Let’s get one thing straight: sakura nabe is not a flowery hotpot of cherry blossoms and tri-colored dango like the name would suggest. It is horse meat — horse meat sukiyaki to be specific, and there’s only one place in all of Tokyo that’s been doing it since its inception: Nakae. Sakura Nabe Nakae, now 117 years old, used to exist amidst a row of similar establishments in the legendary Fujiwara district of Asakusa until the Great Kanto Earthquake of ’23 burned the entire community to the ground. Nakae then moved to Minowa, where — in an incredible stroke of luck — it was the neighborhood’s sole survivor of the Tokyo air raids. Today, Nakae is an ancient face in an already well- weathered ward. Its seniority has received recognition from the local government, and its kitchen is still the authority on both horse sashimi and the restaurant’s namesake dish, sakura nabe.

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1-9-2 Nihonzutsumi, Taito-ku
9 min. walk from Asakusa Station
sakuranabe.com