The engineer's choiceMatsuya opened in 1966, the middle child by age, and it shows in how deliberately it's built: order and pay at a vending machine by the door, hand the ticket to staff, no small talk required. It's the fastest of the three to get in and out of, and the free self-serve miso soup refill has minor cult status among regulars. Matsuya also breaks from the other two the most: it runs a genuine curry menu alongside the beef bowl, and its "gyūdon" uses a slightly thicker-cut beef with a darker, less sweet sauce than Sukiya's. It's less a beef-bowl specialist and more a fast-food generalist that happens to do beef bowls very well. Menu, for the record
VerdictThicker beef, darker sauce, and the only one of the three you could credibly order a curry from instead. It reads less "shrine-worthy specialist" and more "reliable all-rounder" — which is its own kind of achievement. The free miso refill alone edges it ahead of Sukiya for me on value. My score: 8 / 10 |