ねぎし

Came here last week and did not leave with a smile on my face. It’s a restaurant chain known for serving cow tongue and other meats. For a little over 1000 yen, you get a set of food. You only get a few pieces of meat and it wasn’t enough for me to finish my rice. Also, I didn’t think the meat tasted that good. It’s like they only grilled it and added salt to it for seasoning. Maybe I’m spoiled and I’m used to marinated meats or at least a sauce to dip it, but when I go out to eat, I expect something better than that. If it’s just meat and salt, I can do that at a home. On the bright side, the place was busy, the atmosphere was nice, the place was clean, and the service was good. So I give this place 3 stars because the food was plain.

Ikebukuro is one of the 3 largest cities in the Tokyo metro, alongside Shibuya and Shinjuku. There is so much to do and see here, and it can be easy to get lost, and difficult to find those really stand-​out restaurants.
But friends, I introduce you to Negishi (ねぎし). I would have never known about this place, if it weren’t for one of my good Japanese buddies, Ryo. He took me here with his wife for his wife’s favorite food — none other than beef tongue.
Yes, I said beef tongue! And before you run for the hills or click away in horror, let me tell you that it might be one of the most delicious things on this planet!
So beef tongue, or gyu-​tan (牛タン）, as it’s called, is thinly sliced cuts of young male cows, that is BBQ’d to perfection. This restaurant is one of a chain that specializes in cow and ox dishes. The eating of ox is common in various Asian cultures, but certainly foreign to most Americans and other Westerners.
How do you get here: exit the JR Ikebukuro station from the Main east exit, head east and pass the Don Quijote on your right. Keep moving and you’ll see a long shopping street. If you’ve hit the movie theater and the giant Rirakkuma, you’ve gone too far. There’s a maid café across the street, so if you see maids doing «moe» near you, you’re close to it!
You’d miss this place unless you were looking for it. A bright yellow sign with ねぎし can be seen nondescriptly on a wall, next to a staircase heading to a basement. Down in the basement, a series of chairs to get in. There is always a line here, which is proof of the popularity of the restaurant!
Inside, it’s clean, brightly lit, and you can watch the chefs cooking up tons of delicious meaty treats. The fans are on full blast here, so you don’t have to worry about smelling like BBQ after dinner.
We ordered a delicious salad, with some seaweed and various mountain vegetables (Sansai). We all went for one of the offered sets, which was a generous portion of various gyutan cuts, plus rice, pickles, and a porridge of tororo (mountain potato). So delicious! The gyutan was so tender and cooked to perfection.
Chowing down with some barley tea (mugicha) and a beer made this the perfect meal to end a long day of work.
Here’s the summary:
Ambience/​Service: ⁴⁄₅ — fun, friendly, and standard polite and «excited to see you» Japanese service. Lively place. Maybe a bit too loud at times and always a wait.
Food: ⁵⁄₅
Price: ⁵⁄₅ — not pricey at all
Total: 4.5÷5. Negishi, you seriously rock. I love your tender gyutan, and will certainly be back on future trips to Ikebukuro.