Isshobin Honten is famous in the city of Matsusaka for being a yakiniku restaurant where you can dine on Matsusaka beef for a decent price. They use the highest quality of Matsusaka beef as well, winning them popularity with both locals and tourists.

To make it more accommodating to those who are visiting Japan for the first time, the menus come in English and Chinese. We’d highly recommend you try the Matsusaka beef yakiniku here when you visit Japan.

The most popular lower-priced item is the Yakiniku standard set. It can be ordered for a minimum of two diners, running 3,564 yen per person, tax included. It comes with tongue, sparerib, lean Matsusaka cuts, and kimchi.

Grill the high-quality fat and perfect lean meat to your liking and enjoy. If you still have room, try the standalone items. The sirloin (2,916 yen, tax included) and fillet (3,402 yen, tax included) are popular cuts.

It’s about a 15-minute walk from the JR and Kintetsu Matsusaka Station, and if you’re driving, there’s a parking lot right next to the restaurant. It faces the main road, so it’s easy to find. It has a branch named Isshobin Honten Hanare right across the road from it, where you can enjoy Matsusaka beef sukiyaki and shabushabu.

Matsusaka Maruyoshi Kamada-honten deals exclusively in the freshest of Matsusaka beef. A veteran of the industry with 58 years of experience, it boasts a flavor you can taste nowhere else, with fat marbling so soft and fine it melts in your mouth, ensuring that it sees plenty of guests daily.

How can they offer such fresh Matsusaka beef at such reasonable prices? The secret lies with the fact that it’s also been a butchery since it first opened.

One of the establishment’s most popular items is the Matsusaka steak bowl (3,294 yen, tax included. Limited amount), filled with beef of the highest quality. The juices that drip down from the rare-cooked beef will have you hooked!

Another popular item is the Maruyoshi nabe (4,104 yen, tax included), a sukiyaki hot pot with surprisingly soft meat. But one thing’s for sure: Whichever dish you pick, this meat specialist establishment will ensure you have only the freshest Matsusaka beef.

The restaurant also has plenty of goods you can take home. It sells things like the Matsusaka beef shigure-ni (1080 yen, tax included) pictured above, as well as Matsusaka City souvenirs, so feel free to pick up some memories of your journey here.

Matsujyu in the city of Tsu offers sukiyaki lunches at unbelievably low prices. This precious restaurant offers special Matsusaka beef, cuts carefully chosen from the already top class brand. They avoid freezing the meat on principle, meaning you’ll always get the freshest beef. The meat comes in four different grades, and the popular sukiyaki lunch is available in jo-sen or tokusen grades.

The Matsusaka beef’s fat is so soft and delicate it melts at the touch. The meat keeps its umami after being mixed with sukiyaki stock and egg in a testament to how fresh it is.

Aside from the sukiyaki, there’s also the Matsusaka steak lunch. For this steak, you can take the regular kokusan cut, or the josen, which uses the softest cut of Matsusaka beef rump, of which there are only 3 kilograms per cow. Even further up in grade is the sirloin with beautiful marbling, the tokusen.

Matsujyu also offers the very rare tokusan Matsusaka beef as lunch, the special cuts of such high quality that only comprise 4% of all Matsusaka beef on the market. This precious beef, taken from carefully-raised cows that fulfill set conditions, are available as 160g steak meals for 6,264 yen, tax included.

The restaurant is a convenient minute’s walk from the east exit of Tsu Station, and has private rooms, making it perfect for parties or dinners with that special someone.

Text by:GAIN

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