Kan Nichi Kan

You don’t have to travel off island to taste Korean cuisine—Okinawa has Korean barbecue and a few homestyle Korean restaurants to check out.

Kan Nichi Kan in Awase blends the barbecue-at-your-table experience with some authentic dishes, at a slightly better rate than some other yakiniku places.

Open from 3 to 11, Kan Nichi Kan’s menu features about 15 different meats and a veggie plate to choose from, plus soups, rice, noodle salad, and bimbimbap, a mixed rice dish with fried egg, carrots, onions, seaweed, sesame, and spicy chili sauce. While tasty, we were a bit disappointed it came in a regular serving dish, and not the more customary sizzling cast iron bowl to crisp up the rice. Drinks and salad, pasta salad, and three kinds of kim chi were all self-serve and unlimited.

Know the Rules
Like other all you can eat restaurants, there are some rules. There’s a 90 minute time limit on dinner (though they didn’t hurry us along when we went over), and signs state they will charge extra if there are any leftovers. This makes trying more “exotic” meats, like pork tongue and tripe (pig intestine), a bit of a gamble, but we did enjoy all of the “safer” choices.

What We Liked
We do recommend the soft beef calbee, already soaked in its own marinade, and imagine the pork calbee would be just as tasty (we were too stuffed to try). The sirloin was also full of flavor, though a bit on the chewy side. The chicken was juicy and tender, especially in the savory soy dipping sauce provided. However, it took quite a while for the thick chunks to cook, probably the main reason we stayed for more than 90 minutes. All of the veggie plate, including the cabbage, carrots, eggplant, and onion, were sweet and delicious after a few minutes on the grill.
For ¥1800 a person, we certainly got our fill, and overall, the food was pretty good. As it’s in Awase, just across from Sam’s by the Sea, there are likely other Korean barbecue places near you that are just as good, if not better. However, if you’re craving some of the more authentically Korean dishes, like kim chi and bimbimbap, then Kan Nichi Kan may be worth the trip.

¥ only