Ginza Steak (Tokyo)

Ginza Steak is a steakhouse in Tokyo that serves all-you-can-eat A5 Wagyu beef. I dined there during my last trip to Tokyo and it was one of the highlights of my trip.

The restaurant is open for both lunch and dinner. Lunch has a more limited offering but is also cheaper. There is only one set menu to choose from and it includes all-you-can-eat A5 Kuroge Wagyu Beef Akami. The dinner menu has more selection, including two choices of A5 Kuroge Wayu Beef: Shimohuri and Akami. Akami is a leaner cut of beef while shimohuri has much more marbling.

We had hoped to secure a dinner reservation but I didn’t learn of this restaurant until early into our trip, so we were only able to get a lunch reservation. I think it ended up working out better for us though, as I’m not sure I would have enjoyed the shimohuri as much. It is a more premium cut of beef with a lot more marbling, and while I appreciate all the marbling, I have a hard time eating too much of it when it is that rich.

Service during our meal, like most of our meals in Tokyo, was impeccable. Our meal started with a few starters including A5 Wagyu Patty and Mushroom Salad, Cold Potage of Garlic and Almonds, and Teppan Steamed Shabu.

Once we were finished with the small plates, the chef began preparing the steak. There is a time 2-hour time limit, and I was worried that the meal would progress slowly as to prevent customers from eating too much steak, but that wasn’t the case at all. The chef worked quickly and the steak only takes a few minutes to cook on such a hot grill.

I was very impressed with the quality of the meat. We had traveled to Kobe a few days prior to eat at Mouriya Honten, and while this wasn’t the same caliber, it was still quite good. I did like that the meat was a little leaner, allowing you to enjoy the really enjoy the flavor of the beef. It still had enough marbling to melt in your mouth. Because it is a leaner cut, we were also able to consume more.

As soon as the last piece of steak left our plate, more would appear. I finally tapped out around steak number 5 as I still wanted to save room for some other places on my to-eat list. My brother and husband each had 7 steaks and thought they could have eaten about 2 more if we didn’t have any more meals planned for the day.

Our meal concluded with Garlic Rice served in A5 beef soup and lemon sorbet to cleanse our palate.

Overall, we were really impressed with our meal here and I would definitely recommend it to anyone visiting Tokyo and wanting to enjoy A5 Wagyu beef. A5 Wagyu beef is expensive, even when in Japan, so the all-you-can-eat offering is an amazing deal. For lunch, we paid 5,800 yen per person (around $53). The dinner menu with the two beef options is 9,800 yen per person (around $90).

Ginza Steak
http://www.ginzano.jp/steak/en/ginza/
Granbell Ginza II 8F・9F,
1-5-5 Shinbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 105-0004, Japan

Tip: Make sure you make a reservation at the right restaurant. The original shop serves the all-you-can-eat steak. They have a second restaurant that serves a different menu.