As a foreigner in Japan, I was excited to learn about and be exposed to\u00a0the popular concept of t<\/em>abehoudai\u00a0<\/em>Japanese BBQ<\/strong>. This phrase, that is often paired with nomihoudai<\/strong>, <\/em>is the all-you-can-eat and all-you-can-drink concepts at some izakayas in Japan. \u201cTabe\u201d comes\u00a0from the verb “taberu,” “to eat” and “nomi” comes from the verb “nomu,” “to drink.” These options are typically found in restaurants that can host large groups, but some smaller restaurants have also adopted the concept. The idea is you pay a certain amount for a table\/time slot\u00a0and the rest is up to you. How much can you eat or drink in 2 hours? Some are even just 15 minutes!<\/p>\n

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All-You-Can-Eat BBQ Culture in Japan<\/h2>\n

While there are many options of places\u00a0to enjoy Japanese BBQ, my best experience with tabehoudai<\/em>\u00a0has been at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant called Showa Taishu Horumon, located in Namba, Osaka. Yakiniku (the Japanese equivalent to\u00a0barbeque)<\/strong> literally means \u201cgrilled meat\u201d and is also a type of restaurant familiar with all-you-can-eat courses. They are interactive meals where you grill your meat at your own table! You are typically\u00a0given a starter plate of meat that you must\u00a0finish before ordering your own meaty\u00a0selection. Although these restaurants are definitely not a vegetarian\u2019s paradise, they do offer salads, side dishes such as kimchi and vegetables and sometimes soup. Be aware, however, that even though you can order as much as your meat-lover heart desires, Japan is very conscious of the amount of waste they produce, especially at these types of BBQ spots. There is a term called mottainai<\/strong>,<\/em> which means “regret concerned with waste,” and some restaurants practice mottainai<\/em> by\u00a0charging you for any meat that you have left uneaten.<\/p>\n

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Tabehoudais and Nomihoudais are not limited to just Japanese BBQ\u00a0restaurants. Lots of izakayas and specialty restaurants (even karaoke bars!<\/strong>) offer a variety of all-you-can-eat options where the menu consists of everything from fried chicken, salads, pizza, pasta, and fish, to name just a few.<\/p>\n

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Showa Taishu Horumon<\/h2>\n

My friend and I were lucky enough to stumble upon this place–we were dying to get a seat anywhere on a busy Saturday night, and it was just our luck! This place really\u00a0is\u00a0fantastic. The servers greet you with a loud \u201cirasshaimase!\u201d <\/em>and show you to your table\u00a0complete with personal grill, vent and menus in both Japanese and English.<\/p>\n

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Eating at a Japanese BBQ\u00a0Restaurant<\/h2>\n

There are three options to choose from, each with a larger selection of meat. We went with the medium package, \u00a52,980 for 80 dishes (the other two were 40 dishes for \u00a52,480 and 120 dishes for \u00a53,980).<\/p>\n

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When you do your pre-drink “kanpai<\/strong>,” you will hear a loud \u201cotsukaresama!!!\u201d<\/em>\u00a0(“thank for you your hard work”)\u00a0<\/i>from the whole staff.\u00a0It truly is an interactive experience and you feel connected with everyone inside the restaurant.\u00a0We were excited enough to request a do-over so we could catch it on Snapchat!<\/p>\n

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Once you\u00a0finish the first required meat platter, you\u00a0can go\u00a0all-out. (And we definitely did!!) Roast, ribs, sirloin, tongue, pork belly and you\u00a0can keep ordering more just as soon as all the meat is\u00a0on the grill. They even offer\u00a0a few selections that I had never tried before, such as cartilage and throat!<\/p>\n

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I thank the restaurant gods for showing us this place\u00a0by coincidence that night. I proudly hugged my food-baby as our server walked us up the stairs and onto the busy streets of Namba and thanked us for dining with them. I have never been more happily surprised by the food, quality, staff entertainment and overall ambiance of a restaurant that came to me by shear luck. I highly recommend this place to anyone visiting Japan!!<\/p>\n

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Other Options for Japanese BBQ!<\/h2>\n

This post focuses on a specific restaurant,\u00a0but there are plenty of choices for BBQ tabehoudai! Gyukaku<\/a> is one of the biggest franchises, and they have even\u00a0opened\u00a0restaurants in the US and Canada! Gyukaku is well known as a great Yakiniku restaurant for people on a budget, with many varieties of choices! For Tabehoudai course, they not only\u00a0provide meat, but also some appetizers such as salads, tofu, kimchi, soup and rice! Other\u00a0franchise options would be Stamina-Taro<\/a>, Anraku-tei<\/a>, and Fufutei<\/a>. \u00a0Toraji<\/a> is a more fancy restaurant found in Ebisu, Tokyo. Although they offer Tabehoudai menu only in the selected restaurants, but it will be nice to try elegant Tabehoudai! If you are around Osaka area, go to Tsuruhashi station and you can find many options for Yakiniku tabehoudai!<\/p>\n[cft format=0]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a foreigner in Japan, I was excited to learn about and be exposed to\u00a0the popular concept of tabehoudai\u00a0Japanese BBQ….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":25798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"pgc_meta":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24,26,21],"tags":[1281,1356,1367],"class_list":{"0":"post-25794","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-activities","8":"category-culture","9":"category-food","10":"tag-osaka","11":"tag-restaurant","12":"tag-sake"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n