Lunchtime set meals are now available in a cook-yourself style

The son, who ran the restaurant with his predecessor for 13 years, transformed it into a "stylish yakiniku restaurant." Currently, the restaurant is only open at night on weekdays, but has a lunchtime menu on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. Previously, set meals cooked in the kitchen were served during lunchtime, but in December 2020, they changed to a style where customers can grill their own yakiniku.

The yakiniku set meal, which includes kalbi, horumon, young chicken, and pork belly meat, as well as salad, soup, and rice, is a bargain at 1,150 yen (as of March 2022). Of course, the quality of the meat has not decreased, and the homemade sweet and spicy sauce is just as delicious as before. There are also lighter, more casual set meals with kalbi, young chicken, and coarsely ground sausages for children and women, making it a great lunch menu for families.

Furthermore, take-out bento boxes are available only during lunchtime on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. There are four types of bento boxes to choose from: kalbi bento, skirt steak bento, loin bento, and thick-sliced pork bento, so it's hard to decide which one to get.

And speaking of Inokuchi, their addictive [champon] with its generous servings of vegetables and the texture of offal is still going strong.

The originator of Chinese noodles with motsu is "Mikasa" in Ichiba, Iyo City, but in fact, it seems that they are relatives. They make their own seasoning, so DAYS' champon, which uses beef and chicken bones for the soup, is a little milder. "We started calling it 'champon' so that the name doesn't overlap," they told us.

The keyword is "family"

The meaning of "YAKINIKU DAYS" is not "Yakitori every day!" When asked about the name of the restaurant, he said, "When you run a restaurant for a long time, one family will come to you for generations. We have many such regulars. We wanted to create a restaurant that can be close to the long, long days that will continue with families, so we named it 'DAYS'. It's 'DAYS' for yakiniku."

In fact, there was a time when he was worried about taking over the yakiniku restaurant. "I didn't like the old store's atmosphere of a bar with a Showa-era feel... I thought about doing a completely different type of business. But when I saw the families who came to the restaurant, I changed my mind and thought I couldn't give up yakiniku after all."

So the owner decided to completely change the restaurant's exterior and interior to create a stylish atmosphere, which refreshed his mood and transformed the restaurant into a place where families could casually enjoy yakiniku on the weekends.

Her husband is a fashion enthusiast and her son is a master artist?!

Looking around the restaurant, I noticed that there was no overhead smoke exhaust system, which is common in yakiniku restaurants. The exhaust ducts for the smokeless roasters are under the tables, creating a clean, bright and open space.

The tables on the first floor are stylishly decorated with different shaped pendant lights hanging from each seat. These are works by glass artist Sota Azuchi from Hida Takayama that the owner fell in love with and ordered online.

The owner's sense can be seen in the carelessly hung paintings. He has always loved designing things, and he designed the interior of DAYS as simply as possible so that people could decorate it however they like.

The shelves at the cash register are lined with lots of dinosaur figures and cute retro toys.

The cardboard dinosaurs were handmade by his son! "It was well made, so we put it on display. Previously, we had him draw dinosaurs on our closing sign, but when we had it redrawn, it wasn't very good, so we sent it back (laughs)." Look around the store to see if there are any other works by his son, the artist, hiding there.

Run by a close-knit family, this yakiniku restaurant is modern yet family-friendly.