Yakiniku in Shinjuku - Tokyo, Japan

Ah sizzling meat - what more can anyone ask for? Yakiniku is a cook it yourself BBQ, where you order your meat and some vegetables and then go on and cook the meat over a little bbq built in to a table. The beef and vegetables are all cut into thin bite-sized pieces that grill quite quickly. After you cook it on the hot plate/grill, dip it in tare - a soy-based sauce flavoured with sugar, sake garlic and sesame; you eat it and enjoy.

The good thing about Tokyo is that there is no shortage of yakiniku restaurants, just follow the smell while walking around the streets and odds are you will end up finding a local hotspot with no problem.

Doing so one evening in Shinjiku we found a place. We went up some stairs and got seated in a small traditional private room. We stumbled into a lovely restaurant - Omoni Tei in Shinjuku. Technically, we didnt stumble - but rather, walked up a few flights of stairs to get to the dining area.

Lucky for us, our waiter provided us gaijin with English menu to guide us through the different kinds of meat on offer. which consisted of tongue and innards we decided to stick with ordering beef kalbi (cuts of boneless short-rib beef), rosu (thin sliced ribeye), Pork Rib and something a bit Australian - Gigantic Juicy Prawns.

Chugging down some Asahi and cooking your meat is truly an enjoyable experience, especially when the meat melts like butter in your mouth. Mixing the different dipping sauces and experimenting with the time it takes to cook your meat makes the eating experience that much more enjoyable because of the interaction involved.

Omoni Tei Shinjuku

1-7-5 Kabukicho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Access via JR Shinjuku Station East Exit