JPN: Matsuya (松屋)

Huge, fatty beef bowl with half-boiled egg!

Matsuya was founded in 1966, providing what's known to be the Japanese fast-food staple, the beef bowl, among other items. In Japan alone, there are already more than a thousand outlets as of the end of March this year. By the way, there's no English menu in the branch I went to, so I'm going to loosely provide the names of those I ordered in English.

Beef Rice Set (Large) ¥520 (~S$6.55)

Taste: 8.5/10

The actual name of the set is 牛めし野菜セット (大盛). A generous amount of stir-fried beef slices, which were adequately fatty, was put on top of piping hot Japanese rice. The savoury beef slices met sweet onion slices, stirred together with a half-boiled egg, to create a nutritious bowl of comfort food. The ingredients used for the salad were pretty fresh, while the miso (Japanese fermented rice, barley and/or soybean) soup tasted pretty ordinary. Pika's advice: If you wish, you can order a raw egg instead of half-boiled egg.

Sliced Pork Ribs Rice Set ¥550 (~S$6.90)

Taste: 8.5/10

The actual name of the set is 豚バラ焼肉定食. Tender parts of pork ribs were chosen, sliced and pan-fried with just a bit of salt and pepper that didn't mask the true flavour of the meat. Combined with grated radishes and spring onions, the set meal was as enjoyable as the one described earlier.

Don't forget to add various condiments as you wish to make your meal more enjoyable: shoyu (Japanese soy sauce), goma (lit. sesame) dressing, French dressing, BBQ sauce, ponzu (Japanese citrus-based sauce), karubi (Japanese equivalent of galbi, Korean marinated meat) sauce and shichimi (Japanese blend of seven spices)! I personally like having my rice sprinkled with shichimi.

Melon's Rating

Taste: 8.5/10

Ambience: 6.5/10
Overall: 7.5/10

I'm interested to try their curry rice dishes next time.

Matsuya

(松屋)

2-1-1 Shibadaimon

Minato, Tokyo

Japan

(Sun-Mon: 4.00am - 2.00am; Tue-Sat: 24 hours)

http://www.matsuyafoods.co.jp/

*Prices quoted are nett prices.

Have a nice meal,

Cliff(y)