Yoshinoya serves up 1 million U.S. beef bowls; one man lines up from Sunday night

Yoshinoya serves up 1 million U.S. beef bowls; one man lines up from Sunday night

Monday, September 18, 2006 at 13:56 EDT
Customers eat U.S. beef at a Yoshinoya restaurant in Yurakucho on

TOKYO — Fast-food restaurant chain Yoshinoya D&C Co resumed sales of 'gyudon' beef-on-rice dishes Monday, about two years and seven months after removing the mainstay dish from its menu due to Japan's ban on U.S. beef imports over fear of mad cow disease. Yoshinoya prepared some 1 million gyudon bowls at about 1,000 shops across Japan for Monday's sales resumption. It will continue to sell gyudon bowls Tuesday and after on a limited basis for the time being as U.S. beef imports remain slack since Japan lifted its ban on the imports in late July.

'I was waiting for this moment,' said Takanori Umeki, 24, a University of Tokyo graduate student who was first in line at Yoshinoya's Yurakucho shop in central Tokyo. He said he had been waiting outside the restaurant since 11 p.m. Sunday night.

The Yurakucho shop prepared 1,000 gyudon dishes, with the regular bowl priced at 380 yen, up 100 yen from February 2004, when Yoshinoya was forced to remove gyudon from its menu due to the U.S. beef import ban. Despite light rain, about 50 people formed a line before the shop began gyudon sales from 11 a.m.

As shop staff announced the start of the sales, people eagerly rushed into the shop with smiles on their faces.

'I have almost forgotten the taste of gyudon. I want to remember its taste today. I'm not absolutely sure about the safety of U.S. beef but I am not too worried,' said Umeki, adding the price hike of about 100 yen is unavoidable.

Tadao Kato, the 33-year-old chief of the Yurakucho shop, said, 'We are confident that the beef is safe because it has been fully checked. Now, we have to win customer trus"