In 1886, as the Meiji restoration opened Japan to the world, the first Yayoi-ken restaurant was set up by Tamijiro Shioi in Tokyo’s Kayaba-cho area. Serving superb Western cuisine at only one yen per set, the much-loved restaurant introduced a brand new food culture to the Japanese people. Many high-level government officials dined at Yayoi-ken, including one of the founders of the Japanese Imperial Army, General Iwao Oyama.
More than a century later, Shioi’s great-grandson Tatsuo Shioi now runs Plenus Company Ltd. established in 1976 and one of Japan’s largest food service companies now. Plenus operates a total of about 3,000 restaurants, of which more than 400 are branches of its Yayoi brand.
Whereas the original Yayoi-ken carried Western dishes, the first modern Yayoi branch in Tokyo introduced the teishoku – Japan’s popular set meals – to the rest of the world, with presence in Thailand, Singapore, Australia, Taiwan, and the United States. In March this year, it opened its first branch in the United States in Palo Alto, California, bringing the total number of Yayoi restaurants worldwide to 452.
And last week, Plenus opened its first Yayoi restaurant in the Philippines, a franchise at SM Megamall run by managing directors Yvonne Yao and Jacqueline Gobling. The duo tried Yayoi for the first time during a visit to Fukuoka a few years back.
“We have always been passionate about food, and we believe Yayoi offers authentic, flavorful Japanese cuisine and we are very excited about it,” Gobling said.
“Our target is to open 15 branches over the next five years. Yayoi is such a big hit in Japan, and we are confident it will be received well here, too,” Yao said, adding that Yayoi-Philippines’ second branch at SM Mall of Asia is set to open early next year, signaling their aggressive expansion in the country.
Teishoku dining is based on the ichijū-sansai (one soup, three sides) traditional meals offered at Zen temples, which include a main dish, soup, rice, and pickles. The concept eventually spread throughout Japan and transformed into the convenient meal sets found at local eateries and restaurants such as Yayoi today.
“A teishoku set combines a variety of individual items and dishes for complete and well-balanced nutrition. It is also served fast, so if you are a businessman who is in a hurry but wants to eat good food, you can just grab a chair here at Yayoi,” Yao said.
Yao said a set meal at Yayoi (which guests order from an Ipad menu) usually takes 15 minutes to serve.
Among Yayoi’s bestsellers are the namban teishoku (fried chicken steak in sweet and sour sauce topper with the restaurant’s own tartar sauce); mix toji teishoku (breaded pork loin, fried shrimp, and sukiyaki beef simmered in special sauce and egg); saba shio teishoku (salt-grilled mackerel); sukiyaki teishoku (beef hot-pot with assorted vegetables served with udon noodles); and hitsumabushi (grilled eel over rice served with a side of dashi broth, Nagoya-style).
(However, and maybe because they were jam-packed on their opening day, invited guests had to wait for more than 30 minutes for their meals. The slow-cooked egg that was supposed to be served as alternative dip for the sukiyaki beef was also overcooked. Birth pains.)
Yayoi also has side dishes that can be ordered a la carte, including asari sakamuchi (fresh clams steamed in sake); edamame (lightly boiled salted soybeans); tamago yaki (Japanese-style omelette roll); and ontama salad (mixed greens topped with parmesan cheese, slow-cooked egg and served with either sesame, Ceasar or shoyu-based vinaigrette dressing). For dessert, one can try their matcha anmitsu (green tea ice cream with azuki beans and fruit cocktail served with black sugar syrup) or ohagi (steamed sticky rice ball smothered in sweet azuki beans).
But perhaps the real star of Yayoi’s teishoku meals is the humble Japanese rice – the kinme variety, which is refined using a new milling method and is said to be white rice with all the benefits of brown rice. The new technology removes the husk but maintains the important fiber and proteins, thus one can enjoy the sweet, rich taste of white rice while benefiting from the abundant nutrients of brown rice.
Yayoi accounts for over one percent of all of Japan’s rice consumption, and Plenus has built a research and development facility dedicated solely to its kinme rice. And as the younger Shioi said in a previous interview: Without rice, there is no teishoku.
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