Wagyu T-Bone Steak at T Nakameguro

Every year for our anniversary, we like to go out to eat at a nice restaurant. Two years ago, we enjoyed a lengthy tasting menu at a Michelin-starred restaurant. Last year, we ate delicious Spanish food in a casual setting. This year, we had course after course of beef at a restaurant that specializes in T-bone steak. Guess who picked the restaurant this year.

Welcome to T Nakameguro

Located in the Naka-Meguro neighborhood of Tokyo south of Shibuya, T Nakameguro was a simple bus ride away from our place in Setagaya City. We saw right away that this restaurant would be different from our normal anniversary choices. There were a dozen people standing in the street outside the restaurant, most of them tourists, and no one was being allowed inside.

T Nakameguro is as much a show as it is a meal. The dining experience starts at the same time for everyone, and you all have to wait in the street until it starts. The decor is absolutely wild, fitting for such a zany restaurant. This is not a romantic spot. It is, however, perfect for tourists as all the servers speak English and the menu is simple enough for those who haven’t had a lot of Japanese food before. We had reserved seats at the end of the counter for our special night where I’d eat so much steak I’d have to be taken home in a wheelbarrow.

The menu: what exactly is Omi beef?

In front of us we found personalized menu cards that related that night’s tasting menu, which is chosen ahead of time; everyone gets the same thing, no ifs ands or buttholes. The dining experience lasts a good long time, and you can’t go faster than any other table, even if you eat fast, because there are no other tables. Well, there’s one in the next room, but we couldn’t see it. We only saw the people sitting at the counter like us, most of whom were American tourists.

Omi beef is a regional variety of Wagyu that differs from Kobe or Matsusaka due to the area’s temperate climate and wide pastures where the cows can graze, or so says the Internet. What I can tell you is that Omi beef doesn’t normally come in a big T-bone. That’s only at this restaurant, so if you want to try one of these giant things, you have to come here to get it.

The beef is sourced directly from Shiga Prefecture in central Japan, and they showed us a little certificate to prove its authenticity. They even knew our cow’s name and showed us its nose print. Thank you for your service, Moko-chan. We appreciate you. Now, onto the many, many courses of beef upon which we gorged ourselves.

Omi beef loin yukhoe

This was a cold dish with beef, Japanese caviar, and edible flowers. I know cold raw meat may sound strange to Americans, but when you eat in other countries (and especially if you go to fancy pants restaurants), you get used to it. I’ve had beef sushi a lot and it’s often really good.

I’m not a big caviar guy. I can enjoy it when it’s paired with a quail egg, but when it’s with the toast and creme fraiche, one bite is enough to make me need a nap. Paired with this beef, though, was a different story. The beef was of superb quality, and the caviar went great with it. Nice soft taste, beautiful, delicious. Maybe the best thing we had all night. I would go back there just for this.

Legend of [T] sandwich

One of the most photographed items on the menu is the BLT sandwich (with the B being Omi beef) that has a big ol’ T branded on it. The sandwich is smaller than it looks on the Internet. It was fine, but following the beef and caviar, it was a bit of a letdown. I was expecting a bigger sandwich with more meat in it. But don’t worry; this place does not shortchange you on beef, as you shall soon see. I guess I wish I could buy a full size of this sandwich to go for lunch. That would be handy. But as is, it’s mostly just a novelty.

T salad with organic vegetables from Kasama City

Before they serve the salad, they trot out a basket of vegetables to show you what you’ll be trying. I am not big on beets or onions, but I ate everything on this plate to make sure I tried it all. I liked the addition of the salt, and the tomato was incredibly flavorful. Everything else was good, the quality you’d expect from a fancy restaurant. It wasn’t the most remarkable thing we ate, but better than whatever salad you’re probably eating for lunch right now as you read this. Only thing it was missing? A big hunk of steak.

Abalone and Omi beef and Touchi sauce

Did you know that abalone and bologna aren’t the same thing? Oh, you did? Well, good for you, then.

This comes with tempura, a mush of greens and purples, and the thickest beef sauce I’ve ever tasted. It was an incredibly rich sauce. Too rich, I would say. It went past being beef-flavored and tasted like… thickness. This is another dish that was fine, but wasn’t a highlight of the evening.

Some restaurants are all about the tasting menu, while others you’d be fine having just one or two of the items. T Nakameguro lands somewhere in between: because it’s as much a show as a meal, they need to have all those courses, but since they’re giving you a bunch of steak, they could easily get away with JUST doing that the way many Kobe beef restaurants do. So while this was fine, most of the dishes I remember were the ones with steak, or the fish in the next course.

Omi beef and tai with Japanese salsa

“Tai” is the Japanese name for sea bream. Don’t know what that is? It’s the fish in the picture above. It was served with a couple sauces and “salsa,” which was really a fruit and onion mix, along with beets on top.

The fish was fine. The beets were fine. The salsa was fine. The bit of beef behind the fish was fine. But then I tried aaaaaalll the elements together, and WOW. This one had some pop. A Michelin level of competence. Superbly put together, so much more than the sum of its parts, dancing around all areas of my tastebuds. Five stars. Just make sure you try everything at once, because without that, it won’t seem impressive.

Omi beef sukiyaki

Sukiyaki is a Japanese dish where vegetables and meat are cooked in a big ol’ pot. While I initially thought they’d be giving us a big pot, this wasn’t the case. Instead, it was the beefy cooked-down dregs of the sukiyaki, poured over several slices of beef, along with an egg and tons of truffle.

I have to come clean here: I don’t like black truffle. I understand that it’s very expensive and fancy and supposed to have a lot of umami, but to me it tastes like nothing. I don’t know. You know how some people can’t taste artichokes? Isn’t that true? Well, it’s true for me and truffles. They are wasted on me, and they were wasted here. Eriko liked it.

Granita to cleanse your palate

By the way, since we were the only Japanese couple there (well, she was), one of the servers took a liking to us and talked to us in Japanese a lot. The rest of the people there were tourists, including one big group in town for a wedding who had big Inland Empire vibes. They got hammered and were super loud and fun the whole time. I’m glad we weren’t seated next to them. There was also a white couple next to us, and one lone guy who clearly didn’t realize this was a celebration restaurant. We felt bad for him.

It’s impossible to avoid the other people there since you’re in a big horseshoe around the kitchen, so hope for nice folk and not me and my college friends. They chatted up the server on their end while we ate our fancy sorbet and the steak was cooked. Did I say steak? I meant GIANT STEAKS OH MY LOOK HOW BIG IT’S COMING RIGHT FOR US!

Omi beef T-bone steak

I love T-bone steak. Eat it all the time. In fact, you might as well call me Gammy.

At first, they give you two pristine strips of this huge T-bone. Japanese restaurants always provide a lot of sauce and seasoning choices for steak, and this one gave mustard, wasabi, garlic chips, and three kinds of salt. It was fun trying them all out.

Just because they only give you two strips, that doesn’t mean that’s all you get. They make more than they need, and walk around to ask who wants more. And if, like when we were there, most of the other customers are drunk and can’t eat that much, then Gregg gets all the steak he wants. I ate so much I nearly burst. Actually, I did burst, but that was on the bus home. Story for another time.

Omi beef is not quite Kobe beef, but I wouldn’t want it to be. A big steak like this is better with some lean meat that you can really char and get a thick rare cut of. They did a great job of cooking it, and I loved it. I also loved that I got several helpings. I am fat.

Earthen pot rice

The rice was cooked in a pot with charcoal, which adds flavor or something. I don’t know. I forget the rice. I mostly just remember the beef, and at this point it had lodged in my brain. Beef beef beef beef beef steak.

Omi beef T-bone soup ramen

This ramen looked way fancier than it had to be. The broth was super good, but do you really need a bunch of noodles after all that steak? It turns out the answer is yes, because I finished the whole thing. Me piggy.

Dessert with ice cream and pear and tea

Along with some tea in a cup Eriko thought was fancy, we got some ice cream and pear slices. Japanese pears are more like apples, crunchy yet juicy. I love those pears and I loved this. The ice cream with honey was really good too. It wasn’t much dessert for a fancy restaurant (comparing it to some of the other tasting menus we’ve had where they did 3-4 desserts), but this place is about steak, and steak they did and did well. Steak. Steak. Steak.

Verdict: should you visit T Nakameguro?

T Nakameguro is a tourist trap. It’s expensive and tacky and not romantic. But was it a fun tourist trap for our anniversary? Absolutely. If you’re a tourist visiting Tokyo and want to try Japanese dishes in a fun setting and scarf down Japanese beef, this is a good place to do it. Tokyo doesn’t have much in the way of inexpensive Kobe beef, so Omi beef is a good option, and T Nakameguro serves you more of it than you’re likely to get anywhere else.

If you want a romantic restaurant, don’t go here. If you want to save money, don’t go here. If you want a fancy night out, don’t go here. Go here for fun and tasty food and nice staff and a good time you’ll tell all your friends back home about. I’m sure those drunk 909ers did.

Where to find T Nakameguro in Tokyo

Address: 〒153-0051 Tokyo, Meguro City, Kamimeguro, 2 Chome−37−12 Comfort Nakameguro, 1階

Phone: +81 03-6303-0849

Hours: 12–3 PM 5:30 PM–12 AM

Website: T Nakameguro

You absolutely need reservations at T Nakameguro, which you can make at Tablelog or at Tablecheck. Even though the hours listed may seem like a broad range, there are actually set times when you can make a reservation (noon, 5:30pm, 8:30pm). These times will sell out, especially on a Friday or Saturday night, so reserve well in advance. And be prepared to wait outside until it’s time for the show to start.