Sometimes it seemed to me that my whole week in Kyoto and Osaka was all about eating. And it started with the first dinner at Yakiniku Hiro Kyoto, a Japanese-style BBQ beef restaurant.
After an hour walking around Nijo Castle, the sky started to get dark and it was looking like rain was coming. We decided to take taxi to Kyoto Station and find a coffee shop before our early 5pm dinner reservation at Yakiniku Hiro, less than five minute walk from Kyoto Station.
Yakiniku Hiro Kyoto
Hiro is a Yakiniku (Japanese BBQ) restaurant in Kyoto, you can find their website here. It is a chain restaurant with many locations throughout Kyoto. It came highly recommended by a friend for Japanese beef, especially wagyu beef. Before the trip we tried to book a dinner reservation at the original location (Senbon Sanjo), but it was not available for our dates. We ended up making an early 5pm dinner reservation at the Kyoto Station location for the first day of our trip.
Facing Kyoto Station from the outside, you will find a FamilyMart to your left. Cross the street and walk along the road, you will find the restaurant in less than 5 minutes.
Front of Yakiniku Hiro Kyoto Station
We were seated at a big table by the window.
The restaurant is really great for big or small parties.
Yakiniku means “grilled meat” in Japanese. The grilling is done at the table on a grill placed over the direct flame of charcoals, just like Korean BBQ that we often do at home in California. Yakiniku focuses on drawing out the natural flavor of the meat, so seasoning is often no more than a bit of salt, a squeeze of lemon, or a splash of dipping sauce after the meat has been grilled. Because the flavor of the beef is the focus, yakiniku requires high-quality ingredients as well as extra care such as not overcooking it and ruining the flavor and texture. I left the ordering to my friends, but did expect different cuts of beef. They ordered the daily special meat plate, as it was a great way to try different cut of wagyu beef.
The combo we ordered came with salad and kimchi
The wagyu beef combo
Beef melt right into the mouth!
Mushroom, potatoes, taro, and more beef.
A special plate of wagu beef (forgot the name of it), gone in no time. We had to reorder.
The meal was surprisingly affordable. It cost less than $100 for the five of us. Maybe because we were didn’t order a lot. But everyone was definitely quite satisfied with the meal. Next time I would come here hungry, so that I could eat more beef, and try other interesting stuff on their menu, such as beef meat sushi, and maybe if I am brave enough, the Yukke – finely chopped raw wagyu beef and a raw egg (on second thought, maybe not).
If you are interesting in dining at Yakiniku Hiro Kyoto, be sure to make reservation on their website. Weekends and popular locations get booked weeks ahead. But with several locations around Kyoto, it shouldn’t be too hard to find one with an opening spot.
Wagyu beef is so good so tender, and most importantly so much more affordable in Japan than in California. We ended up finding two other places to have more wagyu beef during our trip — one is Otsuka in Arashiyama area of Kyoto, and the other is Yakiniku M Dotonbori in Osaka for their famous Matsusaka beef. Wow they both did not disappoint!
This site is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as thepointsguy.com. This may impact how and where links appear on this site. Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers and that compensation may impact on how and where card products appear on the site. Any opinions expressed in this post are my own, and have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by my advertising partners and I do not include all card companies, or all available card offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers and other offers and benefits listed on this page. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more. Other links on this page may also pay me a commission - as always, thanks for your support if you use them
User Generated Content Disclosure: Points With a Crew encourages constructive discussions, comments, and questions. Responses are not provided by or commissioned by any bank advertisers. These responses have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the responsibility of the bank advertiser to respond to comments.
Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
This looks like Korean BBQ in Japan. Even the chopped raw beef with raw egg is a Korean dish. Maybe you should change the title to be first “Korean” BBQ experience “in Japan”.
Jeremy, you are correct. japanese has stole alot of things from Korea, including Kimchi…..
As you guys may know, most Japanese cultural marks are from foreign origin, and th Japanese are most often quite aware of that. The bbq (called “yakiniku”) is undoubted of Korean origin and, unlike other japanese cuisine, has changed little aside from the sauces used the meat origin. The kimchi, is not part of that Japanese cuisine brought from abroad; it is truly a Korean option offered by the restaurant.
And Sharon, you write “wagu beef” quit often in he article, but I think you mean “wagYu beef” ( “wa” for japan, “gyu” for cow; meaning japanese beef)
I am refusing to read the rest of the series of articles about Kyoto as its painful not to be able to go there soon!!:)
Thank you for reading and correcting my wagyu spelling. 😉 while Yakiniku is similar to BBQ in the sense that both involves grilling at the table, I feel in many ways it is different such as the focus on different cut of beef (thin or thick, lean or fatty), and the lightly-use or non-use of marinate, the presentation, etc.
Haha, I know what you mean about “painful” reading through the articles, and so far I only wrote about the first day! 😉 Looking at the pictures I took and reading through my own writing made me want to plan another trip already. And the food pictures, they made me hungry!