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Does thin-strip beef specialist Yoshinoya know what it’s doing with thick-cut pork?【Taste test】

Casey Baseel Aug 4, 2024
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Gyudon king now offering kakuni, so Mr. Sato springs into action.

Yoshinoya’s specialty is gyudon, thin strips of simmered beef served over a bowl of rice. Their newest menu item, though, deviates from Yoshinoya’s signature dish by being a hunk of thick-cut pork.

On July 25, Yoshinoya added the Thick-cut Kakuni Set Meal to its menu. The star ingredient, kakuni, is a squared-off slice of braised pork belly, seasoned with soy sauce, cooking sake, and bonito stock for a flavorful mix of sweet and spicy notes.

The preview photos certainly had our mouths watering, so we sent our ace reporter Mr. Sato out to try Yoshinoya’s kakuni, which is currently being offered at a limited number of branches in east Japan.

▼ Yoshinoya’s Tachikawa Station North Exit Branch, in west Tokyo, where Mr. Sato performed his taste test

Walking up to the order terminal, Mr. Sato tapped the button for special items at this branch (店舗限定), selected the Thick-cut Kakuni Set Meal (厚切り豚角煮定食), and fed in 1,084 yen (US$7).

Then he took his seat, and waited for the staff to bring him his spread.

There’s a rugged appeal to the visual presentation, what with the metallic pan that contains the kakuni and green onion with rayu (chili oil). You also get bowls of rice and miso soup, plus a soft-boiled egg.

Going in for a closer look, Mr. Sato was also greeted by the enticing sweet and spicy aroma from the pool of sauce (separate from the rayu) that the kakuni sits in. Speaking of the sauce, it was still bubbling, because…

…there was a fire going underneath it!

Yep, Yoshinoya takes a page from hot pot dining with its kakuni set meal, placing a piece of solid fuel underneath the pan on the serving tray so that you can enjoy your meal piping hot, and this little extra touch of class had Mr. Sato expecting great things to come (to his stomach) very soon.

His hopes got even higher as he picked up his chopsticks and pressed them into the kakuni to tear off a piece. In contrast to its weighty thickness, the pork was incredibly tender, easily pulling apart with minimal force.

The exact order and manner in which you want to eat the components of the kakuni set meal are up to you, but for his first bite Mr. Sato decided to place a piece of kakuni on top of his rice, let some of the sauce drip onto the rice, and then take a bite of all three of them at once.

This turned out to be an excellent decision. The meat was juicy and flavorful. And the sauce? Mr. Sato found its spicy sweetness so enticing that he could happily eat a bowl of just the sauce and rice.

It was like a party in his mouth, and when he expanded the guest list to include the green onion with its fiery friend rayu that it brought along, it was even more delicious.

Mr. Sato had only one complaint. The kakuni set meal is a parade of one great strong flavor after another, and interspersing them with bites of rice lets them hit your taste buds with full force. Unfortunately, that meant Mr. Sato couldn’t stop himself from eating his bowl of rice at a rapid clip, and he ran out of grains before finishing the rest of his meal. It turns out, though, that this really isn’t a problem at all. After heading back home, Mr. Sato checked the Yoshinoya website and found out that the kakuni set meal comes with unlimited rice refills, so all he had to do was ask for one.

So in the end, Mr. Sato has no complaints, except maybe that the kakuni set meal is currently only available at the 15 following Yoshinoya branches:
● Tokyo: Tachikawa Station North Exit, Koiwa-kitaguchi, Ogubashi-dori Saranuma, Tawaramachi, Ogawamachi
● Kanagawa: Route 16 Nishiya, Route 467 Mutsuai, and Route 16 Oppama in Kanagawa,
● Saitama: Hanno Station, Route 407 Tsurugashima, Toda Kizawa, Kumagaya Station North Exit, Soka Shinden, Misato Kamihikona
● Chiba: Kitakogane

The kakuni set meal is scheduled to be on the menu at those locations until August 24, but Mr. Sato is keeping his fingers crossed that that Yoshinoya will be bringing them to more branches after that.

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