Yakiniku Jambo Hanare

02What to order

• Kuroge wagyu jō-tanTop-grade Japanese Black tongue, served by the slice: ¥1,040 each, one per person, in limited numbers. The regular tongue is ¥2,750.
• Harami, rōsu and karubiHarami at ¥2,550; rōsu and karubi at ¥1,650 each.
• The offal listHorumon (large intestine) ¥1,300, jō-mino ¥1,300, mino sando ¥1,550, liver ¥1,650 and hachinosu ¥1,300.
• Wagyu nigiri and the platesWagyu sushi at ¥730 a piece; shaba-zō-yaki, mixed offal on the griddle in a sweet-spicy sauce, ¥1,930; yukhoe-style roast beef ¥1,820; wagyu curry ¥1,850.
• OmakaseTableAll sells the Jambo dinner omakase at ¥31,000, of which ¥8,000 is a booking fee; Tabelog describes it as cuts grilled one by one by the cook. Book the chateaubriand and the house beef rice ahead.

03The beef

The house names one thing on its own menu: Japanese Black beef, kuroge wagyu, for the tongue. TableAll adds that the restaurant uses A4 and A5 black wagyu from breeders across Japan. Region, farm and ageing are not published by the house, so the grade comes from TableAll rather than from Jambo. The pork is Iwanaka pork and the rice Koshihikari from Toyama. TableAll also lists nohara-yaki — sirloin dipped in egg, sukiyaki-style — among Hanare's cuts, though Hanare's own à la carte menu does not list it; the dish appears on the menu of Jambo Shirogane, an associated house.

04The story

The company, Jambo Co., gives its founding as 24 December of Heisei 1, 1989, and its incorporation as 12 July 2007, with its head office in Shinozaki-machi, Edogawa-ku; TableAll tells the same story — Norimitsu Nanbara's parents opening on Christmas Eve in Edogawa — but dates it 1988. Steakpedia uses the company's 1989. Hongo followed in 2010 and Hanare on 18 September 2013. Today the group runs Shinozaki Honten, Hongo and Hanare, has Shirogane as an associated house and partners in Hong Kong, Bangkok and Indonesia, and supplies its secret tare to Yoroniku and its sister houses.

05The practical

Hanare is on the basement and ground floors of the Anritsu Building, 3-27-9 Hongo, four to five minutes from Hongo-sanchōme, with private rooms for four or six; no smoking. It opens 17:00–23:00. Bookings are on TableCheck, up to the end of the following month, and are not taken from overseas phones; a table 20 minutes late without notice is cancelled, and guests seated at 21:30 have 90 minutes. Tabelog gives a budget of ¥15,000–19,999 a head. The number: A4 to A5, in TableAll's account.

Address

Anritsu Building B1F–1F, 3-27-9 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo

Phone

+81 3-5689-8705

Website

yakiniku-jambo.com

Directions

Google Maps ↗

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