What is B-kyu Gurume?

Called as B, gets A for taste

restaurants in Shimbashi, Tokyo

Today in Japan, “B-kyu gurume” (B-grade gourmet) is popular that you will find a great number of this kind of restaurants in towns. This eating boom underway, the word refers to reasonable and delicious comfort food, some of which claim heritage status in their respective hometowns. The well-known B-kyu gurume foods include ramen, rice bowl dishes, yakisoba noodle, and curry.

Some of which refers local gourmet foods

Gotouchi gurume from Kitakata, Fukushima Prefecture

You might know about B movies, but B-kyu gurume here in Japan is not that kind of food. Why they call it B is rather because to make distinction between it and five-star or fancy food. (In Japanese, they are described as “A-kyu gurume.”) B-kyu gurume foods are mostly inexpensive and eaten in casual settings. They don’t have to be traditional Japanese food, either.

Many cooks try to arrange original and tasty B-kyu gurume dishes that are wallet-friendly to students and company employee, while most of fancy foods use sumptuous cooking ingredients and best parts of the animal. Since good chefs are good gourmets, you do not want to miss those yummy dishes in Japan.

Anyhow, almost every region has its popular B-kyu gurume foods today, which are sometimes called as “Gotouchi gurume,” meaning local B-rank gourmet foods. Towns all over the country try to stimulate their economy by those Gotouchi gurume. Since 2006 the “B-1 Guranpuri (B-1 Grand Prix)” has got peoples’ attention to eat and vote on the nation’s best no-frills food.

In this competition, attendees ate their way through the offerings, and then threw their chopsticks into a box labeled with the name of their favorite dish. Last year’s winner was a Kofu-torimotsuni, or chicken offal stew from Yamanashi’s Kofu region. In the past, Fujinomiya-yakkisoba from Shizuoka, Yokote-yakisoba from Akita, Atsugi-shirokoro, or grilled pork from Kanagawa, has been chosen.

pork cutlet curry rice

There various travel tours are planned to taste those local gourmet dishes. Moreover, information on B-kyu gurume can be easily found in media ―　all over the Internet, gourmet magazines, and TV shows.

If you like to traditional Japanese cuisine, you may prefer sushi or kaiseki. Yet, B-kyu gurume is now the one that a majority of Japanese loves and eat a lot. It always gets an “A” for taste. Thus, B-kyu gurume is a hard to miss thing in Japan and we welcome you to explore this guide for gourmets!