Imagine a small, intimate sushi bar, where you sit at a counter and a chef prepares your food right in front of you. Almost always sea treasures — unusual fish, eel, and parts of fish that you didn’t even know fish had.
Now replace the fish with…. ta da! BEEF!
THIS is what you find at Hikiniku to Come, Shibuya, a hamburger sushi bar (if you permit me to make the gross analogy).
You sit on a low stool.
$20 gets you three burgers, which are portioned out by hand, and grilled right in front of you over charcoal.
Choose from 20 different condiments to top your burgers.
You get unlimited bowls of delicious rice, and a bowl of sensational miso soup.
The Kirin beer is thirst-quenching and icy cold. The burgers are sublime.
I asked the burgermeister how many burgers they hand-make and grill daily. He said 900, which means 300 lucky patrons are served a day.
Reservations are essential and timed by the quarter-hour — so if you arrive outside your qualified time — either too early, or too late — there are consequences!
Hikiniku To Come, Shibuya, is located at 150-0043 Tokyo, Shibuya, Dogenzaka, 2 Chome−28−1 , and you need to walk up three flights of stairs to reach this hamburger heaven. Web site: https://hikinikutocome.com/en Tel: +81-03-6455-2959.
In the afternoon, we went for a walk in the Nakameguro neighborhood, visiting shops along the Meguro River. The banks of the river are lined with fully-in-bloom, cherry trees….
We came upon a chocolatier/coffee house that BEGS a visit.
It’s called Green Bean to Bar, and while there are several locations in town, you want the one beside the Meguro River. Do NOT pass Go, do NOT collect $200, until you stop here. They make their insanely delicious chocolate bars and confections in a kitchen lined with windows so you can peer in.
Without a doubt, the single best chocolate flavor hit that we have had in two weeks in Japan, where there is no shortage of fabulous chocolate, is the refrigerated, Esmeraldas chocolate confection, filled with a decadent, velveteen, chocolate mousse, enveloped in a shell of cosmic chocolate crunch.
The Esmeraldas mousse morsel you MUST try in Tokyo…. costs about $6.80… but you’d be happy to pay $15, it’s THAT good!
Some additional shots along the Meguro River as we walked back to our hotel….
Above, it’s not much of a shot… it’s the backside of Starbucks MASSIVE Roastery, a 4-story coffee house on which different elements of coffee-making are explained on each of the floors.
This is what the interior looks like…
Wait times to get in to the Roastery vary from 45 minutes (today) to as long as 1-½ hours … and some people DO wait to get in.. but we just kept walking down the Meguro river bank… where I met this fella….
More when it happens.. or tomorrow… whichever comes first.
Jim
So amazing Jim! I want to carbon copy your trip!
Thanks for sharing. The pooch featured in the end projects a wisdom - perhaps the knowledge of the impending doom that awaits today!