What's with the Korean Yakiniku in Japan?

I'm a big fan of Japanese cuisine (oh, hell, I'm a big fan of all cuisines), but when it comes to Korean yakiniku, i'm sorry, but the taste and overall experience is seriously lacking.

First off, what's with the fact that meat hardly marinated?!! When the server brings out the food, the meat looks as it's just been cut and that soy sauce was just drizzled over. This is confirmed when I cook the meat. Absolutely no flavor. Good galbi means that the meat has been marinated (at least one day by my recipe), but even before that, the meat has have been soaking in water for a couple of hours (to drain all the blood--sounds gross, but highly effective in bringing out the flavor of the marinade).

Second, what's with the side-dishes? Or rather the incessant charges for each item? Any good Korean barbecue place worth its mettle always...ALWAYS!!...provides free, quality ban-chan (side dishes). In fact, in most cases, you can determine the quality of the restaurant by these tasty little appetizers, which is part of the overall meal. Imagine going to a sushi restaurant and ordering sushi but being charged extra for the rice.

Third, quantity. I realize that all things in Japan (except sake it seems) comes in small portions, but come on, this is absolutely ridiculous.

I'm curious. Do Italians think that Italian food here is good? What about the French, Thai, Indians, and Chinese?

Slightly off topic because I'm not in Japan...

When we had one Japanese customer from the Watami chain visiting, we had several options planned for dinner, but he and his colleague said they liked Yakinikku. Since that was not on our planed menu, we said, well, yakinikku's good, too, but there are more interesting stuff. His short, firm answer: "Yakinikku !" as if he had been thinking of Yakinikku all the time !
I thought, okay, this gentleman really likes beef !

The best yakitori I had was done by a Korean fastfood place in Berkeley. Since I liked it so much and had it for lunch 5 times a week or even 7, I finally got to ask for a recipe, which the owner gave after much hesitation. The funny thing about the recipe was that it was exactly the thing for yakinikku, and not something else. I never got to perfect my skills, but the taste of the bar-b-q chicken was soooo good !

Right next door was a Chinese family from Japan; interesting mix of culture there. I loved their vegetable dishes. So healthy, too. From my viewpoint, it appears that yakinikku isn't as popular as it used to be some 20 yrs ago in Korea. I wonder if it is due to higher beef prices, or the availability of other meats, or simply because of the mad cow scare. Yakinikku not being on our plan is only one sign of this change. I wonder if this is happening elsewhere; although it seems in Japan, it still has some appeal. With some controversial services or watering down maybe ? Was the establishment run by a Korean, Japanese, or mixed ? I'm sorry you got short changed in your yakinikku experience. Restaurants do vary drastically depending on who runs it. The bad ones are usally selected out for bankrupcy naturally; how else would it be ?

In Japanese-style yakiniku, the sliced meat is generally not marinated. Instead, after you broil it, you use dipping sauce ("Tare").


Lexico-san,

BTW, there is a Japanes restaurant I go to often in Little Tokyo here in Los Angeles. One of the waitresses there is ethnically Chinese but lived in Korea and Japan, so she speaks Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. I asked her why she can't get a better job with those skills and she said her English isn't good enough.

I'm a fan of anything that involves niku... tataki... especially.

yukio_neko^_o said:

I'm a fan of anything that involves niku... tataki... especially.

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How about "Hiniku"? j/k

mmm i love korean food... i always eat shi-noodles in amsterdam

lexico said:

Was the establishment run by a Korean, Japanese, or mixed ? I'm sorry you got short changed in your yakinikku experience. Restaurants do vary drastically depending on who runs it. The bad ones are usally selected out for bankrupcy naturally; how else would it be ?

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I've been to a variety of them. Several were Japanese owned and operated(stay away from these), while the others were run by second- or third-generation Koreans. I know this because I always ask the nationality of the owner. I've come to the resolution that not eating at Korean restaurants in Japan would be best (whenever possible) <--I say this because my Japanese friends often invite me to go with them to a Korean yakiniku place, and not wanting to be rude, I oblige and feign delight throughout the whole meal. Afterwards, I head to a local convenient store and grab some onigiri to get rid of that lingering after-taste.

Yakiniku comes from Korea, not Japan

窶堙｢窶堋ｫ窶堙俄?堋ｭﾂ【ﾂ湘??堋ｫ窶愿ｷﾂ】 ﾃ崢ｰﾃ?yakiniku)
(Korean-style) grilled meat.
ﾂ?｣ﾂ湘??堋ｫ窶愿ｷ窶堙娯?堋ｽ窶堙ｪ sauce for Korean-style grilled meat.