Tokyo, June 2016 – Our trip to Tokyo would be incomplete without a meal at a Japanese steak house. Instead of our usual haunts (Morimoto XEX or Seryna), Mr. King and I decided to take our hotel concierge’s suggestion to try the 40-year old Steakhouse Hama in Roppongi.

This was one of our great finds on this trip, and we will definitely be returning to Hama in the future.

We went there for lunch with our toddler son (Little K). A few other steakhouses of this caliber did not accommodate children at the teppanyaki open seating, and had a policy that a private room is required for families with young children. At Hama, we were allowed to sit in the main dining area.

The atmosphere was clearly more formal, but nevertheless, the serving staff and chefs were all friendly and considerate about our son’s meal. The chef cooked him a child’s portion of steak (in small cubes) with a bowl of fried rice. Little K enjoyed the teppanyaki “performance” as much as he did the food. He finished every last morsel of fried rice.

The menu was made up of a selection of a few lunch sets, ranging from Yen 5,000 to Yen 12,000. Mr. King and I ordered the mid-priced lunch set, which included salad, Hokkaido scallops, steak, vegetables, fried rice and dessert. The portion was very generous, and the steak was juicy and tender.

The chef informed us that the dinner menu offered sets featuring Japan’s top three Wagyu beef – Omi, Matsusaka and Kobe beef. Lunch menus usually do not use these ranks of beef since people are usually looking for better value. Nevertheless, we found our lunch sets more than sufficient to satisfy our cravings for sumptuous Japanese steaks.

Steak House Hama – 7-2-10, Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo,106-0032; tel: +81 3 3404 1717.

All photos were taken by Mrs. King.