beyond toxicity

Dear Tina and Gabby,

Of course, you’re the first 2 people I miss when we went here…

Don.K! (pronounced by Japanese as donki and not what we think) is a YAKINIKU buffet restaurant near Ginza Street, Tokyo.

Gabby, remember when we dined at YAKIMIX at SM Mall of Asia few months back where you had fun time grilling our food on the spot ?  Don.K! is like that; however I find our local version of Yakiniku more Pinoy-family-friendly. Why?  The moment we’re on their long queue last Sunday and paid Y1000/pax (or PhP 500/pax;  I and nurse Ruth were treated by our consultants ) , the wait staff immediately warned us that we only have ONE HOUR TO EAT. That applies to every table, FYI.

Yes, dining experience at Don. K! is limited to an hour only. Unlike in Yakimix where we started our dinner then at 5:30 PM and ended at almost 10PM, hahaha! (Erratum : Don.K! lunch buffet starts 10 or 11am and ends in 3pm; we arrived at past 1pm and had a table reserved; we  got in at around 2pm so we only got an hour left to eat. BUT IT’S NOT ONE HOUR DINING ONLY. Sorry).

But what can we do with Don.K! rules except to follow. Nevertheless, it was another remarkable gastronomic adventure!

On Don.K!’s spread…

Freshest & crisp greens with several dressings to choose from…

On my gluttonous plate …

I liked their potato salad; one of the best I’ve tasted so far.

Yakiniku literally means ‘grilled meat dishes’ ... Here are the large bowls of raw meat all waiting to be grilled…

I know Holy Week is just around the corner and we’ll miss eating all these until Easter.

There were also some noodle and rice dishes… I like the noodle with fresh bean sprouts… yummy!

Here’s what we got to grill…

Price for lunch buffet inclusive of drinks (sodas, juices, coffee) is Y1,000 but for dinner it’s a whopping Y3,000/pax!  I don’t have idea what Don.K! serves for dinner but don’t you think it’s expensive compared to their lunch?

There were pork, chicken and fish to grill too but beef slices were on top of our list.  However, I didn’t see any sushi or sashimi at Don.K!

One of the doctors got samples of what he thought as chicken skin; only to find out that it wasn’t;  it’s some part of intestine, probably the omentum or something (read : chicharong bulaklak?).

Grilling time!

No Coke for me us, remember?  So I settled with Minute Maid OJ ….

The beef slices after grilling were delicious!  So tender I almost thought a friend’s statement about cows in Japan are given frequent massage to somehow ‘tenderized’ their meat (?) is true…

Although there was a chocolate fondue, and my colleagues enjoyed those huge mallows dipped in tasteful choco fountain, I favored peaches and pineapples for dessert!

Sarap ng lunch namin but again, it made me miss you more.  Kain tayo buffet ulit pag-uwi ko.

I miss you both; I love you.

Tatay-doc.