Azuma is a teppanyaki steakhouse located within 8 minutes walking distance from Harajuku station. Tucked away in a smaller lane away from the main shopping streets, Azuma is a gem worth checking out! Started by a husband and wife team more than 25 years ago, Azuma serves a variety of teppanyaki sets with different grades and cuts of beef.
We ordered a Kobe beef lunch set at 5000 yen.
The first dish on the set is a Japanese-style salad.
The salad is alright, but wait till you see what’s coming up as the chef springs into action…
This!
Fresh scallops topped with a generous serving of mouthwatering sauce made with a blend of uni (Sea Urchin), milk and mushroom, conjured so wonderfully by the chef.
The warm creamy sauce, filled with the mild sweetness of uni, mushroom and a tinge of soy, complimented the tender chunks of scallop in each spoonful, leaving you desiring more.
Next, the main highlight of the lunch. Kobe beef. As we ordered 2 different sets, the chef selected 2 different cuts (fillet and sirloin) of the extremely marbled beef and showed us for our approval before he started cooking.
After a few minutes of eager anticipation, the chef sliced up the slabs to bite size pieces and laid it out on our plate. May I present, the end result…
Japanese beef (wagyu) is, without dispute, my favorite food. The texture of each slice of beef is very different from regular steaks elsewhere. Wagyu has a buttery tender texture which gives it a melt-in-your-mouth experience with every bite. It is not easy to cook wagyu well. Too much heat or overcooking it too long can melt the well-marbled fats, which gives wagyu its distinct taste and texture, causing the steak to lose it’s signature outstanding taste.
The experienced chef at Azuma, having cooked these amazing slabs of beef on his teppanyaki grill daily for decades, did it perfectly! Every piece placed into my mouth is an indescribable explosion of heavenly flavors melting away in my mouth in every direction! Every piece I enjoyed made me dread the moment when I had to finish my final piece.
To end the meal, we had a choice of either coffee or sorbet. We chose the latter and were presented with a scoop of refreshing and fruity raspberry sorbet treat.
Azuma is one of the best teppanyaki steakhouses I have came across in Tokyo. Like most restaurants in Japan, the lunch sets (from 1,600 yen onwards) tend to be a lot more affordable as compared to dinner prices (from 10,000 yen onwards). Nevertheless, the dinner sets come with larger servings and includes more courses and varieties of premium dishes. For steak lovers, Azuma is the perfect place for a delectable meal, to tie in together with your shopping itinerary at Harajuku.
