Dinner at Nikuryori Chii-chan in Kobe, Japan
On my 4th trip to Japan, fine dining was the main focus. I love beef, but I’ve only had teppanyaki in places like Conrad Osaka, Conrad Tokyo, and Nagasaki Marriott.
Kobe is the hometown of Kobe beef, and the place that caught my eye is Nikuryori Chii-chan, a wagyu omakase restaurant in Sannomiya, the entertainment hub of Kobe.
It has really good rating of 3.6+ stars on Tabelog and costs just 8,800 yen before the drinks. It offers real good value as it serves A5 wagyu, the highest grade beef there is!
How to Book a Reservation at Nikuryori Chii-chan
Nikuryori Chii-chan can be booked directly on TableCheck. Alternatively, Instagram DM is possible as well, but I have not tried this method.
Schedule opens around 2 months in advance and is relatively quite easy to book. The restaurant serves two dinner time slots from 6pm and 8pm.
There’s no cancellation fees until one day before your reserved date so it’s quite flexible!
The Food
The meal starts with a hearty beginning with a beef soup accompanied by pumpkin and wasabi dip.
Next is the main star of the event, the A5 wagyu beef tongue that Chef Chii-chan proudly showcase to her customers.
While the steaks of beef tongue were grilling, we were served diced wagyu on top of toasted crunchy bread rolls. The meat were marinated with some sort of sweet sauce. Fantastic!
After that, the beef tongues are served, each customers have generously sized 3 pieces. The meat just melts in my mouth perfectly!
After that, a chawanmushi with strings of beef brisket is served.
Sukiyaki is served next. The beef feels light, but still delicious.
After the sukiyaki is the nikuzushi, which is a first for me! Simply amazing…
After that, it’s the gyudon served with beef brisket and egg yolk.
The egg goes really well when mixed with rice that’s freshly cooked with a clay pot.
Beef curry is served after and is served with the same rice bowl that I ate the beef and egg with. The curry sauce was sweet and delightful.
Finally, the meal is finished with a simple yogurt ice cream dessert.
And when I thought it was done, Chii-chan gave a take-home present for everyone.
It’s a dorayaki sandwich with a block of chocolate in the middle that tasted great. It’s an original for the restaurant that I didn’t know about and was just developed recently!
Apparently there’s matcha flavor as well so it’ll be one of the reasons why I’d go back here again!
Conclusion
Nikuryori Chiichan is a fantastic place to go to for a Kobe beef omakase experience. The value is truly amazing with the amount of dish varieties centered around A5 wagyu Kobe beef.
I could not comment on the drinks because there’s no English menu so I just ordered rounds of tea. But there’s some premium wines and champagnes you can order.
I would love to go back here! The atmosphere is very casual and I think it’s cute that all the customers call the chef Chii-chan. I can bet that her smiles are definitely one of the reasons why this place attract customers 🙂