During my trip to Japan last December, I stumbled upon a cool Yakiniku place in Yoyogi that had such an authentic Japanese feel to it. The place is called Satsuma Tanden Yoyogi, a Japanese restaurant that serves Halal-ceritified Yakiniku. Of course, the most exciting part of visiting the restaurant is the part where I got to experience the taste of Japanese wagyu while actually being in Japan itself.
The restaurant exterior and interior looked so amazing to me because it gave off the vibe of traditional Japanese restaurants, which made tourists like me feel like I was being adventurous (it is hard for moslems to be adventurous when traveling abroad because a lot of the 'authentic' food places or restaurants are not halal-certified!). I was really glad to see the restaurant's confidence in placing the halal sign right at the entrance. In the sign, it was also mentioned that it is Tokyo's first halal Yakiniku restaurant.
From a wide range of cut choices, we settled for wagyu steak, which was greatly marbled and tender. What made the dining experience even more amazing was the savory sesame soy sauce that we used as the Yakiniku dip. The sauce was so good that we ended up buying two bottles of it to consume at home. We were so happy to find the soy sauce to be halal-certified as well because Japanese seasoning, especially sauces, are usually made with hints of alcohol or mirin (some sort of Japanese sweet cooking wine).
The prices of the food can be a little expensive, but it all depends on the kind of cuts that you choose. The wagyu steak price could go up to about 2000 yen per serving! I would recommend getting the lunch/dinner set, as it comes with a choice of drinks, rice, soup and salad. However, I would also highly suggest you to splurge in the restaurant because it's seriously that good and we don't get to experience halal yet authentic Japanese Yakiniku everyday, do we?
