Day 3 — “Gyudon say?!” The Ill-fated Battle between Yoshinoya, Matsuya, and Sukiya
When I first moved to Tokyo in 2018, one of my culture shocks was when I realized that gyudon chain restaurants are pretty much everywhere — you can’t miss it. However, the bigger shock was when I found out the restaurants here are rather humble and small compared to the ones in my home country, I now understand that this Japanese dish is a comfort food for locals — hence the immense number of chain restaurants for this dish in Tokyo. Gyudon is cheap, Gyudon is tasty, Gyudon is here and there.
B-but, what is Gyudon?
Taken from japan-guide.com, Gyudon (牛丼, gyūdon, beef bowl) is a popular Japanese dish, consisting of beef and onion served over a bowl of rice. The meat and onion are cooked in a mixture of soy sauce, mirin, sugar, and sake, giving the dish a sweet, salty flavor.
Simply put, gyudon is very tasty and filling. In Japan, many famous chain restaurants serve gyudon as their main dish. Yoshinoya, Sukiya, and Matsuya are some of them. Given the number of restaurants I have seen here, the question remains: which gyudon chain sells the best gyudon?
To celebrate my third year of surviving Japan (not really), I will pit Yoshinoya, Sukiya, and Matsuya against each other. Which chain sells the tastiest gyudon? Which one is the cheapest? Which one provides more value? Allow me to invite you, fellow readers, to my humble journey in finding the best gyudon chain ever (that nobody asked for).
The winning condition
Since this is a gyudon battle to see which one comes out in the top, I have decided these four following points as the scoring criteria:
- Price
- Beef-to-rice ratio
- Tastiness
- Value
The scale will be three stars for each criterion, with 1 star being the worst and 3 stars being the best. To make it fair, I will only order a namimori gyudon 並盛牛丼 (regular size beef bowl) from each shop, without any side menu. I went to three different gyudon restaurants for the sake of this experiment. Was it too much? Yes. Was it worth it? Heck yes. Without further ado, let’s begin this experiment.
1st Contender: Yoshinoya
Ah, the OG gyudon chain restaurant. The first Yoshinoya was opened back in 1899 (121 years old!), making it the forefather of gyudon chain restaurants in Japan.
Let’s get down to the business. Since this restaurant is pretty traditional, I had to order directly from the staff member after checking their menu card available on every seat. After waiting for less than 1 minute (that was quick), the beef bowl is here!
Look at that juicy meat. Perfection.
As expected, you can’t go wrong with Yoshinoya.
I noticed how rich the broth’s flavor was, and the fact that the whole rice bowl got slathered with the sauce made the dish even better. So. Good. And the condiments made everything better!
Score:
Price: ⭐⭐
Beef-to-rice ratio: ⭐⭐⭐
Tastiness: ⭐⭐⭐
Value:⭐⭐
Average score: 2.5
There are roughly 1200+ Yoshinoya in Japan alone, making it the 2nd largest gyudon chain restaurant. Who is the number 1, you ask? The answer is…
2nd Contender: Sukiya
I have a confession to make: when I came to Tokyo for the first time, I thought this restaurant sold Sukiyaki (I know). Little did I know that Sukiya to Yoshinoya is just like Burger King to McDonald’s…
There are about 2000+ (!!!) Sukiya restaurants in Japan, making it the biggest gyudon chain restaurant here. They opened their first store back in 1982, ending Yoshinoya’s supremacy as the biggest chain restaurant that sells gyudon. Sukiya is completely gyu-done playing around (sorry).
Instead of ordering directly from the staff member, Sukiya provides this touch screen tablet on every seat to order our choice menu. Less hassle!
I ordered the same regular-sized beef bowl from this restaurant but to my surprise…
I thought this was a kids portion. :(
The portion and the beef cut are much smaller, although slightly cheaper than Yoshinoya (~70 yen cheaper). I thought they were the same portion! I literally inhaled the entire bowl since it wasn’t too much of an amount for me.
The broth flavor is not as strong as Yoshinoya’s; the beef is also obviously not as much (boo!). That left me disappointed since I came with a hungry stomach.
Score:
Price: ⭐⭐⭐
Beef-to-rice ratio: ⭐
Tastiness: ⭐
Value:⭐⭐
Average score: 1.75
Now, onto the last part of this journey, which is…
3rd Contender: Matsuya
Matsuya opened its first shop back in 1968. Since then, about 1000+ Matsuya restaurants have opened, making it the third biggest gyudon restaurant chain in Japan. I went to Matsuya near our lovely office in Shibuya, and the ticket machine greeted me by the entrance door. Talk about being modern.
After navigating through the menu for a good three minutes, I finally found the gyudon menu I wanted to order. To my surprise, Matsuya is selling their gyudon under a different alias: gyumeshi 牛めし, which means “beef on rice”. It turns out that the original name of this dish is gyumeshi, but Yoshinoya came knocking like a storm and named the dish gyudon to differentiate the product. It went huge and became the popular term for beef on a rice bowl (just like how we ‘Google’ everything these days). Matsuya decided to stick to the old roots of the name, so who’s the OG now?!
Oh. My. God. They gave me a complimentary miso soup for this price. I LOVE free stuff. The price is in between Yoshinoya and Sukiya, too — just right. I was too hungry, so I started to dig in.
I would say that Matsuya is bringing the competition since their gyudon has an almost similar beef-to-rice ratio with Yoshinoya’s…and the broth! The! Broth!
The complementary miso soup helped me wash down all of that juicy meat. That was a good meal!
Score:
Price: ⭐⭐
Beef-to-rice ratio: ⭐⭐
Tastiness: ⭐⭐
Value:⭐⭐⭐
Average score: 2.25
After contemplating for a while, I have come to a conclusion.
The aftermath
Yoshinoya supremacy. There, I said it.
Yoshinoya didn’t come to play with their 100+ years of gyudon experience under their belt. After comparing the scores, I believe this restaurant is the number 1 for me, albeit slightly more expensive than other chains. Opt for Yoshinoya if you want a tasty gyudon.
Matsuya came second with their good meal portion and the complimentary miso soup. The broth flavor is pretty good too, and the contactless service is ideal during a pandemic like we are in right now. Opt for Matsuya if you want a good bang for your buck gyudon.
Sukiya is a savior for those who are pretty tight on the budget but still want to have a good gyudon. I’m sure that even though their regular gyudon ranks third for me, their other menu is pretty superior compared to the others (Hello?! Triple cheese gyudon?!). Opt for Sukiya if you want a cheap gyudon.
I know this little adventure of mine won’t do anything to their company’s stock price, but hey, that was a fun ride. What should I experiment on next?
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this article are personal and do not represent those of people, institutions, or organizations that the writer may or may not be associated within a professional or personal capacity unless explicitly stated.
This article is part of the 2021 HENNGE Advent Calendar. An Advent calendar is a special calendar used for counting down the days till Christmas. 2021 HENNGE Advent Calendar presents one article by one HENNGE member per day for 25 days until Christmas, 2021
