Eat Japanese Beef at Matsuzaka Gyu Yakiniku M (Hozenji Yokocho), Osaka - Japan

Unlike me who likes to eat beef since I was a kid, my husband (Ivan) never like to eat beef. But it changed since we were going to Japan, and had a dinner at Mouriya. Actually, at the first time he didn't want to eat beef in Kobe. However since I was insisting him and told him that Kobe beef has different taste with other beef, he decided to give it a try. Ever since then, every time we're having trip to Japan, he always asked me to find a good place to eat Kobe beef.

We've tried Kobe beef that cooked in teppanyaki style twice, and both of them gave us a great experience. However, at our last trip, Ivan requested to find a restaurant that served Kobe beef in yakiniku style. Since we only stayed in Osaka and Kyoto, I was looking for a great restaurant at these cities. At the end, I found a popular restaurant in Osaka who serve a good quality beef. It's Matsuzaka Gyu Yakiniku M.

Before I write about our dinner at this restaurant, let me explain about beef in Japan. As you know, a good quality beef in Japan has marbles on its meat. This kind of beef has a very tender texture and a good taste. Generally, people will recognize this beef as Kobe beef. But not all of them is Kobe beef. Kobe beef is just a name for a "special" beef that comes from cow raised in Kobe. If it's raised in Hida, then it called Hida beef. All of these cows have been specially treated and fed to produce a good quality meat.

At Matsuzaka Gyu Yakiniku M, they serve Matsuzaka beef, which comes from cows that raised between Izumi and Miyagawa river in Matsuzaka city. At this place, every cows are fed beer to create a healthy appetite and given a body massage with a mixture of shochu. This treatment creates a smooth blood circulation throughout the body of our cows. So even it's not Kobe beef, this restaurant also serve a great quality beef with a lot of marbles on its meat.

Since we know this restaurant is very popular, we made reservation in advance at their website. They have several branches in Osaka, but we chose to have dinner at Hozenji - Yokocho branch which is more famous and also close with our BnB. We booked a table for dinner at 5PM, and came around 10 minutes earlier. At this hour, we saw many people wait at the small alley for the restaurant to be opened. Well, it's typical Japanese restaurant which has discipline in time. They'll only allow guests get in when it's exactly 5PM - which is their opening hours for dinner. I heard some people who haven't make reservation was rejected because all tables full for that hours, so I advice you to make reservation in advance.

After we got our table ready, the restaurant staff gave us the menu and told us about it. So they have 2 kind of menu. First, an ala carte menu where we can order a beef platter which consists many kind of meat and we can share it. Second, it's a full course menu where we should pay for each person, and they'll serve starts from appetizer, main course (with some parts of beef), and also dessert for each person. Since the second option sounds too much for us, we chose the first option where we could share this beef platter for all of us. We ordered Matsusaka Beef DX Platter which consists of 6 different parts of Matsuzaka Beef, and also some vegetables.

Matsusaka Beef DX Platter for 2 peoples ¥13.800

Not long after that, the waitress came again and served this plate of beef on the table. He put a "beef fat" at the cooking place so it won't be sticky. I thought he also gonna cook for us, but he's not. At this place, we need to grill the beef by ourselves. The staff only teach us how to grill the beef and how it should be cooked. It's kinda hassle for us who have toddler, but we tried to enjoy it. For seasoning, they just gave us salt and soy sauce - which more than enough to season their beef. Beyond our expectation, the beef was really great. The meat was really tender and it also tasty.

Garlic Rice in Hot Pot ¥780

To complete this beef dishes, we also ordered the side menu such as Garlic Rice in Hot Pot and also Matsusaka Beef Miso Soup. While their Miso Soup was quite tasteless, their Garlic Rice taste amazing!! Basically, this garlic rice is just a portion of rice, with some small beef cuts and also fried garlic - which put at the small hot pot (personal size). When they serve it, they'll pour a special sauce, and we need to mix it immediately. I'd said this dish was really delicious, and even Winston (a fussy eater) kept looking for this food after finished a portion.

Matsusaka Beef Miso Soup ¥680 - contains tofu, beef, ....

... and sweet potato

Well, our dinner at Matsuzaka Gyu Yakiniku M wasn't disappointed at all. We love their dishes where the beef has a great quality as well. Besides, their price also not too pricey for Japanese beef dishes. Must try when you're in Osaka.






Matsuzaka Gyu Yakiniku M (Hozenji Yokocho)
Address : 1-1-19 Namba, Chuo-ku, Osaka-city, JAPAN 542-0076 (click here for the location at Google Maps)
Phone : +81 662112917
Opening hours : Mon - Sun 5PM - 12AM (Last order 11PM) & Weekend lunch (Sat, Sun, Holiday) 12PM - 3PM (Last order 2.30PM)
Website : http://www.matsusaka-projects.com/english/

[Japan] Half Day Trip from Osaka to Nara

Every time I travel, I always like to explore new places. Just like the last trip to Japan, I visited a city which located not far from Osaka (where I stayed), and could be easily reach by train. You might be familiar with this city, because it always be a must visit place at Kansai area, it's Nara.

In front of Kintetsu - Nara station

Nara is a city which located just 1 hour away from Osaka and Kyoto, by train ride. This city is popular with its park, where you can play with hundreds of deer. It's a good place if you want to have interactions with these animals. Unlike at the zoo where you only can see from far, at Nara,  all deers live wildly and you even can found them walk at the pedestrian street from Kintetsu Nara station to Nara Park. So not just for take pictures, but you also can play with them and feed them. There are several food stall selling deer crackers to feed the deers. It costs ¥150 for a pack of crackers But be careful, the deers can "smell" every food and they are very agressive with it. You need to hide it, or all deers will "attack" you. Not just with their food, but also our food. When I was there, I left a half cup of yoghurt at the stroller to take picture with some deers. Suddenly the other deer came and ate the rest of yoghurt from the cup.

a food stall selling deer crackers for ¥150

I was trying to feed deers while the other hand carried Winston because he was too afraid to walk among deers.

Kofukuji Five Storied Pagoda , Nara

After played with deers, I turned to Kofukuji Five Storied Pagoda. It's not as crowded as at the park, but still there are some deers around the temple. For me it's a nice place to take pictures with deer with temple as a background. It only took around 1 hour to explore this area, and we walked to the next place which is known as a shopping and food street at Nara, Sanjo Dori street.

Deer and temple at Nara

a pond at Sanjo Dori street

I knew about this street when I was looking for the famous handmade mochi, Nakatanidou. If you ever seen a video of 2 men make mochi by keep hitting the dough, this is the place. You can spot this place easily because they always have a crowd. When in Nara, it's a mandatory to try this famous mochi. Well, since it's a fresh - handmade mochi, the outside part was really soft and not too chewy. It's the best mochi dough I ever tried. However, the filling was quite bland, and not sweet at all.

The famous mochi in Nara : Nakatanidou

Nara is not as crowded as in other big cities such as Osaka, Kyoto or Tokyo. It was very quite, even at its shopping street. However, Nara has their own charm and you might consider to visit this city when you're in Kansai.  Even though half day is enough to exploring this place, but if you have more time you can go further and see other beautiful places in Nara such as Kasuga-Taisha Shrine, Todaiji Temple, and also Ukimi-do Hall.

a quite train in Japan

Gyukatsu Motomura - affordable good quality beef dishes in Japan

Japan is a country that very well known for its food. Almost every food in Japan are very delicious. Not just at the fancy restaurant, even a simple fast food at the minimart also very tasty. The reason of its delicacy it's not just from the cooking process, but a good quality ingredients also has important role in it. In Japan, there's one ingredient that very popular for its delicacy. It's a beef.

Beef in Japan known as the best beef in the world. With the marble on the meat, it makes a very tender texture in every bite. For this reason, the beef price in Japan are very expensive. Kobe beef, Hida beef, Matsuzaka beef, are example of the popular beef that gonna break your wallet. However, there's a restaurant in Japan who served a good quality beef dishes with affordable price. It's Gyukatsu Motomura.

3 times been to Japan, I never missed any chance to eat here. Unless the first one because at that time I didn't know about this place. Gyukatsu Motomura is very popular among tourists. The popular branch is located at Shinjuku, Tokyo, where always make a long queue (up to 2 hours) even at night. First time I ate gyukatsu was in Tokyo, precisely at Shimbashi. I accidentally found this place while walking to our bnb. It was easy to found from Shimbashi station. In this branch, the place was really small. Maybe it's only fit for around 10 peoples at once. However, even though he place was really small, I didn't need to queueing, at all, just like what people always talking about.

Gyukatsu is a deep fried beef which has been covered with breadcrumbs. Even though it's already deep fried to create a crispy "skin", but the meat still raw. Therefore, we need to grill the meat again at the small hot stone which provided in every table. They'll give some seasoning "stuff" such as salt and soy sauce, so we can season the meat by ourselves. Personally, I like to sprinkle some salt over the raw beef, grill it, and at the end I'll dip the grilled meat at the soy sauce. A tender meat, with a little bit salty taste, it was the best dish I ever had.

In Gyukatsu Motomomura, the beef katsu served together with barley rice, miso soup, and cabbage as a set meal. A portion of a set meal costs ¥1400 with 130g meat, and you can have a double meat portion for ¥2200. That's a very affordable price for a good quality meat, compared with Kobe Beef which might be cost over ¥500 for a portion of meat. Anyway, the barley rice that they served, also one thing that makes this dish become a perfect meal. I really in love with Japanese rice.

Gyukatsu Motomura menu at Shimbashi, Tokyo (2018)

If you follow my Instagram, you'd see that I just back from Japan for a spring holiday. But this time I just visit Kansai area, and I was thinking that I couldn't eat at Gyukatsu Motomura at this trip. I started to searching whether they have any branch at Osaka or Kyoto, and I found it. There's an outlet of Gyukatsu Motomura at Namba area, next to BIC Camera. I didn't know it's gonna be have a long queue or not, so I decided to go at 4PM where it's not a lunch / dinner time. When I was there, the staff told me that there's no table available at that time. So he took us to other outlet which located not far from there. While we were walking to the other outlet, he told me that Gyukatsu Motomura has 4 outlets in Osaka : 1 at Umeda Station, and the other 3 outlets located at Namba.

Location of spacious Gyukatsu Motomura at Namba, Osaka

As usual, this outlet also take a place at the basement. However, in this outlet, they have a very spacious dining space. If you want to go to this outlet, you can search for Softbank Kintetsunanba at Google Maps. This restaurant located at the basement of this building.

Very spacious dining space of Gyukatsu Motomura at Kintetsu Namba

Once I saw the menu, I noticed the price was slightly cheaper than in Tokyo. For a single meat, it costs ¥1300, and for the double portion it costs ¥2100. Even though they said that it's 130g, but I noticed that the meat size was little bit smaller than in Tokyo. For the taste, it's still as delicious as I remember. The marbling was really intense, and the meat itself was very juicy and tender. So, if you're looking for an affordable good quality beef dishes in Japan, Gyukatsu Motomura is the right answer.

P.S. : If you're in Tokyo and don't want to queueing, but you also think Shimbashi is too far, you can visit their branch at Harajuku.