Bakuro Ichidai Ginza 飛騨牛一頭家 銀座馬喰一代 (Tokyo, JAPAN) ★★★☆☆

Jelloman constantly reminded me before this trip that we should do more "grill meat" this time around. Yes, I have taken note on that but considering we have 3 elderlies and 1 child with us, I wanted to pick the right spot for it. Tonight is probably as good as any night. It's our last night in Tokyo. I have planned for an early start to our dinner so we could all crash early. That's really important cuz we have a morning call at 6am to catch our bullet train to Osaka. 

Our yakiniku dinner was at Bakuro Ichidai Ginza (飛騨牛一頭家 銀座馬喰一代), just a stone's throw away from our breakfast spot, Bill Ginza this morning. It's been a while since we last enjoyed some high-quality Hida beef (飛騨牛). I thought that was at our Nagoya trip some time back.

Little nugget was so happy to see the charcoal grills right in front of him.

We have three different types of sauces for our Hida beef: BBQ sauce, wasabi and lemon.



I ordered the restaurant's 8-course dinner set (so I don't have to bother with the a la carte menu) and they were coming in rapid fire starting with the appetizer platter. I thought everyone was quite happy with the pork terrinebut less so with the rest of the dishes.

It was followed by some beef sashimi.

Finally, something to put on the charcoal grill – beef tongue. These came in very thin slices.

Next up, a tomato salad with a Japanese salad dressing. I decided to save it to the middle of the feast.

The beef tongue was pretty tender. Not bad.

Here comes the main event, three cuts of prized Hida beef. The part (lower right) that looked like Zabuton, or chuck flap was pretty well-marbled but I like the meatiness of the sirloin (top). But let's find out.

The succulent Hida sirloin was very tender and juicy. It was perfect to eat with the steamed rice to offset its richness. I thought a little bit of salt already made this very tasty.

I am guessing the third cut was the rib part ("sankaku"). It got this funny, wobbly texture inside with a charred crust outside. Not as delicious as the other two parts but reasonably good.

The sausage and offal arrived just when we were about to throw in the white towel. 😨

I wasn't giving up so easily despite trying to take on two-person's portion here with all the food.

I have to admit, the sausage was actually quite palatable and certainly very addictive. It did taste more like minced chicken than beef to me.

When our server showed up again, everybody was worried that more meat would be coming but thank goodness, it was a small panna cotta with mango sauce. Now after the small dessert, everyone could go back to the hotel and crash early.

We didn't get the chance to experience the 'Saitobi-gyu' which goes beyond the A5 ranking and is easily the best cut of Hida beef. But it was good to finally get the yakiniku experience out of the way.

One thing I noticed about Bakuro Ichidai Ginza tonight was that business probably wasn't what it used to be. At 7pm, we were the last party to arrive and by 8:40pm, we were the only ones left. And this is a yakiniku restaurant that's supposed to open till late (11pm).

Food Rating: 6/10

Price: ￥￥￥

Address: 11/F Ginza Trecious, 2-6-5 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061, Japan

Closest Metro Station: Ginza

Tel: +81 050-5571-9191

Website: www.bakuroichidai.jp/shop/ginza

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 11:00pm daily