By tighttravellers, May 2026
Now then. We ain’t no steak connoisseur but after hours and hours of scrolling through blogs, social media, and scouring Google Maps – we managed to find budget Kobe Beef in Tokyo! We might be tight travellers, but of course we wanted to indulge in Japanese culture. What better way than eating one of the most expensive dishes?
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If you’re a tight arse like us, and want to try the famous Kobe Beef Steak in Tokyo, but don’t want spend an arm and a leg on a meal; you’re in the right place. We did all the hard work so you don’t have to.
Our meal cost £50 for 2 people – that’s about the cost of a Nando’s nowadays; pretty good value if you ask me. Especially as the alternatives we were looking at cost £100 per steak! No tar love!
We tried the Japanese Wagyu Black Beef Sirloin which cost us ¥5500 / £25.70 and the Kobe Lean Beef Steak which cost us ¥5700 / £26.70.
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The Kobe Beef Sirloin starts at ¥13,200 / £61, and the Kobe Beef Fillet starts at ¥19,890 / £93. ‘Ow much?!!
(Prices as of March 2026.) Meals include Miso Soup, rice, and a cuppa Japanese tea too!
The knack we found, was to go at lunch; a lot of Japanese restaurants have lunch time deals.
Our tight travellers experience
We arrived at the restaurant just before it opened. There was already a small queue of locals coming out of the door, and this started to move as soon as we joined at 11:30. There are only a couple of tables inside, horigotatsu style (dug-out, low profile tables). Shoes off at the door, and then we got the last table (jammy). The workers spoke some English, and took our order more or less straight away. Good job we had already scoured the menu the day before.
We didn’t wait long before our £25 meal was served. Let us tell ya, it was proper good scran! Honestly one of the nicest meals we’ve ever had, and we could enjoy it without feeling guilty because it didn’t burn a whole in our pocket!
We definitely recommend you do your research before hand and don’t just spontaneously spend a small fortune on a mediocre steak. Believe us, we did this in Kyoto later in our trip, and it has been an extremely sore subject ever since!
So if you’re wanting to indulge on a tight travellers budget, make sure to check out Gyū-an Ginza.
And make sure to check out our other budget Japan blogs for tips on how to save them pennies!
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