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400th Post!!!!! Four and half years, 400 posts, and hundreds and hundreds of restaurants and cities. Wheeeeeeee! Thanks to all the people who read my little blog. :D
This will be a special post. Since I got to check off something on my bucket list, I got to visit a new city, and it's also the last post of my Japan trip!
This year's trip to Japan, we added Kobe to the list of cities to visit. This will be a new one for me since I've been to the other 3 cities. And how can you go to Kobe and not get Kobe beef?!?! I knew it was going to be a very expensive meal, but hey... when you're in kobe... haha.
I found this place from doing Google searches and also TripAdvisor. We had the hotel front desk call and make a reservation for us.
Wakkoqu - Kobe Steak
Kitano location
We arrived super early. (Due to the rain we didn't have many options of things to do to kill time.) But the restaurant was pretty empty so they were able to seat us immediately. It was a very small place. The front room only had 1 large round table and then a row of seats in front of a long teppanyaki. We were seated in front of the teppanyaki (which is basically an iron plate or griddle). We had our own personal chef. His English was very limited but he was super nice.
We ordered the following set courses. And he split everything for us so we got to try both types of cuts of meat.
Tenderloin 230g (230g tenderloin, appetizer, rice, coffee) 11,000Yen~
KOBE Sirloin 250g (250g special course sirloin, appetizer, rice, coffee) 13,700Yen~
While we were ordering and waiting for our food. The chef is already prepping for the steaks. He started with garlic slices on the stove, crisping them up. We also got a plate of different condiments and seasoning: mustard, sea salt, cracked black pepper, and the crispy garlic. We also got little dishes of soy sauce and vinegar. All those can be paired in any combination with the meat.
We started with appetizers while the chef starts cooking the meat. We were presented with the cuts before he started butchering and cooking it. Drooling.... (front piece is the sirloin, tenderloin in the back)
Smoked Salmon. I personally don't like smoked salmon, but it was tender and buttery. My bf loved it.
Seafood Gelee. This was mine. I had no idea what to expect because I actually didn't understand what the chef was saying when he told me about the dish. hahha. It's quite pretty! It's a cold dish and the flavors were light. I think there's little fish, uni, crab and maybe scallops in the layers? A refreshing start to the meal. I don't think I've had anything like this before.
Then we got salads. Fresh, loved the light dressing.
We watched the chef as he preps the meat on the stove. The shape knife cut through the meat like it's butter. Clean strokes, the chef works very efficiently. He starts cutting off the fat surrounding the steaks. I was so anxious watching him because I didn't know what he was going to do with the fat. I was so afraid he was going to throw it away because I'd TOTALLY eat it. hahaha. But there was no waste, he used every part of the steak. The fat was rendered down and he used it to cook all the veggies in. OMG GOOD!
The meat was seasoned simply with salt and pepper. You could get the natural flavor of the meat. OMFG! It literally melts in your mouth. It IS like butter. And the flavor of the meat was fantastic!! I tried a few combinations with the condiments and a garlic chip with black pepper and sometimes a bit of mustard was my favorite bite.
The meat was cooked to PERFECTION. The veggies were definitely just the sides.. they let the meat shine! And we were given one piece of cooked fat. NOM!! :P
The meal was also complimented with rice and pickled veggies. The acid from the pickled veggies paired really well with the buttery meat. Lightened things up a bit.
The last bit of the rendered fat and scraps of meat were used to sautee bean sprouts. YUMMM!
It was FANTABULOUS!!! Definitely the best beef I've ever had in my life. We enjoyed it thoroughly. Both cleaned our plates! I think the chef was also very pleased that we loved it so much. :)
The meal ended with coffee. Most of you know.. I don't drink coffee. At. All. But for the price I'm paying and the "whole experience", I doused the coffee with sugar and milk! And it wasn't too bad. It actually was a nice finish to this wonderful steak dinner.
One of the best meals ever. I'm glad I got to share it with someone that appreciated it even more than I did!! haha :) If you ever visit Kobe, definitely have a real Kobe steak meal!!!
Overall Experience:
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This is the post before my 400th post!!!! :D Exciting! hehe.
We spent a day in Kobe during our trip. It's only like a 30 minute ride on the train from Osaka. And despite the pouring rain, we had lots of fun and, of course, yummy fooooood! :)
Just wanted to get a light lunch since we had a big and special dinner at a Kobe steak restaurant. (Stay tuned for that, btw... it's awesome!)
Kobe Coffee
Egg Sandwich (with fries) 700Yen~ Light but tasty. It was a good lunch!
Waffles 450Yen~
Latte
Kobe Harborland is a cute area by the water with a mall, lots of shops and restaurants, a ferris wheel and the Anpanman Museum!
Wouldn't be a day in Japan without soft serve! hahaha. I literally had at least 1 a day! :P
After dinner we went to the harbor and enjoyed the night lights and view at one of the little cafes.
Honey Butter Bread (plus drink) 800Yen~ This was massive!!! We should've have gotten 2 desserts. hahaha. Sweet and fluffy. YUM!
Caffe Latte. The foam art is SUPER cute!!!
Brownie (plus drink) 800Yen~ Really rich brownie... almost like fudge! Definitely needed the ice cream accompaniment. haha
I don't even know how we managed to eat these desserts after the dinner we had btw... :P
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There are some great food options in Kyoto. It's a beautiful city with wonderful culture and sights as well.
Some of the food we had in Kyoto:
Ginkakuji - the Golden Temple, was the first stop we made in Kyoto. At the end of the trail are snack and gift shops.
Green Tea Ice Milk (with mochi) 300Yen~ My first time trying this. Awesome! Super fluffy ice with the best green tea. The best matcha I've ever had in my life is definitely in Kyoto.
Green Tea Soft Serve 300Yen~ Me and my soft serves. hehe. YUMMY!
Lunch time outside Kinkakuji - the Silver Temple.
We walked by a small restaurant where you have to take your shoes off and sit on a platform. Always like those. :)
Kitsune Sansai (rice with slices of deep fried tofu and mountain vegetables) 650Yen~ I wanted something light and this was perfect. Light but still had good flavor. Felt pretty healthy eating this.
Unagi (bowl of eel and rice with Suimono - Japanese style soup) 1,200Yen~ Probably the cheapest unagi rice I've seen. They typically run 1,800+ Yen or so. The eel was super tender.
Gion Corner - a cool area where you can see geishas and old style buildings.
Sesame Chou Cream Puff (black sesame and custard) 250Yen~ Black sesame! Of course I had to try it. The cream puff was huge. And so tasty. Bad idea to eat it so close to dinner time though. haha. I was super stuffed!
Soft Serve! :)
Fried Chicken Stand
Kyoto Style (with green tea salt) 200Yen~ Never had matcha salt before. Pretty cool. It went really well with the fried chicken.
Churro Star
Churro (with matcha sugar) 190Yen~ MORE matcha!! OM NOM NOM!
Strawberry Banana Crepe (with whipped cream and chocolate sauce) 330Yen~ Crepes are always fun. Keep in mind we ate all these foods in ONE day! hahaha.
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We found this Ninja themed restaurant in Kyoto and decided to check it out. So freaking awesome! All the staff members were dressed in ninja gear. They lead you thru a dark tunnel from the entrance to the dining area. Which are little caverns per table. It's like private dining!
Ninja Kyoto Restaurant & Labryinth
http://www.ninja-kyoto.co.jp/
They offered several set menus as well as a la carte. We figured since we're here, might as well do the set menu! We chose the 10 course summer special menu for 2,800Yen~ per person.
Shuriken Star Blades Grissini (with sour cream dip). Grissini is basically a crisp breadstick or cracker. This was so cool! Crackers shaped like ninja stars. The presentation was awesome. I didn't even notice the black crackers when they first served it. I thought the twigs were something edible. haha.
Octopus Sashimi. Pretty fresh, but quite chewy. It was hard to eat.
Potato Salad (topped with crispy potato bits). They did "tricks" with the food. The egg was not a real egg! It was actually the sauce for the salad. The creamy sauce over the potatoes was fantastic. The crispy potatoes on top added texture and more flavor. This was my favorite dish of the night. :)
Soup. Pretty good. A creamy soup with edamame in it. I didn't finish it though since I knew we had a ton of courses left to go...
Steam Fish with Chinese Sauce (with tofu and veggies). Very light and healthy. Not my favorite dish... the fish was overcooked.
Ninja Style Black Fried Chicken. Very cool presentation as well. The black stuff on top is actually garlic bread crumbs. It's not burnt or anything. Added so much texture to the dish and delicious garlicky-ness. Did I mention how fun this meal is??!! :P
Black Enchantment (sweet and sour tender pork). When they served this, the waiter said it's time for dessert! I was excited because I love dessert. Duh! haha. But then he told us, "No! It's not!" It is a pork chop disguised as a ice cream bar. Can't say I wasn't disappointed. haha. But this was really good. The pork was cooked well and the sauce was very interesting.
Eggplant Sushi. I don't like eggplant. But I tried this anyways. I did not have a second piece tho. haha.
Icy Bonsai (milk, black sesame, and matcha ice cream). Now it's time for dessert for reals! :P Really cool presentation. The dirt was chocolate cookie crumbs and 3 different flavors of ice cream underneath. The black sesame was by far my favorite. Yum!!
Snowy White Frog (cheesecake on chocolate cookie). Cute! Looked better than it tasted but totally fun!!
During the meal, a ninja came in a did magic tricks for us!! It was one of the most fun dinners I've ever had. Definitely go check this out when you're in Kyoto. :)
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