Grill Ippei Amagasaki

When you hear the name Grill Ippei, many people will probably think of the famous western-style restaurant in Kobe with its main branch in Shinkaichi, but this time we introduce Grill Ippei in Amagasaki, which is not affiliated with that restaurant, but a completely different branch. However, the Grill Ippei in Amagasaki is not an affiliate of that restaurant, but a completely different one. But Grill Ippei in Amagasaki is also quite a long-established restaurant, having been in business for 50 years since 1974. Moreover, 50 years is the number of years since the current second generation opened the restaurant, and if you include the business days of the first generation, it may have been in existence longer than Kobe’s Ippei.

I had been checking out Grill Ippei in Amagasaki for a while and decided to visit the restaurant for dinner when I had some business in Amagasaki the other day.

A strange building that does not match the surrounding atmosphere… Grill Ippei Amagasaki is a restaurant like this.

The reason for this is that the location of Grill Ippei Amagasaki is quite an amazing place. Well, you can kind of guess, can’t you? That’s why it’s a bit hard to recommend to women who aren’t familiar with what’s going on around here…

But this shop doesn’t lose out to the atmosphere of its surroundings at all, or rather, it floats around like crazy. The entire exterior of the shop is covered in green ivy, like the old Koshien Stadium. The building itself is so conspicuous that you can easily find it, but when you visit for the first time, you may wonder if this is really a Western-style restaurant. When you visit the restaurant for the first time, you may wonder, “Is this really a Western-style restaurant?

The inside of the building is a brick-walled space with the atmosphere of a ‘high-class Western-style restaurant from the Showa period’, and the two-storey shop has 38 seats, according to the restaurant’s food log. In other words, this restaurant does not resemble its surroundings at all.

It seems that the master who runs such a shop also had quite a difficult experience when he was younger. The master updates his blog daily, where he shares stories from his training days, and it is very interesting to see what Amagasaki was like in the past. After reading the master’s stories of the past, I wonder if the location of the restaurant is normal for the people of Amagasaki. I can’t help but think, “Is this kind of shop location normal for the people of Amagasaki? In fact, just during the time I was staying at the shop, various customers, including family customers, were coming into the shop…

Ippei-style roma hamburger steak set: Grill Ippei Amagasaki’s specialty menu is even worse than I imagined.

Let me introduce you to the Ippei-style roma hamburger set (priced at 1,900 yen including tax) that I ordered at Grill Ippei Amagasaki. This set comes with a single Ippei-style roma hamburger steak (priced at 1,300 yen including tax), soup, salad, rice or bread, and coffee or tea.

About five minutes after ordering, the corn soup and mini salad appear first. This corn soup has a very light taste. The overall taste is light, but the flavour of the corn is still there… With soups with strong flavours, your taste buds are sometimes satisfied before the main course, but with this soup, on the contrary, you feel as if you are being ‘put off’ and your anticipation for the next main course is heightened even further. The anticipation for the next main course was further heightened.

Less than 10 minutes later, the main course, Ippei-style Roman hamburger steak, was brought before us. The soup was served with a paper guard to prevent it from splashing on your clothes, but you could clearly hear the sauce simmering behind this paper.

When the sauce has settled down to a boil to a certain extent, remove the paper guard and face the hamburger covered with cheese on the surface! Can you see that the soup is still simmering in the residual heat of the griddle? Or are you too happy to see such a generous amount of demi-glace sauce on top?

Now, let’s try the hamburger steak… It’s not the same as the juice-drenched hamburger steak from “Tsunoda Meat”, a popular chain restaurant based in Amagasaki, but the cross section is slightly rare pink and moist, and the juice oozing from it is very tasty. The juices from the meat oozing out of it are delicious. The cheese is melted by the heat and the richness of the cheese spreads over your tongue, and the savoury aroma from the charred surface wafts into your nose… And to add to that, the surface is browned, but the inside is soft and fluffy. This hamburger is pretty bad.

And the demi-glace sauce that was poured generously over this hamburger was also bad. It is characterized by the moderate acidity of the tomatoes and the rich beef flavour, and because the heat from the griddle has removed excess moisture, it is basically a gentle flavour, but it has a tremendous impact on the taste. It really is like “the sourness of the tomatoes and everything else is beefy”. I am tempted to eat this sauce with a lot of white rice.

Grill Ippei Amagasaki’s Ippei-style Roman hamburger steak was even worse than imagined, and although the heat from the hot griddle almost burned my tongue, I was able to eat it in a matter of minutes. Who would call this hamburger ‘bad’? I think it will be enjoyed by many people, from small children to adults. I really recommend it. If you are worried about the surroundings or don’t know the area, you can ask a taxi to take you to the front of the restaurant. In addition, it would be perfect if you can call a taxi to take you to a safe place on the way back.

Examples of other menu items at Grill Ippei Amagasaki (prices include tax)

• Grilled chicken thigh with mustard 1100 yen
• Cream croquette with seafood 1200 yen
• Beef cutlet 1,300 yen
• Beef stew 2000 yen
• Pork chap ¥2,100
• Herekatsu 3800 yen
• Fried oysters (winter only) 1100 yen

Note: Grill Ippei Amagasaki also serves takeaway.

Lunch menus can be ordered even at night time… Grill Ippei Amagasaki is accessible from the nearest station, Hanshin Electric Railway Amagasaki Station, which is a 7-minute walk away.

At Grill Ippei Amagasaki, there are several lunch menus, including a daily special…

• Service Lunch (daily special) 900 yen
• Ippei Lunch (daily special) 1100 yen
• Children’s lunch (hamburger, fried prawns, omelette rice) 900 yen
• Ladies’ Lunch (soup, hamburger steak, cream croquette and omelette) 1,700 yen
• A Lunch (soup, fried prawns, hamburger steak, grilled chicken and rice) ¥2,600
• B Lunch (fried tiger prawns, hamburger steak, grilled chicken and rice) ¥2,300

These lunch menus can actually be ordered at dinner time in the evening. This is appreciated. Even at dinner time, you can enjoy delicious Western food for less than ¥1,000… If you live nearby, there’s no way you can avoid taking advantage of this. If you have the chance to visit Grill Ippei Amagasaki in the future, please try these lunch dishes and leave your impressions in the comments section below.

Now, here are the details of the restaurant. See shop data here…

It is only 20 minutes from Umeda, Osaka, so it is a good place to visit while you are shopping.