Lunch at Yoshinoya, Glorietta Branch

Do you love dining-out at affordable Japanese restaurants?

I’m pretty sure that you will also like Yoshinoya. Last November 2013, we (selected fabulous bloggers) were invited for a lunch with the Miss Earth 2013 candidates.

Yoshinoya was born in 1899 under the ingenuity of its founder Eikichi Matsuda. The story begins at Nihonbashi, a humble fish market in Chuo-ku, Tokyo on the outskirts of Edo Castle where Matsuda-san created a delicious recipe of beef and rice known as Gyudon (beef bowl). Named for his birthplace of Yoshino-Cho, Osaka Matsuda-san restaurant featured delicious, affordable and fast meals. It was an entirely new concept in Japanese culture, and both the hard-working fisherman and market visitors embraced it. Yoshinoya was an instant hit. In 1923, Japan was hit by the great Kanto Earthquake and Yoshinoya had to move to Tsukiji with the rest of the fish market and throngs of hungry patrons continued to enjoy Yoshinoya’s original gyudon, or beef bowl.

In 1946 Mizuho Matsuda, son of Eikichi Matsuda turned the business into a 24-hour restaurant and rapidly gained wide spread popularity in Japan. In 1958, it became a corporate company operating on a chain store system. Yoshinoya boasts of more than 100 years of tradition. Yoshinoya has grown to be one of the most important brands in Japan and boasts of more 1000 outlets, making it one of the biggest fast-food chains in Japan. To date, there are more than 1200 outlets around the world, namely Japan USA Hon Kong, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia and Philippines. Soon it will open in Thailand and Vietnam as part of its expansion program in the Asian Region.