Hikiniku To Come, a Tokyo-born Japanese restaurant specializing in hamburger steak over rice, opened in Shanghai in a big way this past January.
Located on Donghu Lu in the newly minted FUFU complex, right on the main street-facing lot, the place drew crowds from day one. People flocked, queuing for their charcoal-grilled patties. So, what’s the hype?
The Concept
With over a dozen locations across Asia, the brand has built a loyal following for its signature charcoal-grilled hamburger steaks made from freshly ground wagyu.
The Shanghai location uses Australian wagyu beef shank, with each patty weighing 90 grams. A set meal includes a choice of two (¥98) or three patties (¥128, the standard order), plus miso soup, a raw egg, and free refills of rice.
Everything is cooked at the stations, so you have a full view of the action.
Open the drawer at your seat and you’ll find an eating guide. It’s pretty straightforward, but they do explain the six sauces: soy sauce, salted lemon with green chili, oil-marinated green chili, Xinjiang spice mix, Japanese pepper sauce, and fried garlic flakes.
There are also unlimited condiments, including pickled Chinese cabbage. Rice is unlimited too. But unlike other copycat concepts, their soup isn’t unlimited. Extra miso soup is ¥5.
One egg is included with each order. It’s self-service — raw eggs in the corner.
Pro tip: Separate the whites and only use the yolk. No one tells you this, so you can easily forget.
The Analysis
When you do something as simple as a mono-product, the errors become more stark and apparent. There’s less happening, so flaws are easily noticeable. That’s not to discount their consistency, which by now must be robot-level.
So, I do have a few gripes.
Number 1: The second patty doesn’t arrive until after you’ve finished your first. And there is a significant wait time in between.
Number 2: All the patties are cooked medium well. And no, you can’t request any other doneness (I tried). However, despite the medium well cook, they’re still quite juicy and well seasoned, with bits of chive in them. Juicy, flavorful, but it makes that little grill in front of your seat absolutely unnecessary.
Number 3: My rice came across as a little too wet, and some grains had gelled together.
Now, to compare. Hikiniku uses a finer grind than Rou Rou Da Mi (the so-called copycat), making their patties appear “fluffier.”
But if I compare the two, I’m still team Rou Rou. (Which by the way has more than a dozen locations in Shanghai.) Rou Rou allows customized doneness, so you can get medium rare and have it sizzle on the flattop, plus soup and salad are both unlimited. Hikiniku has a nice char, but it doesn’t hit as well as I’d imagined.
The Queue System
I can tell you for sure the queues have died down. I went for an early dinner and got my queue number about 15 minutes before they opened to skip the wait.
Here’s how the system works:
Numbers are released 30 minutes before dining time opens. You can get them via Dianping or in-store. If you’re part of the first round, you basically don’t need to wait. Seating starts at 11am and 5pm. There are 12 seats per counter, and each diner averages about 30 minutes.
So there you go — the hype and the breakdown, in case you want to give it a try.
Hikiniku To Come
View the listing here.
