Yakiniku @ One Karubi Premium, Tenjin, Fukuoka

 

A barbecue always satisfies, and it has been a while since I had written about a yakiniku spot. In fact, I did not write about it once since I got here. But time to make amends and I will like to invite you to One Karubi Premium. 

Front of the house. Made it before the crowd arrived. 

One Karubi (ワンカルビ) is a popular yakiniku barbecue chain with outlets all around Japan. They are generally affordable and have a decent roster of meat dishes. As such they are pretty well-liked. However, if you want to kick it up a notch, you can try the Premium restaurant, whereby they are only available in Fukuoka. So this is where we come in.  Two of the outlets are located in the central part of Tenjin, while a third is located in the red light district of Nakasu. And we will be looking into one of the Tenjin branches. 

Technology at its finest!

Like most "central" and communal restaurants, whereby you cook your own dishes, it comes in a buffet format and you can order the dishes via a tablet located on your table. Being a yakiniku spot, we just ordered a bevy of beef, chicken, and pork. As there are various types of cuts and marinades that can make your head spin, I will just refer to some of the highlights of what we had during this dinner. 

Wow this actually works!

The main attraction is well, the karubi. Essentially a loan word of the Korean word "galbi", they are made of beef short ribs and come with a bevy of versions. One of my friends recommend the wasabi marinated. It sounded a bit unusual but it was incredible. The wasabi gave off a garlic-like tinge but had a mustard-like depth to it. It charred differently compared to the usual black pepper or barbecue marinade. Very memorable. 

Burn baby burn!

Another one that caught me off guard was the red chicken, which is essentially chicken marinated in gochujang, red Korean sauce. The sweet and spicy marinade worked well with the chicken that it was enveloping. We also had the red kalbi, which is the same but beef. However, I feel like the chicken worked better as it was more tender. 

Innards don't look the most appetizing, but they are really tasty.

For a bit of a novelty factor, we also ordered some beef tripe and tongue. It may be a bit unusual to find these in a yakiniku joint as they are seen as specialty items. Well, I guess that is where the "premium" comes into play. The tripe, called horumon in Japanese, was really tasty. It was also marinated in gochujang and had a chewy quality that makes beef jerky look limp. It was also able to hold onto the marinate very well, making it even more delectable. 

Beefy french kiss? 

The tongue was also pretty unique. Sliced into thin strips, it cooked down relatively fast. However, it was an acquired taste. I had tried beef tongue various times before. However, they were chunky strips and not thin slices with this one. Still it was something nice to have. 

Skirt steak at the ready. 

If you would like something more conventional, there is also pork belly and beef skirt steak. We had a few of those as intermissions between the more interesting cuts. And I can say they are pretty good. Well, fresh meat on an open fire? What can go wrong?

Fancy. 

However, if you like your intermissions to be more green, there is a wide selection of salads, side dishes, noodles, and pickles for you to try. They are pretty interesting too. We ordered a scallop salad and also a duck salad to complement the fiery meat we were chomping down. And if you like, you can also order leaves of lettuce and wrap them around the cooked beef for a contrast of texture and flavour. Not only that this helps clean the palate, it made things a bit more refreshing. 

Preview of the battle field. 

This was not all though, as we had an all-you-can drink along with this meal. Drinks consist of the usual soft drinks and juices, cocktails, and sake. The drinks selection is pretty wide, but do consist of the usual suspects in a good restaurant. Nothing groundbreaking, but still pretty good. 

Overall, this was a great meal with friends and if you like to play with your food, this is a place you need to go. The highlight of this place is actually not the dishes but the firehob itself. It is attached with a ventilation fan on the table level.  It sucks out all the grease and barbecue smoke. And as such, you would not smell like bacon once you leave the premises. And with a price tag of 5533 yen for a 90 min all you can eat and drink, I think this was a real steal. So if you would like to drop by One Karubi Premium and try the other dishes that were not featured or would like to emulate the experience, then the address to the branch I visited is as follows: 

〒810-0001 Fukuoka, Chuo Ward, Tenjin, 2 Chome−3−24 天神ルーチェ 6F

Located on the 6th floor above this McDonalds. You can't miss it.