Han Hyang, Shibuya

How come people don’t write posts for yakiniku? Maybe because it’s always the same thing – plates of meat, cooked on a fire. Still, I liked this place, and also thought there were some interesting things worth mentioning.

First off, it’s confusing from outside. The sign is HUGE, and it:s a neon shamrock on the 3rd floor of a building on the edge of Dogenzaka. When you go past the manga cafes and get up there though, it turns out to be small (I think I counted seats for 24 only) and very familial (maybe they’re not related, but the staff was certainly all speaking Korean to each other).

Let me just get it out of the way and say that their meat was good and the prices were…well, I dunno. Some of the upper-class stuff they offered seemed expensive to me, but I know at least part of that is because I don’t know. The panchan were pretty limited, but the kimchees were quite good (both cabbage and daikon). They had beer.

I thought the burners were pretty interesting – they were combo gas-charcoal burners, with electric starters and flat control panels. It was a first for me to see this level of modernity (Friday night at Hanabishi, all the cooking was done on open burners connected directly to tanks of gas with rubber hoses). A few taps on the panel (still located on the side of the table where the waitress can get to it easily but not the customers) and massive gas-driven flames kick-started the charcoal, which then smoldered away peacefully while we ate.

Atmospheric shot of meat in action.

I can’t make a big deal of this place, but you could do worse.
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