FIRST Time Trying KOBE BEEF STEAK! & EXPENSIVE Kaiseki Meal at Ryokan in Kobe Japan

What's up, guys? I am in Kobe, Japan, and I'm about to live my dream right now. I'm at a very traditional hotel, and this hotel has an 800-year history. I have my yukata on, and I'm about to feast on my first ever kaiseki meal. And it's served dish by dish by our attendant, who comes in and just brings us this beautiful, what I can only describe as works of art. And I feel so bad, because I feel like I'm destroying something so beautiful. I'm ready to feast. Itadakimasu. There's first courses, two plates. The first item I have here is what looks like crab meat on top of crab roll on top of crab. Look at this. It's just so colorful. Green, red, orange. And on the second plate, I think this is some sort of fish. It might be tuna. And this is fish wrapped in seaweed, and what looks like mackerel right here. And I have some vinegar here to dip the crab in. This crab is so incredibly fresh. I feel like this thing just crawled out of the ocean onto my plate. Crab meat is so soft. Then you have the roll, which gives it a slight little crunch. Almost like stepping on a bunch of mini bubble wraps. Excuse me while I lick the shell. Seriously, don't look. It's embarrassing. Plate number two is even more beautiful. Let me start off with the smoked fish. Whoa. Hmm. I'm not an expert on smoked fish. But when I first bit into it, my thought initially was, does it need salt? But then a couple more chews in, that intense smoky flavor hits you. And then you're just like, this is perfect. On its own, doesn't need anything. I wish I had that, except like a whole fish. This is fish wrapped in seaweed. That's definitely salmon. Oh, you got the sweet accent of the seaweed that is both crisp and chewy. Oh, that salmon flavor is awesome. All that fish, both of them were smoked. And that smoky flavor is just absolutely perfect. Next up, I was wondering what this was, and I found out this is a piece of cheese that they made here. Uh-huh. The cheese tastes like candy. Creamy, cheesy candy. Next up is what looks like radish wrapped something with some sort of sauce on top. They couldn't tell me what this was either. Let me try this. Pickled radish. I can't tell you what's wrapped inside the radish. I feel like the radish flavor overwhelmed whatever was inside. It's almost like it didn't exist. And finally, it looks like a tomato, but there's something inside. Let me bite into it. Oh, there's cream cheese inside. They took the skin off, and there's cream cheese stuffed inside. That was unexpected, to say the least, but quite refreshing. Course number two. My second course is cooked eggplant. Because I don't eat raw, if you offer the raw sashimi options, this is what you're going to get, which looks incredible. It looks beautiful, and I'm sure it tastes great if you like it, but I just don't. That's not what I eat. So this is what they prepared for me. Eggplant, and it looks like fish, and some sort of rice noodles, and a little bit of veggie. Oh, I feel like what this menu is is really a highlight of natural flavors. Mm, I love fish. It just does a beautifully delicious fishy serenade in your mouth as it falls apart. Wow. Third course, and this is where it gets real. Wow, look at the marbling of this beautiful beef. It's like a rolled map of deliciousness right here, imprinted on each slices of beef. Holy cow. Holy cow is right. What does that mean, A5? A5 is the highest. And it's grilled right in front of me. That sizzle. That's beautiful music right there. That beats any orchestra in the world. Look at that beautiful piece of meat. I'm just gonna put a little salt on here. What I learned about eating steak over the years is less is always more. Nowhere. Holy cow. And I mean that literally. Holy cow. Holy to the highest cow. Wow, thank you. I can't believe what I just ate was beef. That literally felt like, okay, the outside feels like beef. Then when you chew it, I swear it was butter. Oh my god. This is the most incredible thing I've ever had in my life. No steak is ever tender as this. No competition. This is the most tender steak in the world. You know, guys, I've been to a lot of steakhouses, and I say the phrase melt in your mouth a lot. I'm sorry, I've lied. None of that. This is what truly melts in your mouth is. If you don't try it, you won't understand what I'm saying. You gotta try it to believe what I'm talking about. I am not exaggerating by an ounce. This may just be the most wonderful thing I have ever, ever put in my mouth. And I say that a lot, I know. But please believe me this time. I feel like I want to serenade this steak. Convey to it that I did not know at all what great beef tasted like until I met you. And until you melt it in my mouth. I'm gonna try my last piece. I'm so sorry, the last piece. Still standing here in shock. I'll be honest with you. I came to Kobe, and I hear all this stuff about Kobe beef, how good it is. And I honestly thought in my head, how much better could it be than what I had in the best steakhouse in New York City? And I'll tell you guys my honest opinion. There's no comparison. Zero comparison. It's like comparing a luxurious 5-star, 12-course meal to like a TV dinner. Rarely am I ever too surprised by food. But I feel like somebody pelted me over the head with a beef fat. And then later, I ate that beef fat, and I was never the same again. I'm not a fan of vegetables, but this looks really appetizing. Especially after a bunch of fish, and then a bunch of steak. There's three different types of mushrooms. Some pumpkin, cucumbers, carrots, abalone, and it looks like some daikon. A little oyster mushroom, and try a little sesame sauce with that. That sauce is actually really, really good. I think the key to this dish is just tasting how fresh each vegetable is. It almost feels like they picked these from the back garden like half an hour ago, and then steamed it and served it to you. I wanna try the abalone. You dip this in a little salt, and that's all you need. Wow. That is really fresh and tender. Abalone, when it's cooked too much, it gets really, really rough. And this is cooked absolutely perfect. Okote. Okote is very delicious and funny face. Funny face. Yeah, I can see that. This has gotta be one of the least attractive fish I've ever consumed. The fish meat, of course, is very tender, very flaky. There's a lot of little bones over here. So, just be careful if you're eating this fish. And then there's soup. This is a miso soup, I believe. Yep. Take the meat and dip it in the sauce. It looks just like a little bit of soy sauce here. Mmm, okay. It tastes a bit like catfish. And here is all the innards. Oh my god, this looks, this kind of looks terrifying. I'm a little afraid of this. Let me go ahead and try some of the innards here. I feel like that's the intestine of the fish. This should be the liver. Yep. Actually, it doesn't taste that organ-y. Organ is actually quite good. I was really surprised I liked that. I typically don't like really weird parts of a fish, but it's not a... Try some of the soup. Wow, this soup is awesome. One thing I feel like doesn't really belong here is actually the rice. Because the fish is very subtle flavors. And this is also sticky rice. Especially with this type of rice, you need something really flavorful to kind of go with it. Maybe like a manchan? Okay. I could see how that could work a little bit. But you definitely do not need the rice for this fish. This is the last course dessert. We got some fresh fruit. We got some red bean cake. We got some salty vanilla ice cream. And we got carrot mousse. That's right, carrot mousse. Let's go ahead and try some of this carrot mousse. Ooh. Oh, wow. Look how light it is. Watch it jiggle. Carrot tastes really good in carrot cake, so why not in the mousse? Salty vanilla ice cream. Interesting. The salt hits you after you're kind of confused. You're like, where's the salt? Then all of a sudden, the salt appears, like almost a magic show. That's it. What an amazing meal and experience. It all started with tiny, beautiful-looking little seafood appetizers. Then it went to sashimi, where in my case, eggplant and fish. Then it was the most luxurious buttery beef I've ever had. After that was the fresh steamed vegetables. Then the steamed whole fish. And finally, dessert. I feel like that medley of dishes was like a tasty Japanese cuisine carousel. And I really got to experience a variety of Japanese flavors with wonderfully fresh ingredients. And I'm sure by now, a lot of you guys are wondering, how much did this all cost? And my answer is, I have no idea. If you've been following along on my vlog channel, you'll know that I am in Kobe right now, staying at a ryokan. And this is the traditional kaiseki dinner that they offer here. And it's all filled into my room cost, which is not cheap. So this beautifully decorated, traditional-looking Japanese room with access to a hot spring with this amazing dinner. And I'm gonna get a breakfast again tomorrow morning. Everything together is around $400 for just me. They charge by head, so if you're traveling with somebody else, then the price is probably gonna double. Everything that I've experienced so far, from the service, to the hot springs, to the food, to this rocking yukata. I've enjoyed every single bit of it. And this is really a big check off, both the travel and the food bucket list. Because I always wanted to come to one of these traditional hotels, and I wanted to have a traditional meal. So now I've done both, and I've gotta say, exceeded all my expectations. And guys, in and over, I'm gonna see you for breakfast. Well, breakfast is served, and how extravagantly elegant this is. They brought us this adorable little stove with, look at this, there's charcoal inside. The tofu is in hot water with some parsley. And then I thought it was just like a little soy sauce kettle. But I didn't realize this kettle was like a little glacier, and half of it was submerged underwater. And that's because they wanna keep the soy sauce hot. And when you wanna eat it, you use this little tool right here, and you scoop up the tofu into your bowl. And then you pour the soy sauce over that. They also brought us a bunch of beautiful banchan. And again, a pretty ugly looking fish called tai. Also, it looks like miso soup with some squash inside. Oh, I didn't see this little bowl here. This is, uh, look at this. What looks like octopus in here. Now let's just see how it tastes. Start off with the tofu. If you notice that, this tofu is a little darker in color than regular tofu. That's because their tofu is made with special black beans. The texture is silky smooth. Of course, it breaks apart automatically as soon as it hits your tongue. Check out how gentle this tofu is. I scooped it with this little scooper, and it wasn't even that long. I scooped it, and I was taking a little photo of it for about five seconds. And already, the little scooper is imprinted. See that? Imprinted on the tofu. That's a pretty design, by the way. Next, let's try the tai fish. What I like about this one is, uh, that you don't see a lot of miscellaneous bones in here that you can kind of choke on. There's a lot of meat on this fish, and it looks nice and flaky. Wow, I love that. But what sets this dish apart is not even really about the texture of the meat, which is nice and flaky. But it's the flavors that's ingrained in the fish. If you taste this fish, it's almost not gonna be enough just to eat the meat. You're gonna wanna, like, suck on the head, suck on the tail, and just extract every single ounce of that smoky flavor. Octopus time. First thing I noticed is this octopus is extremely, extremely soft. Oh my god. Did I just eat octopus or eat another piece of tofu? That is by far the most succulent piece of octopus I've ever had. By far. By far. I mean, if you didn't tell me, I wouldn't think that was octopus. Usually when you're eating octopus, like, I was expecting a very chewy texture. But I never had octopus where it was broken down so much that the texture almost tastes like tofu. It has been such an amazing experience at this ryokan. And if you guys are traveling to Japan, I definitely recommend staying in one of these. Um, a lot of good ryokans are conjugated in the Kyoto area. Um, this one, of course, is in Kobe. But do your research. Be sure to choose one that is very traditional. And definitely opt in for in-room dining if they offer it. Even though the stay and the meals were quite a lot of money, but I felt like this has been the funnest experience I've had in Japan so far. And now that I've experienced it, I couldn't even imagine coming to Japan and not doing this. I guess I wouldn't know because I wouldn't know what I'd be missing out. But now you'll know what you'll be missing out if you don't try an experience like this. So definitely put this on your travel and food bucket list next time you are in Japan. And if you want to know what I did in Japan that's not food-related, definitely check out my vlog channel. Thank you all so much for watching. See ya.