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Japan Super Budget Dining – What’s the best way to spend 1,000 yen at beef bowl chain Sukiya?

Casey Baseel Mar 12, 2024
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The dark horse of Japan’s big three beef bowl chains is full of ways to make your taste buds happy and belly full.

Welcome back to Japan Super Budget Dining, the series in which our panel of reporters puts together the best meal they can within a budget of 1,000 yen (US$6.80) at one of Japan’s most popular restaurant chains.

Today we’re headed to Sukiya. Originally founded in Yokohama, Sukiya is one of Japan’s “big three” gyudon/beef bowl chains, but it’s definitely the smallest of the three when compared to the huge number of branches rivals Yoshinoya and Matsuya have. Sukiya is no slouch in the flavor department, and while they’re best known for beef bowls, they’ve got other stuff on the menu too, so let’s see what sort of 1,000-yen-or-less meals our team has put together (as always, the names of these meals were made up by our reporters and unofficial, so you’ll need to order their respective items separately in order to recreate them).

Takashi Harada’s “Tastes, Sounds, and Fills You Up Good Full Belly Set” (970 yen)

● Beef Curry with Double Meat (970 yen)

Believe it or not, Sukiya’s Beef Curry is actually Takashi’s second-favorite thing on their menu. However his absolute favorite, the Beef Sukiyaki Set Meal, is a hotpot that’s available in the winter only, while the Beef Curry can be ordered year-round. And make no mistake, Sukiya’s curry roux is very good stuff, so much so that a lot of customers go there specifically to eat it, skipping the basic beef bowl entirely.

As for it “sounding” good, the way you say “double meat” in Japanese is nikunibai, which Takashi just thinks is really fun to say.

Yoshio’s “Cheese Really is the Best, Isn’t It? Set” (960 yen)

● Gyudon Lunch Set with cheese topping (740 yen)
● Sausage (120 yen)
● Soft-boiled egg (100 yen)

Technically, you don’t have to order Yoshio’s suggested spread at lunch time, since the lunch set only saves you 40 yen over the regular price for a cheese gyudon and salad, meaning that even at full price his meal could be purchased with a single 1,000-yen bill. Still, 40 yen saved is 40 yen you can put towards a repeat meal of this beef bowl topped with three kinds of cheese, with so much that even after dipping the sausage in it you’ll still have enough to crack the egg into and mix with any leftover rice for a deliciously rich finale.

Masanuki Sunakoma’s “Taking a Shot on a New Combo that I’ve Never Tried Before Set” (980 yen)

● Seafood Champon Udon and Gyudon Set (980 yen)

If you’ve read any of our previous Super Budget Dining installments, you might have noticed that Masanuki tends to do little to no research in making his decisions. We could argue as to whether that’s because he wants to go in fresh or because he’s too lazy to do any prep work, but in any case he showed up at Sukiya, saw that they’re offering a set with a seafood noodle hot pot and beef bowl for 120 yen less than they’d be if purchased separately, and decided to make that his pick. That said, he can’t fault his logic, as this combo means there’s no need to waste time deciding if you want to eat beef or seafood, rice or noodles – you can just have it all.

Go Hatori’s “Ultimate Beef and Chicken Cheese Gyudon Fire!” (980 yen)

● Torori Three-Cheese Gyudon (590 yen)
● Fire Chicken (390 yen)

Totori translates to “melty,” and for Go’s money, Sukiya’s Torori Three-Cheese Gyudon is the best cheese gyudon you can get anywhere, far better than what you’ll find at other beef bowl chains. However, to unlock its full potential, you’ll need to order it to go and do the final pre-eating steps yourself. Go recommends flipping the gyudon upside down onto a plate so that the meat is on the bottom, and the rice and cheese on top. Then place a piece of Sukiya’s spicy and garlicky Fire Chicken fried chicken on top, pop the plate in the microwave for a few seconds to get everything nice and warmed up, and thank Go once you’re done enjoying his ingenious innovation.

Yuichiro Wasai’s “Optimizing Balance By Mixing Totally Orthodox and Limited-time Menu Items Together Formation” (980 yen)

● Negitama Gyudon (590 yen)
● Gyudon Lunch Set with Snow Crab Soup (390 yen)

Yuichiro starts off with a long-time mainstay of the Sukiya menu, the Negitama Gyudon, a beef bowl topped with egg and green onion. The flavor packs a punch, but it’s a good kind of impact, he says. On the other hand, substituting your lunch set’s basic miso soup with snow crab soup is a special offer that’s only going on right now, so this gets you a mix of familiar and fresh flavors, plus a salad to make it a little healthier too.

Ahiruneko’s “Meat, Beer, and Garlic Set of Champions” (1,000 yen)

● Gyudon (400 yen)
● Asahi Super Dry (bottle) (480 yen)
● Fried garlic (60 yen)
● Garigari Fire (60 yen)

He used every last yen in his budget, but Ahiruneko stayed true to his sensibilities by making sure to include an alcoholic beverage in his set. As for the “Garigari Fire,” that’s what Sukiya calls its powdered spicy garlic flake seasoning that it coats its Fire Chicken with. You can order Garigari Fire by itself too, though, and mixed in with some fried garlic cloves, Ahiruneko thinks it makes for a great side dish to snack on between sips of beer.

P.K. Sanjun’s “Recreating Yoshinoya’s Mugitoro Gozen Set” (1,000 yen)

● Large Gyudon with Katsuobushi Bonito Flakes and Okra (730 yen)
● Yamakake grated yam (190 yen)
● Miso soup (80 yen)

Yet another set that barely slides in under the budget limit, P.K.’s selection is an attempt to recreate the mugitoro gozen (barley rice mixed with grated yam) that’s an exclusive item in the summer at Yoshinoya. Over at Sukiya, though, you can get grated yam as a beef bowl topping in any season, and okra too, which is relatively rare at gyudon joints. Mixed together, not only is all this delicious, but its slippery texture makes it almost like a drink, which feels extra decadently luxurious to P.K.

Mariko Ohanabatake’s “I Always Wanted to Eat a Breakfast Like This All-Star Set” (960 yen)

● Mazenokke Grilled Salmon Breakfast Set (with upgrade to tonjiru soup) (600 yen)
● Gyukobachi (small bowl of beef) (170 yen)
● Yamakake grated yam (190 yen)

Mariko knows that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Mariko also doesn’t have time to put together this kind of spread at home first thing in the morning, so she’s leaving the cooking to Sukiya. As for all the Japanese words in the component parts, the Mazenokke breakfast set comes with okra and a soft-boiled egg for you to mix together (mazeru and then put on top of (nokkeru) the bowl of white rice. The gyukobachi is a small bowl of beef, not a small beef bowl, since it’s just meat, with no rice. Finally, tonjiru is a heartier version of miso soup with pork and extra vegetables.

Seiji Nakazawa’s “Set that Will Ruin a Man” (1,000 yen)

● Torori Three-Cheese Gyudon (590 yen)
● Horohoro Chicken (330 yen)
● Miso soup (80 yen)

Remember that time Seiji wanted to play the original Super Mario Bros. instead of working, only to find that Go had beat him to the punch and was already using the office Famicom? The same sort of thing happened here, as Go picked out exactly the Sukiya items that Seiji was going to. Luckily, there’s more than one way to put together a Torori Cheese and Chicken combo at Sukiya, since they also have something called Horohoro Chicken, which is grilled chicken seasoned with curry powder. Still flavorful, it’s a little lighter than Go’s Fire Chicken by nature of not being fried. Oh, and Seiji also differentiates himself from Go by leaving the cheese and beef on top and the rice on the bottom when eating it.

And with that, we’ve all got some serious digesting to go do, but rest assured, we’ll be back with another round of Super Budget Dining just as soon as everyone’s hungry again.

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