Kyoto is a city for the serious gourmet. It has many excellent establishments including some of the finest kaiseki restaurants in Japan. However, few offer the unbeatable combination of great steaks, a stylish atmosphere and one of the best views in Kyoto.

UNIQUE RESTAURANT IN KYOTO

In this sense, the Yasaka restaurant of the Park Hyatt Kyoto is in a category all its own. It offers a contemporary version of teppanyaki to diners sitting around two massive wooden counters, both with 180-degree views of the Yasaka Shrine.

The atmosphere alone is most impressive, as the hotel that houses it. The Park Hyatt Kyoto is a modern structure inspired by traditional Japanese design. It’s all 21st century and at the same time 18th century. Moreover, it stands out for being a design innovator. However it also blends seamlessly into the background of one of Kyoto’s most famous and most picturesque neighborhoods.

AMAZING VIEWS OF YASAKA SHRINE

The Yasaka restaurant has a similar concept. It is disarmingly simple in design. In fact, you will not be aware that it exists unless you have already booked your seats for dinner. Otherwise, you will never see it during your stay. It’s tucked away in one floor of the hotel that you would never go to unless you are dining here or drinking at the bar.

Once you set foot in the restaurant, though, it is quite impossible to forget it. The view of Yasaka Shrine and the city of Kyoto in the background alone is the kind you will remember forever. And moreso because you will have had a perfectly grilled steak to go with it. The chefs here certainly know how to cook meat exactly as each diner wishes.

READ ABOUT A NEW HACIENDA HOTEL IN SPAIN

THE BEST TEPPANYAKI IN KYOTO

Part of the fun of a teppanyaki dinner is being able to sit around a counter and watch the chef cook your meal. The movement, colors and aroma all combine for some great entertainment. Then, of course, the food at a teppanyaki restaurant is served the same minute it is done. So this ensures the best possible conditions for dinner.

Eating at the Yasaka restaurant of the Park Hyatt is food and art and also theater all at once. In fact, it is a most dramatic theater. And arguably the best seat in Kyoto every evening,

Read more about the Park Hyatt Kyoto in Travelife Magazine.

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The steak and lobster dinner at Wolfgang’s Steakhouse by Wolfgang Zwiener instantly transports customers to New York. The moment diners enter the restaurant, from they will see the mahogany wood bar, the earth-toned booths and the mosaic tile ceiling. These are all reminiscent of the original Gustavino in the first New York restaurant of Wolfgang’s Steakhouse. The classic New York ambiance is finalized by the sizzling plate of steak on the table. Travelife Magazine describes the dinner experience.

WOLFGANG’S STEAKHOUSE: AUTHENTIC NEW YORK CLASSICS 

Wolfgang’s proudly serves USDA Prime Black Angus. Angus steaks account for only 2% of all USDA meats. The steakhouse also stores its meats in its own in-house dry-aging box for an average of 28 days. This ensures that the meat is at the peak level of tenderness when it’s cooked. Each Wolfgang’s Steakhouse also has its own wine cellar and bar. 

So now, diners don’t have to fly all the way to New York to taste these authentic New York-style steak dishes. With over 19 locations worldwide, there’s bound to be at least one Wolfgang’s near you.

TASTE OF NEW YORK BY WOLFGANG ZWEINER

The lunch special is a perfect sampler for first-time diners and loyal customers alike. The Caesar’s Salad is an excellent appetizer drizzled with the Wolfgang’s Steakhouse classic  caesar dressing. This is followed by a tender and flavorful USDA Prime dry-aged sirloin.

Pair this steak with sides and vegetables such as the mashed potatoes and the thick and rich creamed spinach. The spinach is cooked with a secret recipe. For dessert, try the Wolfgang’s Steakhouse New York-style Cheesecake. It’s a true classic that will take you back to the Big Apple.

START SPREADING THE NEWS

Wolfgang’s Steakhouses in New York and around the world are all headed by President and Managing Partner Peter Zwiener; Vice President of Operations and Partner Lydia D’Amato; and Corporate Executive Chef Amiro Cruz. So their restaurants around the world all follow the joint venture business model instead of the franchise model. The team partners with like-minded local associates who can then implement Wolfgang’s Steakhouse experience based on the original standards in their location.

“One of the key principals of our mission statement, as well as our global expansion plan, is to keep consistency throughout all locations. We believe that by franchising, consistency among each of the units will suffer and deteriorate due to the different work standards, ethics, and vision of having many various operators,” Peter Zwiener shares.

Everything at a Wolfgang’s Steakhouse restaurant has to be approved by the US partners. This includes marketing and the operations in the kitchen and the bar. Consequently, the unique and authentic Wolfgang’s New York steak dining experience that can be found in every Wolfgang’s location.

SPOTLIGHT ON THE PHILIPPINES

Resorts World Manila is the 14th location of the group.  It’s also the first Wolfgang’s in Southeast Asia. Meanwhile, the 19th and latest location is in the newly renovated Ortigas hub, The Podium. Another location is coming up in Bonifacio Global City later this year. 

Wolfgang’s continues to serve only the best of New York.  This ensures that everyone can enjoy their mouthwatering All-American menu. 

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Today in Africa, at the Oceana Beach and Game Reserve just off Port Alexander, living a #Travelife, I had a very good lunch.

Quite uncharacteristic of me, we were sitting at the bar for lunch, with a view of the beach and a family of giraffe grazing just in front, and I ordered an open-faced steak sandwich.

I’m not a bread person in general, so there are few instances in my life wherein I will willingly order a sandwich instead of something else on the menu.

THE RIGHT CHOICE FOR LUNCH

The view at lunch today, on safari in Africa, living a #Travelife

But today, when I saw this steak sandwich as one of three or four options on the menu for lunch, I suddenly felt like having it.

How fortunate that I did, as it was perhaps the best steak sandwich I’ve ever had.

PERFECT COMBINATION

It was incredibly good beef, and it was cooked just right so that it was neither tough and overcooked nor too rare.

Then it had just a little bit of melted cheese on top — enough to make it juicy, but not so much as to drown out the meat.

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The waterfront of Cape Town

Over two weeks in South Africa, we literally ate in the best restaurants in the country. We also had the pleasure of meeting top chefs and having many talented chefs personally cook meals for us.

Every single meal we had was enjoyable, interesting and delicious as we journeyed across the country, from Johannesburg and Sabi Sabi in the North all the way down to the Cape Town area.

Interestingly, when I was asked about my two favorite lunches during our trip, off the top of my head I thought of two of the unlikeliest choices. This doesn’t mean I didn’t like the fancy meals, as I so enjoyed them all.

Cape Town’s best steakhouse

But in about ten seconds I answered that my two favorite meals were a club sandwich at a semi-fastfood joint at Johannesburg’s domestic airport, while killing time and waiting for our flight to Cape Town; and a very spontaneous run-in into a steakhouse restaurant along the waterfront of Cape Town after a morning of sightseeing.

We’d found ourselves one day in the waterfront area of Cape Town after spending the morning at Robbens Island, visiting the maximum security prison where Nelson Mandela, Jacob Zuma and a host of African National Committee (ANC) leaders were once held.

It was just after lunch when we reached the mainland, and instead of returning to our hotel for lunch, we’d decided to do the very touristy thing and look for a decent restaurant along the waterfront.

There are many nice restaurants in this area, I’m sure; but we hadn’t done our homework, and many of them did look like tourist traps — the kind that serve barely edible seafood to clients they know will never be back for seconds because they’re only in Cape Town for two days.

This isn’t one of the tourist traps, but it sure made a nice photo

I had in my mind to have some fish as well, because we were by the waterfront, and to get in some oysters if I could. Simply because I love oysters.

The menu!

But then we passed a rather formal-looking restaurant — or at least it looked more formal than the others so far — named Belthazar’s, making us both automatically think it was a play on the name of the famous New York brasserie. There was probably no significance to the name at all, but that’s what made us think about having lunch here.

Actually, it was I who was more enthusiastic, as I’d passed their restaurant store front and read signs everywhere saying they were the best steakhouse in Cape Town. The signs were posted by them, of course, but it certainly made everything look more convincing.

Freshly-baked bread was served with soft butter and a tomato paste

They also had a serious biltong bar (biltong is the local equivalent of beef jerky), a heavy duty aging room for steaks, and one of the most impressive wine dispenser counters I’ve seen for a restaurant of this size and stature. It certainly didn’t seem to be your typical tourist trap.

Then the clincher was the fact that they had dry aged beef — and I order this whenever and wherever I can, simply because it’s so hard to find except in certain cities in the world.

I had in mind the great and super tasty dry aged beef I used to fly 14+ hours and spend two weeks in New York for, in another lifetime when I had more time and energy for long flights at a drop of a hat.

In New York, I used to always order a big steak and eat half, and then bring the remaining half back to my hotel.

The New York Palace was “home” then, and my suite had a kitchen and a proper dining room. And my idea of bliss was to cook garlic fried rice and refry the leftover steak in just a little fat, and have this for breakfast the next morning at the hotel.

I did this with almost every steak I ordered in New York — no fail. And I don’t go to New York a lot anymore, but I always order dry aged steak whenever I find it on the menu somewhere in the world, hoping to replicate those juicy steaks I used to have in Manhattan. So far, not so good.

Very creamed spinach to accompany our meal

Anyway, back to our very nice lunch at the waterfront in Cape Town.

Our waitress recommended a nice avocado and shrimp starter, and then we shared a 500 gram T-Bone steak that was dry aged, as a main, with creamed spinach and fries.

Again, it was really I who wanted to have this dry aged beef and this was the only cut they had for dry aged beef, unfortunately, and it was just too big for one person to order.

The Boss was nice enough to agree to share this T-Bone steak with me even if he doesn’t really like T-Bone cuts — and perhaps this kindness is why I have such a nice memory of this lunch.

Our dry aged T-Bone steak to share…

Everything was good and I liked my steak especially with the red wine sauce that came with it.

And for dessert, they had an immensely good sticky toffee pudding, which is something we both love. We had this with cream and it really made my day. Again, sticky toffee pudding is just one of those desserts that are so hard to get right in our part of the world.

Absolutely delicious sticky toffee pudding…

Taste-wise, so many other lunches we had were far better. But for some reason, it’s my memory of this lunch that made it so enjoyable for me — and this went beyond dissecting the taste of the food.

And perhaps the best part was yet to come. We stumbled upon a crafts store after lunch that sold prized zebra skins, and so far at a price lower than any we had come across so far. We hadn’t really had much time to shop in our rather crazy schedule, so it was a stroke of luck to find this store.

Coincidentally, they had two zebra skins of roughly the same size and quality, and for exactly the same price. These weren’t cheap, but they weren’t crazy expensive either. So we each bought one as a memory of our two weeks in beautiful South Africa.

And perhaps it’s also a memory of my favorite lunch.

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