Sukiyaki at Asakusa Imahan in Asakusa, Tokyo

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Course 1: A closed box! This was very small, like an amuse-bouche.

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Course 1: Inside the box. We weren’t exactly sure what this was, but it was kind of like two small pieces of inari, topped with two little pieces of fish.

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Dallas eating his first course.

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Course 2: Again, not sure what all these things were, but the plate was just beautiful! Little tastes of things. The yellow was definitely tomago. Inside the tiny bowl were some vegetables and other things. The green was sort of a mochi consistency.

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Course 3: This soup had shrimp, fiddlehead fern, and a square of a gelatin kind of thing that tasted like vegetables.

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Course 4: Pretty sashimi! We know there was hamachi and tuna. Not sure on the other fish. There was a lot of wonder with this meal, which was half of the fun!

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Course 5: Sukiyaki. Out comes a plate of wagyu beef!! Dallas was in love with this. So soft and tender, it literally melted in your mouth. I took this photo after we had already grilled some of it. There was a bit more to begin. A full plate.

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The hostess came and showed us how to put the sauce on the hot griddle in the middle of our table. Then she put the beef on the griddle to show us the proper way to cook it.

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Then she beat two eggs in two separate bowls and motioned to ask if we wanted egg. We both said yes. I thought she was going to grill the egg. When the beef was done, she put a bowl of raw egg in front of each of us and then put the cooked beef inside. We were kind of like “what the?” and then she motioned for us to eat! I guess you’re supposed to put the beef in the raw egg and eat it that way. I did once, then asked politely for a clean, eggless bowl.

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Along with the beef, the hostess started to grill a variety of other things: Noodles, onions, mushrooms, tofu, leeks, cabbage and something that was only identified as “gluten.” We were told the gluten takes the longest to cook.

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We still had a bunch of beef and assorted things to grill, so after the hostess showed us how to do the first batch, she left us to do the rest. She also left this instruction card on how to cook everything.

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Then Dallas took over.

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After the main sukiyaki course, I was surprised that there were a few more courses!! This is Course 6: A small cup of miso soup. There were some enoki mushrooms in here.

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Course 7: A small dish of assorted pickles.

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Course 8: Dessert! Hot green tea and cold mango sherbet. Dallas doesn’t even like mango (long story) and he ate it up!

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At the end our hostess gave us this plastic card to bring up to the front and pay the bill.

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After leaving Asakusa Imahan, we walked across the street and looked back. The restaurant’s building is huge!! There are three stories to the restaurant, which dates back to 1895.

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This is the what the restaurant entrance looks like if you’re not looking from across the street to see the big signage. Note the doors. A lot of doors in Japan don’t have handles. You tap the metal strip and the doors slide open automatically.

After spending the morning walking around Senso-ji and Kappabashi Dori, we were getting pretty hungry. Dallas read about a restaurant called Asakusa Imahan that was ranked the best restaurant in Asakusa. All we really knew is that they were ranked high, they specialize in shabu-shabu and sukiyaki and that it wasn’t that far of a walk away. We were seated in the traditional tatami style, where you sit cross legged on pillows at a very low table. You must remove your shoes and if you need to walk around or use the restroom, sandals are provided for you to slip on. We were also served very traditionally by a woman dressed in a kimono and also wearing sandals. I don’t have a photograph of our hostess, but someone at TripAdvisor took this photo of theirs and her dress is very similar.

I put on my sandals and visited the ladies room after we were seated. When I got back Dallas showed me on the lunch menu what he wanted and it looked great, so I agreed. It was the Asakusa Imahan Special Lunch Gozen (Including Sukiyaki/Shabu-Shabu) and was priced at $8,400 yen ($84 USD). In the photograph it looked like a ton of food, so we figured it was enough to feed two. To be sure, we asked our hostess if it was for two, holding up two fingers and pointing and she said “yes, two” and was off.

When we were on about our 3rd course we started to realize our mistake. When we saw the quality of the wagyu beef they brought out and tasted how it literally just melted in your mouth, we knew we were paying $86 PER PERSON, not for two people. YIKES!!! That is an expensive lunch!!!!! But. Let me just say. It was SOO good. And filling. And a great traditional seating and service arrangement. We paid at the cashier stand before leaving and they gave us a goodie bag full of things. A menu for the restaurant, a guide to Asakusa, some coasters, two kites, a patterned towel/cloth. All kinds of things! I guess that’s what you get when you drop almost $200 on LUNCH! Our consolation was that when we looked up the same meal at dinner time, it was $100 dollar per person more! So, let’s just say we got a deal! And we learned a lesson :).

Aside from the surprise cost, we really liked Asakusa Imahan. If you want to get a really high quality meal and splurge a bit, but not pay the dinner costs, definitely head over here for lunch!

Mitsuwa

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Tuna Sashimi :: Mitsuwa, Arlington Heights, IL

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Octopus Sashimi :: Mitsuwa, Arlington Heights, IL

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Daikon :: Mitsuwa, Arlington Heights, IL

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Cute Packaging :: Mitsuwa, Arlington Heights, IL

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Open Up :: Mitsuwa, Arlington Heights, IL

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Crunky :: Mitsuwa, Arlington Heights, IL

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The Motherload, East Ukrainian Village, Chicago

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Katsu Pork, Roscoe Village, Chicago

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Sukiyaki, Roscoe Village, Chicago

Yesterday I tagged along with Danny and Lori to go to the Japanese store that I kept hearing Dallas’ family talk about, Mitsuwa. It’s in Arlington Heights, which makes it impossible for us to get to, but Danny & Lori have a car so, problem solved.

Mitsuwa is a huge Japanese supermarket. Then there are a few seperate shops around the outside, but under the same roof: A bakery, a liquor store, a place that sells pottery, and a big food court. The produce, meat and seafood all looked great. I was wondering where people were buying their daikon! The snacks and confections are the section of any Asian supermarket that I love, though. The packaging is always so irresistable and cute. .. and in New York I used to always buy strange candies and then take them home and try them to see if they were any good. I used to always send it to my niece, too.

Dallas wanted me to pick up some norimaki for him. . the kind with the nori (seaweed) on the outside. I don’t really like it and it makes your breath smell like ass, but Mitsuwa had about 20 different kinds to choose from. I prefer my rice crackers not to have a lot of nori. Yum. I was also looking for some ume (asian plum) candy for him. I got all confused trying to figure it out and picked the wrong candy. Hey, don’t send a white girl from Wisconsin to the Japanese supermarket to do your grocery shopping unless you’re looking for some new things to experiment with! I did a pretty good job, though. I was also looking for some lychee. I remember buying it on the street in New York, but I didn’t find any in the produce department at Mitsuwa. Oh well. Re: the chocolate candybar called “Crunky”: Either Lil John has a new product he’s endorsing or they meant to say “Crunchy.” One last thing, we were surpised that Mitsuwa had Kaua’i Kookies since the only place we’ve ever seen them is on kaua’i. There were only 2 flavors there, but still …

Later that night we all went to Danny & Lori’s where the boys cooked katsu pork and sukiyaki for us. Then along with that we had maki, inari, bao, and sashimi that I bought earlier. So good.. so much food! It was the first time I had sukiyaki but if Danny ever says he’s making it again, I’m stopping whatever I’m doing and hailing a cab to their place. So delicious.