For our last night in Kyoto, we headed to Mishima Tei, renowned as the best sukiyaki-shabu shabu restaurant in the city. I also had a craving for Matsuzaka beef, after spending several beef-less days in Kyoto.
http://www.mishima-tei.co.jp/
As we arrived, we were led to the second floor, into a private room. The setting wasnt lavish at all, just a simple little table with a gas burner in the middle. The room was a little cramped as well.
We ordered four servings of Sukiyaki. At Mishima Tei, you can only select one method of cooking , owing to the single gas burner per room. The above image is the sirloin cut. You can see how richly marbled it is, I would say the fat percentage is 60-80% of the total weight of the meat.
Here you can see the ribeye cut. The marbling seems to look finer than at Okahan Honten, the third restaurant featured in this blog.
The hostess began by preparing the meat. The method of preparation she used was slightly different to that used at Okahan. The sugar was applied to the pot before placing the meat at Mishima Tei, as opposed to the sugar being placed onto the meat as in Okahan. No fat was melted into the pot at Mishima Tei, another difference to the method used at Okahan. Soy sauce was later drizzled onto the beef as it cooked.
After the beef was done it was placed directly into a bowl with a beaten egg in it, so as it was totally immersed in the beaten egg. Heavenly as you would imagine. ;)
Here the hostess was preparing some Tofu, Leeks, rice noodles, and miscellaneous greens. They were prepared in the fat, sugar and soysauce residue remaining from the sukiyaki preparation. The sugar was caramelized at this point and lended the vegetables a delicious sweet greasyness.
Beef in Japan, at least A5 grade Matsuzaka is something every beef lover absolutely has to try!
Not pictured is a simple dessert of peeled orange slices.
Service was top notch here as well, but that was the norm rather than the exception at restaurants of this level in Japan.
My only complaint was that the serving size was really small, I could have had at least couple servings before feeling full. Despite that, it was truly delicious!
The bill came up to 60,000 JPY (652 USD) for four people.
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