26 November 2016
Despite having Kobe beef for dinner on our first day in Kobe, our craving for the prized meat still persisted. Our memory of an enjoyable lunch at the Wakkoqu Kobe beef restaurant in spring of 2016 was still fresh in our mind. After visiting Himeji Castle, we decided to have lunch at the Wakkoqu again before exploring Kobe’s Kitano-cho area near there.
Wakkoqu is a Kobe-beef teppanyaki restaurant situated on the 3rd floor of, but not part of, the ANA Crowne Plaza Hotel. The hotel is located just across the street from the Shin-Kobe JR Train Station.
It was highly recommended to make advance reservation for Wakkoqu but we did not. As a walk-in customer, we had to wait about 30 minutes which was considered to be short!
Once seats (or the chef) were available, we were ushered to one of the teppanyaki tables. This restaurant is more posh compared to Steakland Kobe where we had dinner on our first day in Kobe. The high grade Kobe beef in the Wakkoqu would not be cheap but coming during lunch time allowed us to order the value-for-money lunch sets.
We ordered the Lunch Wakkoqu Course that came with 150g of Sirloin (Tajima & Sanda Beef from Kobe), Grilled Vegetable (six kinds), soup of the day, salad, rice, Japanese pickles, dessert and coffee for ¥5,880. For a few hundred yen more, we opted to change the steamed rice to garlic fried rice which tasted very good during our last visit.
The creamy soup and fresh salad tossed with the delicious Japanese sesame based sauce were served first. Then the beef was brought to the table for our inspection and approval. More like for us to take a photo of the meat!
Kobe beef is a registered trademark that is strictly governed, sourced from Tajima Japanese black cattle that is bred, raised and slaughtered in Hyogo prefecture, the capital of which is Kobe.
300 g of Kobe beef for the two of us.
The chef separated the steak into a few different “cuts”. The leaner part of the meat was separated from the fatty parts, to be seasoned, cooked and served separately.
Various seasonings were provided to go with the grilled meat – fried garlic slices, pepper, salt, mustard and a ponzu dipping sauce. The first few pieces that were served seemed to be the best cuts and we were told to eat this with salt only. The well marbled grilled meat were “melt in your mouth” tender and full of flavour.
Although the chef recommended different dips or sauce for the different “cuts”, I prefer to just eat the bite sized chunks of meat with a dash of salt.
The chef grilled the fats to get the oil from the fats and used the oil from the fat to cook the vegetables.
The fatty parts of the beef was grilled to crispy bits and mixed with fried bean sprouts.
Preparing our garlic fried rice.
Garlic fried rice.
The sorbet dessert and coffee rounded up an excellent Kobe beef teppanyaki lunch. My second visit to this restaurant did not disappoint. The meal experience was just as good as the first time. Maybe there will be a third time if I find myself in Kobe again.
We spent the afternoon exploring Kobe’s historic Kitano-cho district after lunch. This area is known for its western-style architectures that was established by foreigners who settled in Kobe after Kobe opened up to foreign trade in the 1860's. While China Town was established by Chinese immigrants and traders, just south of Motomachi, a settlement was set up for Westerners on the slopes of Mount Rokko.
Originally there were over 1,000 such houses or “Ijinkan", which in Japanese means foreign residence. About 30 buildings were still standing and some of these former merchants' mansions are now open to the public as museums but entry is chargeable.
English House.
All dressed up and ready for Christmas.
Kitano-cho area is also home to a number of souvenir shops and trendy bars, restaurants and cafes. As the area is on slopes of Mount Rokko, there were a fair amount of steps and steep slopes to negotiate.
It was nice to just walk up and down the alleys, browsing at the souvenir shops and the quaint Western style houses.
The most popular of the Ijinkan is the Weathercock House. This house was the residence of Gottfried Thomas, a German trader in the early 20th century.
The open space outside the Moegi House and Weathercock House was a good place to relax and do some people watching.
While we were there, we watched a short performance of magic and street entertainment.
Statues of musicians were placed at various places and these also attracted the real musicians and buskers.
Who does this figure reminds you of?
Denmark House.
Nice spiral staircase in one of the house.
One of the “Ijinkan" was converted into a Starbucks cafe. The building itself is recorded as a cultural heritage site, making this one of the most interesting and unusual Starbucks stores. After an afternoon of wandering around Kitano, a cup of coffee in this store was not to be missed. Although the building and furnishing is unlike a regular Starbuck store, there is still one common characteristic. We saw a few young people studying inside this store!
By the time we left the Starbuck cafe, the sky had turned dark.
There were pretty Christmas lights on the trees outside as we walked down the street in the direction of the Sannomiya Station. Our plan was to head to the Harbourland and Meriken Park area for dinner and spent the evening by the Kobe waterfront.
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