Freeman Shokudo

⭐⭐⭐

🍖 BBQ / 📍 Nishihara

📓 Visits: 4

The streets of Tokyo are like a graveyard for American BBQ restaurants with so many failing in the past.  These include: DC BBQ, The White Smoke, Bulldog Tex-Mex BBQ, Good BBQ, BBQ BAR B&LOIN, Low & Slow (now microcosmos but still with a, considerably shorter, BBQ menu).  I've never really understood why, in a meat-loving country, so many BBQ joints have failed in Tokyo.  The last 14 months has seen three new entrants: Dickey's Barbecue Pit (review here), Big Iowa (review here) and Freeman's.

The restaurant is fairly small with a table for six, three tables for two and a counter for two.  The restaurant was quite cold last winter due to ventilation but in December 2021 the door was closed and the heating was on.  Part of the attraction has been the banging sound system but it was more of a whimper on my last visit.  It depends who's on rotation but they'll be at least one fluent or native-English speaking member of staff.  The menu is bilingual.

On weekdays there is a lunch menu from 12 to 3 and then a dinner menu from 5pm.  On holidays it's the dinner menu all day.  The menu can be a little different from day-to-day.  You can get an idea of what's being served by checking the menus posted on their Instagram.  The dinner menu sides are not available during weekday lunch so you can't have (and I 've asked) french fries at weekday lunch (grrr!)

My most recent visit was for weekday lunch.  I arrived bang on opening time and all tables were already occupied just leaving the 1-2 seat counter.  The lunch menu is quite different from before.  There is just a choice of 3 sandwiches or chicken over rice, all served with a side salad.  The ribs and other sides are no longer available for lunch.  As with my last visits I knew one plate would not be enough so I chose the small pastrami sandwich and the saba sandwich.  The food arrived within 15 mins but the pastrami was over-salted this time for me and quite fatty.  Previously I'd said it was the best in Tokyo.  It still might be but it wasn't as good as before.

If you want more choices you'll need to go for dinner or on the weekend when the full menu is available all day.  My go-to now for BBQ is Big Iowa for dinner and Smokehouse for lunch.

📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1318/A131807/13252896/

❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ 3.7

📱 Booking: 🟩 Easy and recommended.  Book by phone and make sure you pre-order the ribs.  English spoken. Take-out available.  Ribs must be ordered two hours in advance.

📍 Location: 

2-27-4 Nishihara.  Nishihara Shotengai.  2 minutes walk from Hatagaya station, South Exit.  Dedicated street-facing entrance.

Map data ©2021 Google

📅 Visit December 2021

Pastrami sandwich (S) 1700
Saba sandwich 1000

💴 Damage: 2,700
⏱️ Time taken: 45m

📅 Visit March 2021

ribs, oxtail soup, pastrami sandwich, gumbo

💴 Damage: 3,800
⏱️ Time taken: 1h

📅 Visit January 2021

pork belly, chicken sandwich, fries

💴 Damage: 3,300
⏱️ Time taken: 1h

📅 Visit January 2021

pastrami sandwich

💴 Damage: 2,000
⏱️ Time taken: 55m