Yakitate no Karubi means “freshly grilled kalbi”, and it’s a chain that has been doing really well lately.

The place

It seems to be popular all over the country.

The entrance

Pretty flashy.

The kiosk

It feels a bit pricier than gyudon.

Inside

You can see them busily grilling kalbi in the back.

Kalbi-don

The thing is, no Korean would ever slice kalbi this thin to eat it, so I couldn’t help wondering whether this really counts as kalbi.. The taste isn’t bad, though.. It just feels like an upgraded version of gyudon to me. But then again, maybe that’s exactly why it works in Japan.

Yukgaejang

This one was decent too.

Mini kalbi-don

Anyway, the taste is fine and it does feel like a premium version of gyudon, but whether you can really call it kalbi-don is a bit debatable.. Still, seeing this kind of food get popular enough to spawn a nationwide chain.. it’s clear that Korean food in Japan is heading in a completely different direction from Korea itself.

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