Here's the beef, in vintage style

Up today in The Japan Times...

The Tokyo Food File focuses on Maruni a stylish little casual stand-up yakiniku joint in Shinbashi. What's great is that a) it's in an 80-year-old converted wooden rice store (surrounded by big bland buildings)... b) the decor inside is hip, modern and slightly tongue (or should that be たん?) in cheek... and c) the upstairs floor has been preserved in its original state, and you can book yourself in for meals of nabe, sukiyaki or shabushabu in full retro glory.

Here are a few more pics...

Outside the front door there are a couple of the giant oil drums in their black-and-red livery — one of them topped with a serious-sized sake barrel. That's because you're here to drink! And to cook up your yakiniku in the grills set into the top of the drums.

 

The black cow is the logo of the main restaurant — which is called Shibaura (after the name of Tokyo's central meat market) in Komazawa. It's wagyu (get it?) You've got to love the puppy-dog-tail coat hangers set into the walls, too!

And this is what it looks like upstairs — as if the 70s (and 80s and 90s and 00s) had never happened...