Matsuya's Official X Shares a Taste Report on the 'Pork & Kimchi Set Meal' on Launch Night

Official Matsuya X (@matsuya_foods) posted a taste report at 9:36 p.m. on August 25, sharing that they had tried the Pork & Kimchi Set Meal (890 yen), released that same day. The post included a photo of a dish piled with pork loin, kimchi, and garlic sprouts, describing it as “definitely delicious.” The Pork & Kimchi Set Meal is a limited-time menu item that went on sale that morning at 10 a.m. at “Matsuya locations nationwide, except some stores,” and the official account shared its own tasting on the night of the launch day.

“Pork Loin, Onion, Kimchi, Garlic Sprouts” — A Post That Spells Out the Ingredients

The full text of the post is as follows.

The “Pork & Kimchi Set Meal” has gone on sale!!

We tried it right away (╹◡╹)

Pork loin, onion, kimchi, garlic sprouts Definitely delicious!!

At around 70 characters, the post is relatively brief as taste reports go. There’s also a difference in how the ingredients are described. The announcement published on August 20 described “pork cooked until fragrant” with “garlic sprouts and onion added,” whereas this post specifies the cut of meat as “pork loin.” The emoticon at the end of the post, “(╹◡╹),” is a recurring staple used repeatedly in past taste reports, and double exclamation marks “!!” appear both at the beginning and the end. Taste reports often include a call to readers along the lines of “give it a try,” but this one lacks that kind of line, consisting only of the ingredients and a short impression.

The attached photo shows steamed rice, a salad topped mainly with cabbage and corn, and miso soup, arranged around a central rectangular plate holding the main dish: pork loin and kimchi stir-fried with diagonally cut garlic sprouts in a red sauce, finished with a sprinkle of white sesame seeds. In the lower left of the photo, a decorative stamp featuring a Korean taegeuk pattern, matching the kimchi theme, has also been added.

From Launch Announcement to Taste Report: The Full Sequence

This is not the first official communication about the Pork & Kimchi Set Meal. In the announcement published on August 20, its release was foretold as the “revival” of a “classic summer menu item” for a “limited time,” and the following day, August 21, the official X account posted a pre-launch notice. On the morning of the launch day, August 25, at 10 a.m., a Follow & Repost Campaign was announced to mark the release, giving 1,000 Matsuya Points to 30 winners (entries close August 31), leading into that night’s taste report. The kimchi used is the same kimchi that the official X account revealed on August 9 was manufactured in-house at the Mt. Fuji Factory, and it is also featured as the star ingredient in the release announcement. The Pork & Kimchi Set Meal is not a permanent menu item — it is available for a limited time only.

The Kimchi-based Limited-Time Rotation, and What Comes Right After

Matsuya rotates its limited-time set meals on a short cycle. The most recent limited-time set meal to use kimchi was the Twice-cooked Pork Set Meal with Kimchi (880 yen), sold for about four weeks from July 14 to August 11. Fourteen days after that ended, on August 25, the Pork & Kimchi Set Meal appeared at a price raised by 10 yen, to 890 yen. Both use pork and kimchi, but the Pork & Kimchi Set Meal has a different composition: pork loin, onion, kimchi, and garlic sprouts.

Four days later still, on August 29, Matsuya’s regular monthly Meat Day promotion is scheduled, during which a large-serving version of the Pork & Kimchi Set Meal, the Large Serving Pork & Kimchi Set Meal, will be offered for 1,140 yen (200 yen off its regular 1,340 yen). However, this is limited to orders placed through the app (Matsuben Net or Matsuya Mobile Order) — ticket vending machines and tablets are not eligible.