Issue date: May 20, 1998
By JANE KNOERLE
Of course, you've had sushi and sukiyaki, but what about yakiniku?
Yakiniku? It means grilled beef in Japanese and refers to the cook-it-yourself barbecue restaurants that abound in the bustling 10th district of Tokyo.
Now Menlo Park has its own yakiniku house -- Juban, translated as "10th" -- which opened April 29 at 712 Santa Cruz Ave., former site of Karen's Antiques.
Although Juban specializes in barbecue, this stylish new restaurant is a far cry from the ash and smoke-filled yakiniku houses of old Tokyo.
At Juban, smokeless down-draft gas grills are built into the center of tables set in comfortable booths. After you order, your waiter lights the grill. Raw meat, vegetables, chicken and seafood then arrive on plates, and you do the grilling. There's plenty of sizzle, but no smoke.
The 126-seat Juban has a warm decor with cherrywood paneling and peach walls accented by columns faux-finished in copper tones and banded with copper. Copper is the signature metal for the handsome restaurant, which sports a copper awning over the front entrance and copper accents throughout. Copper-shaded halogen lights cast a warm glow over each of the tables, which imported from Japan.
Lun Chan of San Francisco was architect for the restaurant, which took nearly a year to remodel due to the long, involved permit process. The dinner house combines contemporary with traditional Japanese design.
This is the third Juban restaurant for owner Vladimir Grave of Atherton. The first opened six years ago in Burlingame, the second last year in Japantown. Mr. Grave, who is of Japanese and Russian descent, says he imported the concept because he missed the yakiniku houses of his native country.
An international businessman, Mr. Grave is president of the Oritz Corp., which exports a broad range of food products to Japan. He even has his own meat packing company in Des Moines, Iowa. One of the most popular items he exports to Japan is Columbus salami from San Francisco.
A graduate of University of California at Berkeley, Mr. Grave and his wife, Yoshiko, and three daughters have lived in Atherton for nine years.
Wagyu is the star of Juban's menu. Known as Kobe beef in the United States, Wagyu is imported from Japan, where cattle are fed oats and beer to produce tender, marbled beef. It is also the most expensive item listed on Juban's menu. A half-order of sashimi, paper thin slices of raw beef with onions, soy and garlic sauce, is $11.75. Wagyu beef for grilling is $19.50 or $38.
On the luncheon menu we chose the yakiniku combination that included appetizer, soup or salad, and three entrees of either short ribs, ribeye, tongue, prawns, chicken, calamari or vegetables, served with rice ($10).
The appetizer was a dish of cold spinach, bean and soy sprouts and pickled daikon (radish). The salad was butter lettuce with a light soy sesame dressing. Carol Ivie and I chose ribeye, tongue and prawns for grilling. The ribeye was tasty, but chewy. We both liked the tongue served with a squeeze of lemon. A bowl of dipping sauce comes on the side.
Diners prepare their meats by putting slices on the grill for a minute or two; they then remove them with tongs and dip them in sauce and onto a bowl of rice.
Eating at a yakiniku house is usually a family affair, says Gary Hirano, Juban vice president. "You go with the family or a bunch of friends and everyone orders something different, then you share." He says cook-it-yourself is great with kids because they like to watch the grilling instead of running around the restaurant. "Families just have a ball," he says.
Mr. Hirano also told us how to eat yakiniku properly. Appetizer, meats and salad are all served at once. You nibble the salad and appetizers while grilling the meat, as well as during the meal to cleanse the palate. You finish the meal with a noodle or rice soup to aid digestion.
We also learned a little late that pickles and beer are a must with a yakiniku meal. The house-made pickles, as well as yakinori (roasted seaweed and sesame oil), would spice up dishes we found a little bland.
For dessert we tried mochi-wrapped ice cream ($4.25) -- chewy rice pastry surrounding green tea, red bean and mango ice cream. I especially liked the assertive green tea flavor, no comparison with Dreyer's milder green tea ice cream.
Sake, brewed rice wine, always a favorite in Japan, is supposed to be the drink of moment with the young and hip. The new way to serve sake is in chilled tall glasses. Juban offers seven brands, with only one of them, Ozeki, served warm.
Juban would be fun for a family dinner or for a lunch of a big bowl of noodles on one of our perpetually rainy days. What could taste better than Kuppa (noodles, spicy beef, daikon, shiitake and egg in beef broth. $6.75)? If the sun does come out, you could cool off with Reimen (cold noodles, chicken, tomato, cucumber and chicken broth. $7).
Juban, 712 Santa Cruz Ave., is open for lunch and dinner daily.
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