Ghost House. That I believe is the literal translation of urameshi- ya... well, that is what I remember from the article I read that they pasted on the wall.
Located inside the most unassuming corner of 'Little Tokyo', a collective of Japanese restaurants and food stores beside Makati Cinema Square along Pasong Tamo Avenue. We, me and my travel buddy who shall be from this post on be named, Grumpy, discovered the place by accident (The reason why we don't have great pics too. We just went there to eat not pretend to be foodies on the prowl for something to place on their blogs, that job is covered by too many already. This place just deserves the special mention).
Tired of the usual mall fare, I wanted to try something new. It was my first time in Little Tokyo... and Little Tokyo can be pretty daunting for a first timer especially at the thick of dinner hour where all tables are placed so closed to each other at the courtyard it's almost impossible to maneuver you way from point A-B. Being first timers, we opted to just look around and then we stumbled upon Urameshi-ya a tiny yakiniku (grill) place at the far end of the court yard almost hidden behind a nice ish sushi bar.
What caught my eye is the pretty cool decor of the place. Shelves of Manga and Sake bottles reminds of that underground sake bar in East Village, NYC my ex tried to get me into but alas I was 19 and underaged then. :) Back to my current story, I was reluctant to eat there at first. My aim was to showcase the best of Manila to Grumpy, who is visiting Manila for the first time, I wanted to take him to good Japanese that in my book means 'good sushi' and there really isn't any sushi on their menu so warned the waitress in the cutest kimono uniform I've seen but well, I dunno what happened but we just decided to eat there. It was one hell of a good decision...
Plate after plate of thinly perfectly sliced perfect beef meant only to be grilled lightly then dipped in light soy and then eaten with the fluffiest Japanese rice. I'm afraid of committing the sin of being too poetic if I go on. Let's just leave it at: 'It's the best yakiniku I've ever had', is a statement that will never give justice to the amazingness of Urameshi-ya.
Urameshi-ya ain't cheap by the way. Their thrust is quality, near perfection top quality. And the difference is just so obvious when those strips of beef starts melting in your mouth. :)
I believe we had the Tarafuku set. The nice waitress (wonderful service by the place btw) will be there to help you out with the Japanese only menu. I did manage to decipher the drinks section which was mostly in katakana... I just had to brag. :D
This ended up to be Grumpy's favourite meal of the entire trip. My second.
