I visited here to eat my favorite horse sashimi in Ikebukuro. I was torn between ordering the horse sashimi 5 varieties platter or the marbled horse sashimi, but ended up choosing the marbled one. And it was a jackpot! The fat melted in my mouth and it was incredibly delicious. In many other places, the marbling is often lacking and not as good. I also ordered the horse liver sashimi and horse fillet cutlet, which the staff said were popular. The fresh chewy texture of the liver and the rareness of the fillet cutlet got me really excited. They have many other unique horse meat dishes on the menu. The staff were mostly experienced veterans and had a calm and pleasant demeanor. The restaurant is not very spacious but has a cozy hidden gem vibe. I will definitely come back next time to try more dishes.

I didn't know there was a restaurant serving horse meat in a place like this! People who know about it must be familiar with these kinds of places, right? It's like a hidden gem. The atmosphere inside the restaurant is a bit mysterious, but it's a nice place where you can easily enjoy horse meat.

"Ikebukuro Horse Meat Dining at Asahi Shouten: A Friend's Reservation Experience" I went to Asahi Shouten, a Kyushu izakaya, in Ikebukuro as recommended by a friend for some horse meat. The restaurant is located on the 5th floor of the building where the budget Chinese restaurant "Ichibankan" is situated at the west exit of Ikebukuro. The whole place offers private rooms for a mature and cozy dining experience. The interior of the restaurant was quite spacious with large private rooms. Normally, I drink while sitting on P-box chairs, so I felt a bit nervous in this kind of private room setting. The menu at Asahi Shouten mainly focuses on horse meat dishes, offering a variety of horse sashimi, rare cuts of horse meat, as well as other Kyushu dishes like raw kinmedai sashimi and charcoal-grilled local chicken. There are also different horse sashimi dishes available for those who want to try something unique. For drinks, they have draft beer for 550 yen, premium bottled beer for 600 yen, shochu highballs for 450 yen, and a selection of various shochu options. I enjoyed an Extra Cold beer for 580 yen and some assorted vegetables for 350 yen each. The Kumamoto horse sashimi platter for 2,800 yen was delicious, especially with a side of Satsuma Hozan for 450 yen and a platter of Satsuma deep-fried dishes for 450 yen. After indulging in the delicious horse sashimi, the total bill came to around 2,100 yen. It was a satisfying dining experience at Asahi Shouten! Overall, it was a great experience dining at Asahi Shouten, and I would recommend it to anyone looking to try some unique and delicious horse meat dishes.

The reviews and Tabelog points are different. The dishes are small. The taste is average. The service is sloppy. There are no customers. The size of this horse sashimi is about 1 centimeter. It's a terrible restaurant that sometimes happens. People who made reservations only judged by Tabelog points, so they made a mistake. They apologized. Everyone has stopped going there.

This was my third visit to the restaurant. When you descend to the 5th floor of a building on the corner of the bustling area of Nishi-Ikebukuro, you immediately come to a gravel pathway. The tables are semi-private, with a curtain-like entrance. The first time I went to the restaurant, a business associate had made a reservation for us, saying there was a delicious Kyushu-style restaurant. We had dishes like horse sashimi and spicy lotus root. They also had motsunabe, giving more of a Kyushu vibe rather than just Hakata or Kumamoto. It was my first time seeing horse mane served in Ikebukuro, and I was excited. I had been transferred to Kumamoto for work before, where it was common to eat, but I never expected to see it in Ikebukuro. Rolling red meat and horse mane with green onions and dipping them in the unique, sticky soy sauce of Kyushu was truly irresistible. So delicious. Before I knew it, I was drinking more and more. The atmosphere of the restaurant was calm, and the service was not intrusive. When we pressed a button, the staff would come to take our orders, making it a comfortable place to be. It seemed like they had a wide variety of drinks, but I stuck to beer, highballs, and had some sweet potato shochu towards the end. Because they offer rare menu items, it's not a place you go seeking cost-effectiveness, but rather to enjoy delicious dishes made with Kyushu ingredients. I think going with the mindset of enjoying Kyushu cuisine will lead to a high level of satisfaction. I definitely want to go back again.

The cost performance is really bad. We ordered a 5-kind assortment of horse sashimi, a hot pot for 2 people, bonito sashimi with sake lees, 4 beers, 2 highballs, and 2 Calpis sours, totaling just under 12,000 yen. The horse sashimi was very small, like the size of a postage stamp. The hot pot mainly consisted of bean sprouts, cabbage, and tofu. The bonito sashimi with sake lees was served in a small dish with a piece of tofu, priced at 400 yen. The drinks were also expensive, with small cups of draft beer costing around 600 yen each. Everything was overpriced, so I definitely do not recommend this place.

I went to eat horse sashimi. It was very delicious. I ate lean meat, liver, and mane. Most of the seating is in private rooms, so you can enjoy your meal in a calm atmosphere and also drink alcohol. The staff are friendly, and I would like to go again, but considering the cost performance, I cannot go frequently. I will save up money to go again. I want to eat liver sashimi again.

The private room is a bit small but cozy, the food is delicious, and the horse sashimi was indeed tasty.

All the dishes on the menu were delicious, and the drinks were flowing. The service was also very polite and good! Thank you very much. I would definitely like to come back again.

This is a half-room restaurant. The variety of horse sashimi available might be irresistible for horse meat lovers.

The horse sashimi was delicious.

The atmosphere wasn't great and the seats were cramped, but I was surprised by how good the food was. The bonito tataki was delicious with lots of green onions, and bonito goes really well with mayonnaise. The only thing I noticed was that the green onions were cut a bit thick. The sashimi was also good, especially the lean meat. It was so delicious that my friend even asked the staff if it was frozen, but they assured us it wasn't. The fried chicken was soft and tasty, even when it cooled down. And the horse meat cutlet at the end was also good, with a nice thickness and rareness. Overall, it was a hidden gem of a restaurant with surprisingly great food.

I went to this restaurant with my colleagues. One of them loves horse sashimi, so when we searched, this shop came up right away. I didn't know there were so many different cuts of horse sashimi, like lean meat and mane. Since horse sashimi is a type of sashimi, you can't really fill up on it by just picking at it, but the other dishes were delicious too! The black pork shabu-shabu was also excellent! I want to go again next time and try other cuts as well!

I felt like eating motsunabe and searched in Ikebukuro, and this shop came up. What attracted me the most was the variety of horse meat dishes, so I decided to give it a try. It's on the 5th floor of a mixed-use building, not a very fancy building, so I was a bit hesitant, but when the elevator doors opened, I was already in the restaurant, which had a typical izakaya atmosphere and was bustling. Looking at the menu, there were many horse meat dishes I had never tried before, so I was a bit undecided on what to order, but I ended up choosing horse meat dishes like raw liver, raw tongue, sakura shirako with ponzu sauce, and stir-fried cheek meat with seven spices. The raw liver was similar to beef and delicious. The raw tongue was a bit chewy but had a nice texture. The sakura shirako, which seems to be the marrow inside the bone, had a texture similar to shirako and was delicious. The stir-fried cheek meat with seven spices was okay. The motsunabe had good flavor. Personally, I prefer more of the chewy texture of the small intestine in motsu, so I wished there was more of that. I don't drink much alcohol, so I ordered white rice, and it was made with Milky Queen rice, which had a shiny appearance when it arrived, and it was delicious both hot and cold. Not many people order rice at an izakaya, but this was the best rice I've had at an izakaya. It may not have a luxurious feel, but this is a good restaurant.

I made a reservation for the weekend at 6:30. The restaurant has about 10 private rooms in a small space. All customers are required to make a reservation in advance, as walk-ins are not allowed due to its popularity. The Kumamoto horse sashimi platter was discounted by 1000 yen, making it only 1800 yen. The pieces were small and some of the lean meat was a bit tough, but all had a concentrated umami flavor. The grilled local chicken went well with beer, tasting somewhat like chicken ham. The best part was the lean meat. Unfortunately, they didn't have horse tongue sashimi, which was what I was looking forward to. Overall, it was a bit of a mix-up.

●April 14, 2016 (Thursday)●【Information】A Kyushu cuisine, horse meat specialty restaurant in Ikebukuro.【Situation】Visited with friends around 10 pm.【Environment】All seats are private rooms! Even though they are private rooms, you can still hear other customers nearby, so you need to be a bit mindful when talking. But it's definitely private rooms! There is a button to call the staff, which is convenient. The atmosphere is nice.【Food】・Extra Cold Beer - around 600 yen - ◯ Creamy foam.・Queen Bee Hot Pot・A variety of Long Cloud Shochu available. The Queen Bee was quite easy to drink, but lacked the distinct taste that shochu lovers enjoy. On the other hand, Long Cloud had a distinctive taste which I personally enjoyed.・Cabbage appetizer - The cabbage was tough!・Horse liver sashimi - 1200 yen - ◎ Ordered this as a delicacy, and it was incredibly delicious!! It was so delicious that it naturally brought a smile to my face. This was the first time I had such delicious horse meat.・Stir-fried horse thigh meat with seven spices - 900 yen - ◎ A Sichuan-style dish that I love.・Chicken sashimi - A delicious chicken sashimi with a different texture than what I've had at other restaurants.・Assorted Satsuma deep-fried dishes - 450 yen - ◎ I was drawn in by the discounted price of 450 yen. The assortment of three types of Satsuma deep-fried dishes had different flavors and were very enjoyable. It may be just Satsuma deep-fried dishes, but they were truly delicious.【Overall】With a 10% off coupon on weekdays, we spent around 10,000 yen for drinks and food for two people. Honestly, I thought it was quite cheap even at 5,000 yen per person. This is a hidden gem in Ikebukuro. I plan to visit again in the future.【Rating】★★★★★★★★ 8/10【Certified as a top restaurant!!!】

Since last July, I arrived 30 minutes earlier than my reservation time, but they welcomed me warmly. The dim lighting inside the restaurant was as I remembered, I like it. It was a bit disappointing that there was only one hanger for a table meant for two people. This time, I mainly had raw meat dishes, and they were delicious! I had been to this place a couple of times a few years ago and wanted to visit again, so I looked it up and found out that it had been renovated. I remembered that the seats were close together and the restaurant was small. However, when I went this time, the atmosphere had changed a lot for the better! There were partitions and private rooms now. Looking at the menu, there were so many delicious options that I couldn't decide. I had horse sashimi platter, horse liver sashimi, chicken sashimi, Satsuma chicken, spicy lotus root, cod roe and daikon salad, and finishing ramen. The timing of the food service and the neat and tidy service by the staff made it a very enjoyable experience. The toilet was also clean and well-maintained. I will definitely go back again. Even on a Monday evening around 19:00-20:00, the restaurant was lively with customers. It's better to make a reservation even on weekdays! If I had to mention one thing, it would be nice to have some background music in the restaurant (I couldn't tell if there was any playing or not).

Ikebukuro is where I live, and this place might be my favorite. Personally, I love raw meat, and the horse meat here is highly recommended by the manager! The prices are not exactly cheap, but hmm... sorry, I can't help but recommend it. I tend to drink a bit too much, but it's a great place to visit even if you eat too much or drink too much. So lovely! 🍻

We randomly stopped by a horse meat restaurant for dinner in Ikebukuro with my friend. Asahi Shouten, why do we sometimes feel the urge to eat it? We sat at a semi-private table. We ordered horse tongue sashimi for 980 yen, horse heart sashimi for 880 yen, rare tenderloin cutlet for 2000 yen, crunchy fried heart base for 600 yen, chicken tataki with ponzu sauce for 650 yen, and black pork cold shabu salad for 650 yen. The prices were a bit high, but the taste was excellent. Everything was deliciously prepared! It was a great dinner.笑