Should show this at Yakiniku restaurants in Japan

It’s hard to order Yakiniku for foreigners. Sometimes I see foreigners try to google the menu but unfortunately dish name is way localized and good result wouldn’t be hit. Then how we can do?

Let’s make order

Basically dish names consist of beef quality + beef portion name. For instance, Premium outside skirt is Tokujo (premium) Harami (outside skirt) like this. So, one good solution for you is to have tables beforehand for each translation. Here they are.

Cut quality

Phonetic JPN	ENG	Letter JPN
Tokujo, tokusen	Premium	特上, 特選, 厳選
Jo	Extra fine	上
Nami Not written normally	Fine, normal	並

In normal yakiniku restaurants it’s not dare to write “Nami” (fine, normal.)

Meat portion

Phonetic JPN	ENG	Letter JPN
Karubi	Short rib	カルビ
Lo-su	Loin	ロース
Hire	Fillet, tenderloin	ヒレ, フィレ, ヘレ
Harami**	Outside skirt	ハラミ
(Shio) Tan	Tongue	タン
Leba*	Liver	レバー
Holumon*	Small intestine	ホルモン
Misuji	Top blade	ミスジ
Momo, akami	Round	モモ, 赤身
Kata Lo-su	Brisket, chuck	肩, 肩ロース
Lib lo-su	Spencer roll	リブロース
Zabuton	Chuck flap	ザブトン
Sagari	Hanging tender	サガリ
Lamp	Sirloin butt	ランプ
Hachinosu*	Honeycomb tripe	ハチノス
Hatsu, kokoro*	Heart	ハツ, こころ

Tongue is usually written as Shio-Tan because in most cases we eat tongue with salt seasoning, not in sauce.

* Offal portion
** Strictly categorized into organ but normally treated as muscle meat

Additional conditions

In some high quality yakiniku restaurant we can choose seasonings of meat. It goes like Jukusei (Aged) Atsugiri (thick cut) Jo (extra fine) Hire (tenderloin.) So in this case names consist of Table 3 + Table 1 + Table 2.
Especially if you want to try fillet or chateaubriand, it’s good to choose Shio taste.

Phonetic JPN	ENG	Letter JPN
Jukusei	Aged	熟成
Usugiri	Thin sliced	薄切り
Atsugiri	Thick cut	厚切り
Wagyu, Kokusan gyu Not written normally	Japanese beef	和牛, 国産牛
Shio	Salt seasoning	塩
Tare Not written normally	Sauce seasoning	タレ
America san	US beef	アメリカ産
Australia san	Aussie beef	オーストラリア産, オージー

Yakiniku meat seasoned in house made original yakiniku sauce so basically “Tare” is not written on the menus. In case of availability of Shio taste, expressly written like Shio Sagari.

Additional information

Price on a menu is for one portion, generally around 80 – 100 grams of meat. So you will order 3 – 4 items at least for one person. Of course you can order 2 or more same dish. Lunch special set menu or dinner course menu would be also available, in which case the price is for one person. But additionally you can order anything from grand menu.

You don’t need to pay attention to any special table manners in Yakiniku restaurant. Additional order is welcome. No formal order to eat. It’s even no problem to eat your dessert in the middle and return back to yakiniku. Have fun!