Why you should experience Hinomaru in Tokyo, Japan.
Hinomaru is a convivial Korean-influenced yakiniku restaurant where Kabukicho's late-night dining culture, tabletop grilling, premium Japanese beef and an expansive barbecue repertoire converge beneath Shinjuku's neon entertainment streets.
Set along Sakura-dori near Yasukuni-dori and just steps from Shinjuku Musashinokan, the subterranean restaurant builds dinner around individual grills and a broad progression from tongue and offal to heavily marbled wagyu. Kagoshima Black Beef and Black Pork deepen the Japanese side of the selection before house-made kimchi and Korean dishes pull the table toward the restaurant's Korean culinary character. Large platters encourage several cuts to reach the grill together, turning differences in marbling, thickness and cooking time into the central rhythm of dinner. The result is a Kabukicho yakiniku restaurant where Korean flavors and premium Japanese beef meet the appetite and extended hours of Shinjuku after dark.
What you should know about Hinomaru.
Hinomaru is best known for developing an unusually broad all-you-can-eat yakiniku program around Japanese beef, Korean cooking and several escalating grades of meat. The restaurant operates from Hashimoto Building in Kabukicho 1-chome, where the current Hinomaru name succeeded the earlier Jojo-hin yakiniku operation at the same basement address. Kagoshima Black Beef and Black Pork became central premium ingredients, joined by A5 wagyu at the upper end of the selection and house-made kimchi connecting the barbecue program with Korean cooking. The scale of the meat program now stretches from a 120-item standard course through a 144-item premium tier, allowing tongue, loin, karubi, offal and seafood to develop across increasingly ambitious combinations. Kobe beef extends that progression through a four-cut platter of top blade, special loin, zabuton and ribeye, and another oversized presentation assembles more than one kilogram of A5 Japanese Black wagyu in a single barrel-shaped platter. Demand eventually produced a second Hinomaru restaurant in the same Hashimoto Building, carrying the original operation onto another floor without abandoning the Kabukicho address. Hinomaru has consequently grown around one tightly focused concept: place Korean accompaniments, Japanese regional beef and an exceptionally large selection of grillable cuts within reach of the same Shinjuku table.
Beef tongue gives the grill a fast opening, its thinner slices browning quickly before upper tongue introduces a softer, richer bite that rewards a shorter exposure to heat. Karubi and loin then increase the concentration of beef flavor, followed by offal whose greater chew and deeper richness change both texture and cooking time. A5 Japanese Black wagyu pushes the progression toward heavier marbling, and Kobe beef separates that richness across top blade, loin, zabuton and ribeye so the differences between individual cuts become clearer over successive rounds. House-made kimchi supplies acidity, fermentation and chile between those richer portions, giving the Korean side of the kitchen a practical role in resetting the palate before the grill fills again. Hinomaru works as a long-form barbecue session, using changes in cut, fat, chew and fermented heat to keep an enormous selection from collapsing into repetition.
How to fold Hinomaru into your trip.
Hinomaru works as the dinner anchor for an evening tracing eastern Shinjuku through a century of film exhibition, traditional popular entertainment and the experimental theater that made the surrounding district a cultural stage in its own right.
Begin at Shinjuku Musashinokan, founded as Musashinokan in May 1920 and celebrated during the silent era for foreign-film programming, critic Akira Iwasaki and benshi Musei Tokugawa before reemerging under its present name after reconstruction in 1968. Continue to Shinjuku Suehirotei, preserving the yose tradition of rakugo and variety performance within the entertainment culture that developed around Shinjuku during the twentieth century. Conclude at Hanazono Shrine, where Juro Kara brought Situation Theatre's Red Tent into the shrine grounds during Shinjuku's 1960s underground-theater movement before authorities barred the company from performing there in 1969. The progression moves from silent-era cinema through yose performance into Kara's theatrical revolt, giving an evening at Hinomaru a route through three radically different forms of entertainment associated with Shinjuku.
Where your story begins.
Foresyte Travel reveals places that feel extraordinary long before you arrive.
Experience premium editorial crafted for luxury travelers.
