You'll Like the Prices at this New Japanese BBQ Restaurant

Tasty. Quick. Value. That is the slogan of Japanese barbecue restaurant Yakiniku Like, which is opening its second restaurant in Beijing in Indigo this Saturday, Dec 18. It’s a bold move to put all your cards on the table in your slogan like that, but thankfully, Yakiniku Like does live up to its claims.

The first branch of Yakiniku Like opened in Tokyo in 2018, and it has since franchised across Asia with more than 30 restaurants in cities like Hong Kong and Singapore. Beijing’s Indigo store follows a successful branch in Chaoyang Joy City that attracted long queues for weeks after opening. Yakiniku Like’s main concept is quick service Japanese meat sets — grilled over individual smoke-less barbecues — created with the solo diner in mind. 

Why the queues? Well it could be that yakiniku sets start from just RMB 42, including rice, miso, soup, and pickles or salad. Most of the sets are priced around RMB 70-90 for 200g of cuts like beef belly or beef chuck. One of the chain’s other signatures is the eight kinds of sauces and seasonings that are available on each counter. In addition to a classic sweet-savoury Japanese barbecue sauce that goes really well with beef, plus Himalayan pink salt for simple seasoning on more expensive cuts, there is also a toasty sesame dipping sauce designed exclusively for the Beijing restaurants. 

These simple sets, plus the counter-style layout of the restaurant, mean that it is definitely perfect for people dining alone, who might otherwise end up shelling out over the odds for multiple plates of meat. When it comes to that “quick” claim in the restaurant’s slogan, the set I ordered arrived at the table in less than 5 minutes and I was in and out of the restaurant in half an hour.

Head over there during the opening weekend (Dec 18-20) to grab a 200g set of beef belly and pork neck for just RMB 29 (usually RMB 68). The first 29 customers on each day will also get a free gift bag. Why 29? It’s simple; put together, the numbers two and nine in Japanese sound like the Japanese word for meat (niku). 

1/F, Indigo (opposite Hulu), 18 Jiuxianqiao Lu, Chaoyang District 
朝阳区酒仙桥路18号颐提港一层

READ: Gung Ho! Gears up To Sling Pizza at New Sanyuanqiao Venue

Images: Robynne Tindall