やよい軒 Yayoiken @ Tokyo, Japan

We arrived Tokyo from Fujikawaguchiko by bus in the evening on day 9. After checking in our hostel, we went looking for dinner nearby as it was already quite late by then and we’re really tired too. We settled on Yayoiken やよい軒, which is just 3 minutes walk from our accommodation. Yayoiken is a chain dining restaurant specializing in teishoku (Japanese set meal) and donburi (rice bowl dish). Ironically, our first dinner at Kyoto was also a teishoku. You can find Yayoiken everywhere in Japan and also in USA, Asia (Taiwan, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore) and Australia.

This beautiful mackerel! 😍

Alert: Food photos were sloppy as it shows how mood-less we were due to tiredness. 😅

Food is order via ticket machine, which will then dispense meal tickets. Pass the meal tickets to the staff and wait for your food. The ticket machine is multi-lingual. There’s also menu on the table but they were in Japanese. No matter what, one need to order via the machine.

Our meal tickets. As you can see, it’s affordable. That’s why we ate at Yayoiken again four days later. I guess you can say, for convenience sake and also for saving $$.

Salt-grilled mackerel teishoku サバの塩焼定食 @ 630 yen.

Katsu donburi (aka pork cutlet and egg rice bowl) with miso soup かつ丼 (味噌汁付き) @ 680 yen.

Mixed fried foods topped with egg teishoku ミックスとじ定食 @ 780 yen. There’s prawn in there.

Pork cutlet simmered in miso sauce teishoku 味噌かつ煮 @ 760 yen. The whitish overexposed thingy in the hot plate is egg.

Fried chicken with tartar sauce & deep-fried prawns teishoku チキン南と工ビフライの定食 @ 960 yen.

Katsu donburi (aka pork cutlet with Japanese sauce rice bowl) with miso soup 和風たれかつ丼 (味噌汁付き) @ 680 yen.

All in all, our meals at Yayoiken were satisfying and delicious. There are many choices on the menu (including limited menu), so I think one will be spoiled for choice. The diners at Yayoiken which we encountered were mostly locals and working men and women.

Btw, I wanted to point out an incident which happened when we dined there the second time around. A staff accidentally knocked over a bowl of miso soup at one of our mate’s pants. She immediately apologized and cleaned up the mess. Now what shook us after that was, she returned the money of our mate’s meal (960 yen), to compensate for her mistake. My mate didn’t accept the money and we all agreed it was the right thing to do. She then apologizes a few more times which we thought it was more than enough. We wanted to tell her, it’s okay but no idea how to do that in Japanese.

Address:
やよい軒 Yayoiken (蔵前店 Kuramae Store)
Masudaya Building
2-6-4 Kuramae
Taito-ku, Tokyo
or
東京都 台東区 蔵前 2-6-4 マスダヤビル

Tel: +81-3-5823-7321
Opening time: 7am-11pm, daily
Nearest station: Kuramae

Map: