The Virtual Restaurant

The latest fad in Japan gives you the complete dining experience, minus the actual food

The Japanese are, as always, a step ahead of the rest of the world in technology. Their latest fad is virtual restaurants and the most popular of these is Air Yakiniku, a Korean barbeque place, which gets a 1,000 visitors a day. And it’s already the 29th most searched for site on Yahoo says The New York Times.

Walk in to airyakiniku.cosaji.jp and straightaway, you’re asked to print out an apron. Tuck it around your neck and get set to tuck in. You’re offered a choice of cuts. Once you take your pick, the meat is grilled right in front of you, with that lovely, full-bodied sizzle that can only be meat cooking. When it’s done (you see and decide), you click on each piece, and a pair of chopsticks arrives and ladles it on your plate. “We shot all of the video at a real cooking studio, with a food stylist,” says Takuo Suzuki, one of the planners of the restaurant.
 

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Sohini Chattopadhyay