octopus monster sausage the eat or be eaten cinnamon water of Terror and my personal favorite fly like a scallop it's not quite Fly Like an Eagle and I'll be down if I know what it is because I'm not gonna order it but if you come to humbia eat the food and enjoy the English menu endless free entertainment and the good news is the franchise can be found throughout Japan I think there are meals that'll fill you up more like Ramen maybe but this is still one of the best we've had in the entire video it's got the atmosphere to match it highly recommend Hyundai amazing place great music too [Music] well guys there you have it 12 amazing dishes and restaurants to try for under a thousand yen but which ones do we miss which ones do you want to try the most let us know in the comments down below for me I want to try laying down because I feel completely and utterly Dreadful we shot this entire video pretty much in one day and don't don't ever try and do that don't fit 12 dishes into one day for the love of God but for now guys as always for behind the scenes stuff check out the broad Japan patreon and I'll see you next time to do it all over again right back here on the broad Japan bye for now how did you go look at them we're having fun you know we're having fun because none of them are stupid enough to order the carbonara [ __ ] pasta that looks good I don't know what that is that's a meal I think if you ate just this you would walk out here wondering why this soy sauce all over the table [Music] ski is my favorite and I'm going to show you why right now with a bowl of my favorite goudon [Music] foreign

Channel: Abroad in Japan

Views: 1,389,121

Keywords: japan, food japan, travel japan, japanese curry, hotels japan, abroad in japan, trash taste

Id: R2RJ91R_AAw

Length: 24min 30sec (1470 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 09 2023