We ventured to a rather unusual spot for fine dining, situated on a strange corner just off Spandauer Damm, directly opposite Westend Hospital at Königin-Elisabeth-Strasse 52.
Review Nikuya Yakiniku, Charlottenburg
Long time I did not review and restaurants. Partly as they were boring and not worse the time to spend and/or lack of time. But now I found something I like to recommend you!
A month ago, a steakhouse in the traditional Japanese style of a yakiniku opened here. It’s called Nikuya Yakiniku. Nikuya is Japanese for butcher.
In Japan, yakiniku are smoky barbecue restaurants where smoking is allowed, beer and sake flow freely, and the atmosphere is great. The air is terrible, but that’s part of the experience.
The Nikuya Yakiniku in Berlin is different. The place smells of lilies and there’s no alcohol because they don’t have a licence yet. Otherwise, the system is the same as in Japan. You order meat, which is delivered in slices, and grill it on the integrated table grill.
Nikuya Yakiniku imports A5 Miyazaki Wagyu. Miyazaki-gyu is the best certified brand of Japanese wagyu. It won the Japanese Wagyu Competition in 2007, 2012 and 2017, beating well-known competitors like Kobe wagyu. Miyazaki is home to the best beef in Japan.
Miyazaki is located on Kyushu in the south of Japan. The nearest major city is Nagasaki.
The different qualities of Wagyu are reflected in the degree of marbling, which is indicated on a scale of A1-A5. 1 is the lowest and 5 is the highest.
That all sounds incredible. The prices are high, of course. If you’re looking to save money, go for the US Angus beef, which costs a third of the price of the Japanese A5 quality from Miyazaki. We haven’t tried it ourselves, but we’d love for a reader to try it and share their experience in the comments section below!
The restaurant offers a selection of meats. This costs €89 per person, with a minimum of two people. You’ll also get a few vegetables for the BBQ, miso soup, rice and salad.
However, we felt the quantity of meat was insufficient and ordered a la carte four types of meat instead. See the photos!
We first ordered yakitori skewers with sweetcorn and another with US Angus beef. The corn skewer is a bit of a joke at €4.00 – see photo. The Angus skewer for €5.50 was excellent and offered a good foretaste of what was to come. However, it was slow. The meat was finally placed on the grill another 40 minutes later.
We started with the cheaper options and were pleased to find that the six slices for €45 were a good choice.
Our top list looked like this in the end:
- KATASHIN 45.
- SANKAKUBARA 55.-
- ZABUTON 55.-
- INSAIDO 40.- for 6 discs each, so three for each.
One disadvantage of grilling it myself is that I can never find the perfect way. Sometimes too much done, other times too little. That’s why I prefer to go to a restaurant that can cook for me Wagyu to perfection. What I cooked was never as good as the Akira Back, for example.
We ate with great pleasure and had a wonderful time. The service is very friendly and happy to explain. We will be back again. Certainly not immediately, it’s too expensive for that, but for special occasions.
Menu of Nikuya Yakiniku: https://www.nikuyayakiniku.de/menu.pdf
This article was first published in Gourmet Report, the oldest German online magazine for chefs, gourmets, food editors and travellers.
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