Yakiniku Mutsumi

The Japanese name of this restaurant is particularly baffling to native speakers. Using the kanji character for “six” repeated three times, there are a number of ways it might possibly be read, leading to some difficult situations when making reservations: roku-roku-roku, maybe? Roppyaku-rokuju-roku? The correct answer is Mutsumi, through the oftentimes obfuscating (and often deliberately so) logic of kotoba-asobi — Japanese wordplay. Continuing in said spirit, every course menu is named after a poetic four-word compound called a yojijukugo. Their lunch-exclusive course menu, for instance, is dramatically named for the phrase “ichinichi senshu”, meaning “a thousand autumns of longing”. In the same vein, the restaurant’s aesthetic is quintessentially Japanese, adopting plain, light wood furnishings and staff clad in traditional dress. But while Mutsumi loves its wordplay, it definitely does not play around with the quality of its meat. Mutsumi sources its meat from the northern Tohoku region, typically the prefectures of Akita, Aomori and Miyagi. The owners specifically go out of their way to find domestic producers of Japanese black kuroge wagyu beef — not those who produce the most beautiful beef, but rather the “real” beef: beef raised with passion. Mutsumi selects only the producers who understand the “true beauty” of wagyu, and wish to communicate said passion to their customers. At Mutsumi, several different cuts of beef tongue are offered: soft parts and chewy parts alike, both thick- and thin-sliced. Kuroge wagyu beef tongue is the best, the restaurant insists: the more it is chewed, the more delicious it becomes. It’s recommended to be eaten with the restaurant’s special sauce: eight kinds of ingredients are simmered, seasoned and left to sit for two days to bring out the maximum flavor. This special sauce enhances the flavor of the meat without ever interfering with its natural taste. For wagyu connoisseurs looking for more than just grilled tongue, Mutsumi also has them covered: luxurious offerings like meat sushi with caviar round out the menu. To go with its meat, Yakiniku Mutsumi also offers a formidable selection of wines, of which the New World wines are the most highly recommended — in particular the full-bodied Prisoner and Tarot reds from Californian vineyards. French traditionalists, meanwhile, are urged to try the selection from Domaine de Baronarques.