Oboshimeshi

Oboshimeshi (焼肉 思食)

⭐⭐⭐

🐂 Yakiniku / 📍 Asakasa

📓 Visits: 1 (2021)

Chef Tomoaki Yanagino previously worked at Sato Briand, a very popular group of yakiniku restaurants in Asagaya specializing in Chateaubriand.

There's no a-la-carte menu here and instead a choice of courses.  In 2022 these were revised and the closest to what I had is the Tokujō shijiki (特上思食コース) which is now JPY 30,000.  It seems like lone diners can now only reserve the Shijiki (思食) course priced at JPY 24,000 which is inferior to the old course.  On my visit two courses were available priced at JPY 24,200 or JPY 36,300 inclusive of service and tax.  I chose the former.

A number of private rooms are available but for reservations under 4 you'll be dining at a long counter seating up to 10.  For the actual yakiniku part of the course the chefs grill the meat in front of you but all other items are prepared in the kitchen, which is out-of-sight.  All dishes are served to all diners at the same time.

First was beef tongue consomme.  You could really taste the tongue but the soup lacked the purity of flavour of the beef consomme at Setsugekka (review here) and a higher quality broth would not need the yuzu accent.  Next was wagyu sando - the best I've ever had.  The third appetizer was beef tartar, Chinese cabbage, turnip and beef consomme jelly.  The best part of the dish was the jelly but the portion was tiny and the beef did not have a huge amount of flavour.  Next was shark's fin japchae.  This was full of umami and the pick of the starters.  Yakiniku proper followed the choregi salad which had an excellent dressing but otherwise was not the best, particularly the tomatoes, and was a bit fridge-cold.  First Chateaubriand and togarashi (chuck tender).  The togarashi was a bit chewy.  The tiny portion of chateaubriand was as you'd expect.  Next beef tongue.  This was superb and full of flavour and better than the thick tongue at Setsugekka.  Several different items of yakiniku followed, the first half seasoned with salt and the second with a sauce.  The highlights were short rib 'maguro' and tsurami (beef cheek).  Cooked medium-rare, the rib actually did taste more like tuna than beef.  The tsurami had a deep beef flavour, soft texture, great sauce and was the best of the yakiniku for me.  Reimen with pear to clear before dessert which was kaki that had been soaked in shochu and so soft you could eat the skin.  Rice was excellent, you could eat as much as you want and I got a couple of onigiri to take home.

Things sped up a bit once the yakiniku started but the starters were very slow to come out: 10 minutes' wait between the consomme and the wagyu sando, another 10 between the tartar and the shark's fin and another 10 between that and the salad.  The wait staff can speak a little English and Yanagino-san's English is not bad.  He was quite engaging and we chatted a fair bit.

Overall this was a good meal but not great.  It was 20% cheaper than Setsugekka but Setsugekka is at least twice as good.  You should walk away from a yakiniku dinner feeling completely full on beef.  There was not enough meat in this course for that and I had to fill up on rice and at 24K that's too expensive.  It's easy to be seduced by pictures of food and here they look great but pictures often aren't enough to tell you (1) how good the food is and (2) whether or not there is enough of it.  At Oboshimeshi there was little to fault but there simply wasn't enough of it.  If you're looking to impress, but not fill up, someone with upscale yakiniku then this is the restaurant for that.

📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1308/A130801/13247485/ 

❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ 3.99 (food: 4.0, value: 3.8) 

📱 Booking: 🟩 Easy.  By Tabelog, TableCheck or Omakase.  Reservations for solo diners are only taken via TableCheck.  Book a few days in advance.

📍 Location: 

3-19-5 Akasaka.  A few minutes walk from Akasaka or Akasaka Mitsuke stations.  Dedicated street-facing entrance down an alley between Akasaka Misuji Dori and Hitosuki Dori.
Map data ©2021 Google

📅 Visit November 2021

"Gomguk soup" [Beef tongue consomme]
Hire katsusando (Kita-Satsuma, Kagoshima)
Yukhoe, winter vegetables, consomme jelly
Shark's fin japchae
Choregi salad
Chateaubriand (Kita-Satsuma)
Rice
Togarashi (Tajima)
Tongue (Miyagi)
'Maguro' (Miyagi)
Tsurami (Matsusaka)
Rib maki (Kita-Satsuma)
Rib core (Kita-Satsuma)
Nashi reimen
Kaki

💴 Damage: 26,000 (20k + 2 drinks at 1500 + 10% + 10%)
⏱️ Time taken: 2h15m