Kobe Steak Meriken Wharf Motomachi — Restaurant in Kobe

Introduction: First off, we totally ran into this place by chance! We saw that the restaurant we were initially heading to had a large line and decided to peek our heads into this restaurant to see if we could get a seat here instead. The staff immediately waved us over and asked if we had a reservation, when we said we didn’t instead of asking us to leave, the staff checked the reservations and found that they had room to seat us then and there. (I would extremely recommend you set up a reservation ahead of time as we just happened to be lucky enough to get a seat and it is extremely worth it).

The Digs: The restaurant itself is pretty small and can be really tight especially for two large people like myself and my father, but once we got seated we fell right at home.

The Staff: The staff were very kind and accommodating, their English was very good and provided us a small introduction to the menu and food prior to our order. You are also provided with a membership card that provides a discount and benefits the next time you visit.

The Order: Admittedly, i may have under estimated how much meat came with the 300g order as this was almost too much for my father and myself, i would recommend the 200g or 250g if you’re really hungry.

The Meal: The set came with 300gs of Kobe beef, rice, a cup of soup, and a small salad. The meal also came complete with a wide assortment of flavor profiles to add to the steak including Garlic, Pink Salt, Wasabi & a savory steak sauce. The meal was pre-pared on a stone slab and had a beautiful presentation (see attached image).

Eating: First the soup was flavorful and rich, it came with corn red onions & green onions served in a cup with a spoon. The steak was cooked perfectly Initially, I was concerned there was no option to choose how the steak was cooked but Chef Okumoto presented me with a beautiful medium rare steak. The beef was delicious and the multiple flavor profiles I was able to experiment with kept the meal fresh and changing. The rice was great and saving the sweet and savory salad till the end brought an even close to the pallet at the end of the meal.

Conclusion: Before we left the staff offered us an in-house taste of their whiskey and we had our pictures taken with the charismatic chef Okumoto. Chef Okumoto and his staff at Meriken Hatoba run a wonderful restaurant, with a pleasant rustic atmosphere. When I come back to Kobe i will properly make a reservation and find a seat back in front of...

This was by far the worst beef I have ever had in my life. Found this place online which seemed to have great reviews and featured in several magazines. We both already knew it was going to be expensive, which wasn’t a problem with us as we thought we were going to have good quality waygu. Both my partner and I got the 100g waygu beef meal (no sides as we wanted to relish the flavour of the meat), and what was presented to us was something that doesn’t melt in the mouth, but fatty and chewy. We could not even eat half it. The leaner pieces of meat that we got were good, but inferior to the beef tenderloin where I come from. Not something that I would expect to pay 4,500 yen each for. We made the entire trip down to kobe for this, and I wish we hadn’t. On top of that the chef insisted on taking a cheesy photo with us after the meal, even though we made it clear we wanted to leave. He has a large ego in regards to his work, which comes across in his demeanour, and during our lunch he was yelling aggressively at his staff.

We ended up getting ice cream at SUGI (highly recommend) after the meal, and that was pretty much the only enjoyable part of our lunch.

I will not be back or recommend this...

Wauw, just Wauw! In my opinion this place deserves a bib gourmand.. Tiny little place in a side street of the shopping street, seats 12 at most. Beautiful decor, very hospitable reception.

You can choose a menu or just the steak. We opted for the latter. You start with a truly amazing tofu amuse. Even if you don't care for tofu you're going to love this. With it some pickled lotus root in a separate dish. Lovely, almost dainty thing.

For the mains you get bite sized sliced beef. cooked to perfection. Forget the steak sauce (homemade) they put out, forget the soy, sprinkle a little of the pink salt and savour the delicate delicious beef.

After that pay some attention to the salad. Because that too has been composed with great care.

I don't know why exactly but when the chef was done for the day he came out for a meet and greet and some photos. Fun experience, I think I succeeded in explaining how much we enjoyed ourselves

The chef proudly claims a samurai ancestory. In my opinion future generations should claim a master of beef as an ancestor to be proud of!

Highly recommend, best meal I've had in a...