ikinari steak (kyoto)

we were just about to leave nishiki market and decided to stroll around to find a cafe so my husband could work a little bit and then found dinner. but we only walked short distance when i noticed that we were in kawaramachi area. then i saw ikinari steak's sign. so husband decided why not have an early dinner. after all he didn't eat any proper lunch, so he had to eat proper dinner. so we jumped in. luckily, we were there at weird time. it was almost the end of lunch time, but too early for dinner. so there were only two other people beside us. anyway, if you're curious about ikinari steak, you could check their website here.

lunch menu

the place was right on the side of the busy road. it's easily seen if you're in kawaramachi area. it was a small shop, with transparent glass at front so you can see how busy the restaurant. since at time there was no queue, we just waited the waiter to seat us in. but if there was a queue, you should write down your name and phone number and made sure you were around or had your phone in your hand so they wouldn't skip your queue number. the place was small, but not too crowded. all seats were high chairs facing a table. it was either two chairs facing each other with small table in between, or two chairs at one side each with a bit longer table in between. the seats were pretty high, so i didn't think little kids could eat here. moreover, they used hot plates to serve the steak, so another danger for young kids.

ain't that a cute paper apron?

they put everything on the table. the eating utensils, tissue paper, salad dressing and even additional steak sauce. they handed us the lunch menu, we both picked the rib eye steak. husband picked the top middle menu, and i picked the middle rib eye steak only 200 g. i guessed my husband picked the 300 g one, but i couldn't be sure. but a lot of people came and ordered the lunch combo, which was the CAB steak and hamburg. we didn't know what CAB was in the first place, so we didn't order that one. they didn't offer you water at first, but they will give you free water if you asked them. they also gave you paper apron so your clothes wouldn't get splashed with steak sauce or any oil.

his

i think this was mine

at first, they would serve the salad and a bowl of soup. the salad was tiny and it wasn't as fresh as the one i had here, but the bowl of soup was hot and comfortable. it tasted good, like it was made of beef stock, but the soup was clear. it had tiny bits of meat inside too. so i ate the salad together with the soup, made it like vegetable soup instead of salad and soup. then they would serve you the steak on hot plates. they would also gave you the sauce. there were some corn and onions together with the steak. basically there were two sauce, the salty and the sweet one. my husband like the sweet one, but i like to combine them both.

the salad and soup

the meat was pretty thick and juicy. we both ordered medium and it was okay. they also put fried garlic on top of the steak. my husband's steak had quite big chunk of fat and some tendon, but i guessed he ate it all. mine didn't have as much fat as his, but it was still more fat than the one we had at home. i totally forgot whether we got rice or not, but you could get one if you want. there are other side dishes as well. i have to say, we had a nice and fulfilling dinner that night. the steak was juicy and tender but i just wish it had less fat. but it was still nice. price wise, it was the cheapest steak that we tried during our japan trip. if you wouldn't mind the standing or almost standing option, and you got limited budget, you should try ikinari steak. it has several branches all over japan, so it might not that hard to try at one of their branches.