Walk into a nondescript building in Nihonbashi and you go back in time. The stairway takes you to a basement where you are greeted by a kimono hostess, asking our name we are led to a private room only after taking our shoes off. The room has a horigotatsu, a sunken area for your feet and it makes life easier when it comes to tatami.

They remembered me, the last time I was there, my guest asked for extra thick cuts of Kobe beef. A sumo wrestler, he gobbled down A5 in seconds and asked for a second portion. I don’t think they can forget that!

This beef is A5, and the cows are raised in Sendai, fed diets that rival Matsuzaka and Kobe. Gyu from Sendai are fed rice straw to give them a balanced diet. The beef is rich in flavour and has fat that melts in your mouth.

I always recommend to try it without any cooking at all, or if you “shabu-shabu”, one and half sways in the boiling hot waters of the towering inferno. The beef should be more or less red when eaten but not too much or you’ll feel over full.