Kerun is the kind of restaurant that is at once fine dining and a rustic neighborhood haunt. You can stop by for a 700 yen lunch, or you can order a 6,000 yen top-of-the-line steak. You can have some free tea or premium drinks. Every table has a teppan (griddle), and the bar is one long teppan. Don't be surprised to see flames shooting from some of the dishes as the master cooks up a storm. There isn't quite the theatrics of a Japanese steakhouse chain from out of Japan, like Benihana, but there is certainly a flourish in the kitchen that brings out the best in the food.
Lunch is quite another story from evening, where the prices of dishes makes it a restaurant of a more expensive class. At lunch there's a remarkable difference. Quiet, clean, and unchanged over the years, the restaurant has low-key lighting and an atmosphere of simplicity and comfort. For a larger party, there's a room, for smaller ones there are the booths and for those on lunch break there is the bar. It's cozy, and the chef's wife is a witty matron who knows how to make a customer feel at ease. For lunch you can expect rich miso, rice, one of five daily main dishes (all standard Japanese lunches like hamburger, fried chicken, fried shrimp, ginger pork, and katsu fried pork), a salad with a house dressing, pickled vegetables, and a few main dishes that vary wildly in their composition. I personally have tried dozens of things for the first time in the Kerun lunch.
There is of course a middle ground between the expensive steak dinner courses and the bargain lunch set. If either of these options don't quite sound appetizing to you, there are several dishes that range from 800 to 1,500 yen that can be yours as well. These options include several pasta dishes, gratin, hamburger/fried chicken sets, pizza, and some cheaper cuts of steak. There's a dish for every budget here, and so you can always feel comfortable choosing Kerun Steakhouse, whether you're on your own or with family.
