Yakiniku, or Japanese grilled meat barbecue cuisine, is often regarded as a communal dining experience. Friends and family gathering together over a grill incorporated into a table to cook up a delicious variety of meat and vegetables just seems to fit at the top of the list for ultimate party foods. For that reason, many in Japan can be a bit self-conscious or feel awkward about the idea of going to a yakiniku restaurant alone.

Japanese yakiniku chain Amataro is doing away with that taboo image, encouraging meat lovers to gorge themselves to their heart's content with a bountiful solo yakiniku plan that also is meant as a safety countermeasure against the novel coronavirus: "Silent all-you-can-eat solo yakiniku!"

For a limited time at participating stores in Tokyo and Kanagawa, Amataro will be offering their "All-you-can-eat yakiniku in the Corona era". While technically available for groups, the campaign is marketed as a one hour all-you-can-eat solo plan for 1,500 yen ((1,650 yen including tax), with the theme of "silent yakiniku"--meaning keeping your chatting to a minimum (as a means of being quietly socially distanced) as you shut up and eat all the yakiniku you can before getting out.

The menu (which includes 17 types of yakiniku as well as standard bar food such as fries and free rice refills) is available during lunch and dinner hours on weekdays, and only during lunch hours (11:30 to 16:00) on weekends and holidays.