Kobe Beef Teppanyaki in Kobe: Review & Where to Try It

Kobe is an easy and convenient day trip from Osaka. One of the city’s most famous local specialties is Kobe beef, which is famous worldwide for its exceptional marbling. To be certified as Kobe beef, the meat must come from Tajima-gyu cattle raised in Hyogo Prefecture under strict conditions.

Kobe beef can now be enjoyed across Japan and I think it’s not worth a ride to Kobe solely to try its beef. However, if you are doing some sightseeing in the city, tasting Kobe beef in its place of origin will add a special touch to your trip. In this travel guide, we will suggest places to try Kobe beef in Kobe, share detailed review of our meal and whether the experience is worth it as Kobe beef is not cheap at all.

Kobe has many restaurants where you can enjoy Kobe beef prepared in various styles, such as teppanyaki, sukiyaki, or shabu shabu. For first-time visitors, I recommend trying teppanyaki as it is a great way to showcase the quality of the meat and there’s also an entertainment element of live cooking.

Teppanyaki involves grilling the beef on a large, flat iron griddle (teppan) and the chef will do it right in front of you. You will hear the sound and smell the aroma of sizzling Kobe beef as it cooks, and it will be served hot straight from the griddle to your plate. The whole meal should take about an hour (or less than that if you are a fast eater).

Below are some well-known Kobe beef teppanyaki restaurants, all within walking distance from Sannomiya Station.  I’m not sure about their availability for walk-in guests, but if you’ve made it a goal to eat Kobe beef in Kobe, it’s better to make a reservation.

• Kobe Beef Steak Ishida: This is where we had our teppanyaki lunch. We made our reservation by filling out a form on their website and received a confirmation email the next day. They have several locations around Sannomiya Station and will notify you of your dining location. I will review our meal later in this post.
• Kobe Beef Steak Mouriya: Here’s another well-known steakhouse in Kobe. They also have several locations just like Ishida. You can fill out a form on their website to request reservation and they will email you back.
• Bifteck Kawamura: Another long-standing steakhouse in the area. Reservations can be made similarly to Ishida and Mouriya.

We reserved two Kobe beef lunches with A5 sirloin and garlic rice. They mentioned that we could upgrade to more expensive courses or order additional items once at the restaurant.

After we had taken our seats, the staff brought out the piece of sirloin that would be cooked in front of us. While the chef prepared other ingredients and setup, we were served a tasty and refreshing appetizer with tender roast beef and tuna in vinegar. Then a small plate of salad which was just a simple green salad.

Once we finished these small plates, our chef started cooking the beef. He divvied up the meat into different parts, separating out some trimmings and thick fat. The steak was grilled while the fat was chopped up and rendered on the other side of the teppan.

They recommended medium rare and the beef looked glistening and tasted juicy and tender. Vegetables, including zucchini, sweet potato, and tofu, were then grilled in the rendered beef fat.

We were given different types of salt, mustard and dipping sauces for the beef and veggies. The chef would suggest the preferred salt or sauce whenever he transferred the cooked beef and veggies to our plates.

I would say the beef wasn’t the best we’ve had, but we’ve tried premium beef including wagyu in high-end restaurants in Japan and outside of Japan multiple times. For someone who hasn’t tried premium wagyu, I’m sure they will feel impressed by the tenderness, buttery texture and rich flavor of Kobe beef. I did enjoy the grilled veggies.

Only after the chef finished cooking the steak did we understand what the trimmings and fatty parts being rendered were for. Part of them was used in the garlic fried rice, which was delicious.

The garlic fried rice was an extra small cost in the meal at Ishida, and it was worth it, as it soaked up many flavors from grilling the beef on the teppan. The rice was flavorful and I loved its texture, soft-chewy in a pleasant and satisfying way. The staff brought out miso soup and pickles to accompany the fried rice.

Honestly, I think I enjoyed the fried rice and stir-fried bean sprouts even more than the beef. Not that the beef wasn’t good – it was – but to me, the rice and bean sprouts provided more of a surprising and interesting element. Finally, we ended the meal with some refreshing yuzu ice cream.

In terms of service and atmosphere, the chef and servers were all quite friendly and made us feel comfortable. They were clearly familiar with serving international visitors. Our chef saw us on our way out and said Thank you in Vietnamese. Another chef of the restaurant recommended we try nodoguro after hearing that we would be in Kanazawa for a few days.

I think our teppanyaki meal was tasty and a fun experience to remember in Japan. At 30,000 yen total for two of us, it could certainly be considered a splurge. So was it worth it? There’s no straightforward answers as each traveler has different interests, priorities and budgets. It will depend on individual expectations and experiences.

If you are pretty familiar with high-end dining, it may not wow you. There’s other premium wagyu in Japan, such as Matsusaka, Hida, or even premium Kyoto beef is also really good. For about the same prices, you could also enjoy a decent kaiseki meal, sushi omakase, yakitori omakase, or French fine dining.

As part of an experience of traveling to Kobe plus the interactive and entertainment aspect of the meal, I think it was worth it for us. The live cooking and interaction with the chef added a bit more beyond just the food. I wouldn’t mind trying it again, maybe with different cuts or grades or at a different restaurant for comparison.

As I mentioned earlier, I don’t think it’s a good idea to go to Kobe solely to eat Kobe beef. Instead, you should combine it with some sightseeing in the area. Here’s what we did: we took a combined day trip from Osaka to Himeji and Kobe.

We started with Himeji Castle in the morning. After exploring the castle, we took the train to Kobe and had lunch at Ishida. After that, we took the Nunobiki Ropeway to Nunobiki Herb Gardens and had a lovely walk down the mountains. It was a pretty long but beautiful day in Hyogo Prefecture, adding another wonderful memory to our travels in Japan.

If you are going to spend a few days exploring different cities in Kansai including Osaka, Kobe and Himeji, you may want to look into the JR West Kansai Area Pass. Honestly for me, the amount of savings doesn’t mean much compared to the amount of time spent maximizing the benefits. However, I’ve seen a lot of travelers make good use of the Kansai regional passes.