Friday, October 1, 2010

Barbacoa

And so we officially proclaim yet another family tradition -- dining out at a churrascaria for Conor's birthday. (Dylan gets Korean barbecue -- can you smell a trend here?)

Barbacoa (Jingumae/Aoyama) has a great deal where kids get all-you-can-eat-meat for 2,100 yen, 2 hours max. (Adults are approx. double; reservations often have an end point in this town, but here it really does make sense.) Servers bring around giant slabs of various cuts of beef and pork, roasts mainly, but also chicken legs, sausages, grilled whole onions and buttery potatoes, and slide or slice portions off the big sword-like skewers, as much and as often as you like. Ah, and the grilled pineapple -- delicious.

There's a chip on the table with the restaurant's logo printed in green on one side, red on the other. Green means go! We want more! Red means stop, for now -- we need to rest. There's also a salad bar if your body starts to suddenly crave something like, oh, carrots or steamed broccoli. Which can happen after several mouthfuls of carne.

Here's Conor receiving a slice of what I think was one of the best cuts of the night:

If you hang your jacket over the back of your chair, the staff puts a green drop cloth over it -- you can see the one covering Conor's windbreaker in the photo above -- presumably to protect it from any juice or greasy spatter from roving spits.

A special dessert for the Bday boy:
mango sorbet, a square of chocolate-orange-layer cake, a bit of chocolate mouse cake, a sliced strawberry with fresh mint, and, the only thing that didn't disappear in under a minute: a green-tea cream cake roll with sweet red bean.

Dylan's best carnivore face

Barbacoa Grill is located at 4-3-24, B1F, in Jingumae, Shibuya-ku. Just off Omotesando dori (north side), about a 2-min walk from the Aoyama crossing. See's Candy is a bit further along the same road (and has excellent chocolate). Tel No.: 03 3796 0571. Reservations recommended!

2 comments:

Kat & Stacy said...

See's Candy? You have a See's candy in Tokyo? As in--an original LA institution? Black and white store, free sample every time you enter, face of Grandma See on every box? Wow. There aren't any See's candy stories on the east coast and yet there is one in Tokyo. WOW! Lucky you!

Maryanne said...

oh yes, it's a See's alright, just as you describe... a bit expensive though I'd say. I wonder what the markup is. Tell me what one of those cafe latte lollies costs in LA and I'll do a price comparison...