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Akihabara’s iconic meat restaurant skyscraper is closing down after 33 years of great meals

Casey Baseel Feb 22, 2024
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But this isn’t the end of Niku no Mansei’s time in Tokyo’s otaku mecca.

As Tokyo’s number-one neighborhood for electronics, video games, and anime merch, there’s always a steady stream of new bright and shiny stuff coming into Akihabara. That doesn’t mean the district is entirely focused on the latest trends, though, as it’s also got some old-school landmarks that have stayed standing as one fad after another came and went. For the past 30 years-plus, if you were in Akihabara and craving a meaty meal, your stomach would thank your feet if they carried you to the Niku no Mansei Akihabara Main Branch.

▼ Niku no Mansei Akihabara Main Branch, with festive red lanterns hanging outside one upper floor’s windows

Niku is Japanese for “meat,” and the 10-story building was filled with restaurants run by the Mansei meat company serving up steak, hamburger steak, sukiyaki, and shabu shabu. With options ranging from casual counters to fancier establishments on the upper levels with views of the surrounding city skyline, and even a ground-level convenience store selling Mansei’s famous pork cutlet sandwiches, this was truly a wonderland for meat-lovers.

▼ Mansei’s familiar smiling cow logo mirrored the expression found on customers’ faces while eating there.

The Niku no Mansei Akihabara Main Branch opened 33 years ago, but sadly, its restaurants aren’t going to make it to their 34th anniversary, as the company has announced that the building will be closing, and all of its restaurants and shops shutting down, at the end of March.

This is something that fans had been bracing themselves against for a while, as Mansei closed a number of the building’s restaurants in 2020 and sold the building itself to new owners in 2021. Now, though, the final ones are closing, starting with the third-floor restaurant on March 20, followed by the 4th floor restaurant (which appears to serve the same menu as the 3rd-floor one) and the convenience store on March 31.

▼ The building’s neon smiling cow has served as a beacon for hungry Akihabara visitors for decades.

▼ The 3rd-floor restaurant, with eye-level views of passing trains, is especially popular with rail otaku.

▼ A small selection of Mansei’s meaty menu.

Word of the Niku no Mansei Akihabara Main Branch’s closing is already spreading among foodies in Japan, many of whom are no doubt planning one last visit before the shutdown. The good news, though, is that the end of the Akihabara Main Branch building isn’t the end of Mansei’s time in Akihabara. The main branch will be survived by Yakiniku no Mansei, a more modestly sized single restaurant that occupies a single floor of a mixed-tenant skyscraper a block away from the Niku no Mansei Akihabara Main Branch and focuses on grill-it-yourself yakiniku.

In and of itself, though, that would be little consolation to fans of Mansei’s numerous non-yakiniku meat dishes, but before that start shedding beef-scented tears, they should know that there’s a brand-new Niku no Mansei restaurant opening in the Akiba Place building on Chuo-dori, the main street of Akihabara.

The new restaurant is also only a single floor, and the full menu hasn’t been revealed yet, but at the very least the promotional image promises that Manei’s beloved hamburger steak will be making the move, which is definitely something to be happy about, as is the fact that the Akiba Place Niku no Mansei opens on March 25, meaning that the 33-year-long streak of Mansei hamburger steaks being served up in Akihabara will continue unbroken.

Location information
Niku no Mansei Akihabara Main Branch / 肉の万世　秋葉原本店
Address: Tokyo-to, Chiyoda-ku, Kanda Suda-cho 2-21
東京都千代田区神田須田町２丁目２１
Website

Source: Niku no Mansei (1, 2) via Jin
Top image: Niku no Mansei
Insert images: SoraNews24, Niku no Mansei (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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