Today's featured restaurant is Niku-no-bannin (肉の番人). I originally wanted to splurge on seafood they didn't seem open so steak seemed like the next best thing to splurge on. Unfortunately, arriving a few minutes after the restaurant opened meant I had to wait in line for the first time.
Since I wanted to splurge, I got the 350g steak teishoku set with salad + miso soup. The place seemed popular enough so I decided to try go rare for once. It was a touch more than I was expecting but it was still incredibly tender so I'm not too concerned. It was slightly underseasoned but that's fine in this case since there there were an array of sauces (shiso sauce, ginger shoyu, and tare), Himalayan salt, and a chili paste (gochujang like). For the first sauce, I thought the combination of shiso, shoyu, and steak was a bit weird. The second sauce was a bit lackluster so it didn't add too much to the steak. The third sauce was quite delicious (well, sweet shoyu is a great combination with meet in general so, of course). The addition of Himalayan salt was probably the most enjoyable however since the beefy steak essence came through. The chili paste is also great with the steak so that was a nice plus.
Additionally, the sides were enjoyable but nothing to write home about.
Overall, I wish they had dry-brined the steak ahead of time to have the salt penetrate the steak ahead of time and provide it better chances. Ultimately, many of the steaks qualities still came through so the experience was enjoyable overall. 7.5/10.
Today's a bit of a special day so I'll write a bit extra. I went to get some yakitori and found a good spot to eat my shiro motsu skewers where I was greeted by this fellow several meters away! After finishing my skewers, I crouched to try and get a better picture of them before the cat approached me, rubbed against my leg, and walked towards the chair I was sitting at. A unexpected present but maybe it's one I deserve.
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