I had whale in Ishinomaki a couple years ago -- I didn&#x27;t actually know it was a whale restaurant when I went in (everything was in Japanese, no one spoke English other than via a barely-working google translate on android), and while there was a picture of a whale somewhere, I just think of that as a &quot;sea&quot; thing, not food.<p>Once I was in, I didn&#x27;t want to be rude and leave, and was curious.  It was basically beef or very fatty tuna taste; not worth the drama.  Not bad, but I don&#x27;t think it&#x27;s worth the international condemnation to continue eating it.<p>(JPY 3000 or so all-in; Japan outside the big cities is actually cheap.)