Yoshinoya, a Japanese take on fast food

I think fast food in America needs a kick in the pants. As much as I love McNuggets and Whoppers, the lack of variety kind of gets boring after a while. Enter something like... Yoshinoya. Basically, what you get is a Japanese 'donburi' meal. Given the choice of beef bowls, pork bowls, chicken bowls, or occasionally signature Chinese dishes like 東坡肉 (basically pork belly slow braised in soy sauce), you're given an East Asian meal at the convenience of a fast food joint. What's not to love? Plus, clocking in at under 100 NT ($3) for even the most expensive of meals leaves my stomach full and my wallet happy. Compare this to McDonald's here, which charges me $8 for a burger meal... leaving me a super sad panda. Anyway, I went with the 'gyu-don' or beef bowl since that's supposedly their 'signature dish' matched with a side dish of snow peas, and green tea. The food is... meh, nothing to write about (ironic that I am writing about it), but not bad. Definitely worth the money, plus... the novelty of getting questionably authentic Japanese food in a commercialized place like this still hasn't worn off. Would I recommend someone go find a Yoshinoya in Taiwan? Probably not. I mean, it's not very difficult to stumble upon one of their buttload of locations, but if you're hungry and don't know what you want to eat... why not?

side note: Apparently there's a location in midtown that serves the food out of styrafoam containers. That totally ruins the illusion of authenticity for me. Why do you have to destroy something I hold so dear to my heart NYC? *cries*