A long travel and walking day ends with a meal very close to our hotel. Also a craving for high quality meat (not me). Short post today…Yakiniku Kirakuen!
Kirakuen Set | ¥3,680 (plus tax) a helping of various kinds of dishes of five kinds of meat (lol, they tried with the English)
Bibimbap | ¥880 (plus tax)
Kalbi Soup | ¥680 (plus tax)
So the kalbi soup and bibimbap was mine. Didn’t feel much like meat that night and this soup and rice combo really called to me. And it really hit the spot too! And…the $15 for this was well worth it. Delicious.
Funny story about this restaurant. Well first, the wait staff were all Chinese but fluent in Japanese (this was a common occurrence this trip) but one of them was also fluent in English. Three languages! Talent.
On the other end of the restaurant had a table with 3 young foreign guys, possibly military? Different ethnicities and next to them was a table of 3 quite randy Chinese ladies. The ladies were probably drunk and kept asking the guys to “join us” at whatever location they were going to after dinner. It was quite amusing to see. Sounded like a joke at first but the join us statement happened a…lot.
The day has come. Ichiran POST! Here we are on the stairs in line waiting to get in. No worries, the line moves pretty fast.
Look at this helpful guide they give you as you wait! Cash only by the way.
Here’s what you can choose from. I used to get the set menu but it’s actually more expensive that way. You know me, I get the bowl of ramen and two eggs. No shame.
Half-boiled Salted Egg | ¥130
Classic Tonkotsu Ramen | ¥980
Oh yum yum yum. The noodles are thin but hold their own in the nice broth. You can choose how salty the broth is, how spicy it is, how the noodles are cooked – totally customizable! No wonder we ate there so much…definitely our favorite ramen joint this trip.
There’s a Denny’s restaurant right down the street from our Tokyo hotel. Yes, we had to go. I know American restaurants in Japan are always so different from…America that I had to check it out! Let’s dig in!
Sangria (Decanter) | ¥899 (500ml)
Absolutely delicious! Well worth the 8 bucks. It’s easy to become an alcoholic at these prices…lol.
Roast Beef & Kale Salad | ¥799
Wait a minute, this salad was like the cost of the alcohol! Looks good ah? It was good! Was nice to nosh into a fresh salad in Japan.
Soy Marinated Tuna Rice Bowl | ¥1,149 served with miso soup & goma (sesame) tofu
Demi Glace Stewed Hamburger Steak with Truffle Cream | ¥899 A Set (Rice and Corn Potage) | ¥300
I don’t have a lot of corn potage experiences but really liked it. So smooth and mild, it’s delicious!
Looks pretty…dark yeah? It was pretty good. I think we came here after our long wait at the airport for our airport limousine. It wasn’t stellar customer service but it was still better than many experiences here. We didn’t get a set that included drinks at their drink bar but the sangria was plenty good.
So I had all these worries about our domestic flight from Osaka to Tokyo. I made sure I didn’t buy much from Osaka so that my luggage would stay within weight limit for the domestic flight (smaller weight limit compared to international). We got to the airport pretty early but well, not necessary because there is no real security check. Nothing serious anyway. You can keep your shoes on as long as they’re not high tops.
The flight is about an hour and I had an aisle seat. A Japanese businessman had the middle seat and he kept going to the bathroom. At least twice. On a one hour flight. It was totally fine with me but it was one hour!
Anyway, we got to Haneda, grabbed our luggage and headed to the Airport Limousine ticketing right away. We couldn’t believe our eyes, the next available bus was in HOURS. We weren’t about to take a taxi so we bit it and took the earliest ride we could get. We were both hungry so we decided to eat at the airport. Usually a no no right? Well in Hawaii that is…but the food was not bad (both taste and price)! Check it out.
Zangi (Hokkaido-style deep fried chicken) | ¥520 (plus tax)
My ramen. Pretty good! I do enjoy a cleaner broth from time to time so it was nice. Good egg as you can see, perfect yolk! Too bad I had to pay for the egg. The gyoza was good too. It was nice to have a seat in a casual restaurant to eat. We were able to rest a bit after finishing our food, no real rush from them for us to leave. Although, it was not a busy period. Haha
Did we find a hot pot restaurant in Japan? You betcha. Okay well, shabu shabu but I will call it hot pot anyway!
Here is the menu, it’s all you can eat! You pay about 250 yen extra for an all you can drink…drink. It’s a lot like the places here, order the meats from the wait staff and grab your own starches and veggies from the cold case. I can’t quite remember which set we went with, I don’t think we went too high end since you cook it up in the broth anyway.
Some of the meat and the eggs! Yes, you can eat Japanese eggs raw! Crack it into your bowl and mix it up to dip your meats in.
Loved the veggie choices. Ramen noodles. Tofu Puffs. Did you notice in the first pic? The abundance of choy sum? Well we cleaned out the choy sum leaves…oops…
MORE MEATS
This restaurant is located in the AEON Mall in Kyoto. I was so tired and hangry by the time we picked this place that I can’t remember much details. The waitress knew enough English to help us and the English menu was VERY helpful. English menus became a necessity after a long day of traveling. I liked it but it was too bad I wasn’t feeling great to truly enjoy it!
I can’t even link this restaurant, I don’t think I can find it. This restaurant was located at Kyoto Station. We decided to take a day trip from Osaka and were starving by the time we arrived at Kyoto. Craving meat, we decided to try this place. The ramen place had a line but this place was empty. Maybe that was a sign. Vicki and I had a funny exchange over this, she thought this restaurant was related to Nanzan GiroGiro in Hawaii, unfortunately it is not! Although I really want to try Nanzan GiroGiro…
Beef Steak Lunch (A) | ¥2700 daily beef steak cuts like Kyoto Wagyu and Japanese beef. Beef steak 100g, cattle bone broth soup, salad, rice set.
Beef Steak Lunch (B) | ¥3850 today’s special beef steak cuts like Kyoto wagyu and Japanese beef loin. Today’s special beef steak 100g, cattle bone broth soup, salad, rice set.
Rice, Cattle Bone Broth Soup, Tsukemono/Kimchee
The bone broth was very clean and light tasting. The tsukemono was a nice touch since I wasn’t expecting it. Yes, that is one kimchee wonbok leaf folded up (lol). It was good, quality over quantity right.
Salad!
Here is the salad that came with the set. It tasted good, isn’t it so pretty? Yes to plentiful onions yet again. I enjoyed this!
In the end, was this worth the money? Ehh…initially I thought it was kind of pricey. But I guess for a set, this was a pretty good deal! We got both sets and shared, I think I would get Set B on my own if I were to come here again.
Ah yes, the Japan posts start…now! First stop? About 5 days in Osaka. I love Osaka. I love Osaka more than Tokyo. The flight to Japan is always longer than the one back home and I didn’t get much sleep on this flight. Then, we had to navigate our way to the train to take us into the the city center of Osaka. The train ride was fine, we got good seats but it was like another nearly 2 hours to get there!
Luckily for us, our hotel in Osaka runs a shuttle bus from Osaka Station to the hotel. We were able to find the Shuttle bus stop okay, actually a few hotels run shuttle buses so that was convenient! What I found amusing was that our bus ran constantly and was full of both hotel and non-hotel patrons, jump on and you get a free ride to the hotel or to Osaka Station. Our hotel was not located in a lively area so the bus was nice to take to Osaka Station to begin our daily journeys.
Anyway, we got to the hotel and checked in. Threw down our bags and then were hungry. We decided to take the hotel bus back to Osaka Station, ha! Hakata Ikkousha is located right in front of our bus stop, we did not want to go searching for another place at this point. We were sold.
The ticket machine to order! There was a bit of instructions but we still managed to muck it up. I didn’t realize you had to put your money in first and then order…so we ordered an extra bowl of ramen by accident. Luckily one of the workers came out and clarified everything and refunded us! Whew!
Red Ajitama Ramen
I don’t remember the name of this
This was my ramen, I saw black oil in the picture of the vending machine and went for it. Figured it was black garlic oil. Was it? I don’t even remember so I can’t tell you. How was the ramen? Good, not great. Hit the spot after long hours of travel.
Gotta always get a shot of the egg. How does this look to you? To me, I prefer the yolk to be softer and creamier so this was a bit overcooked for my taste.
Mentaiko Rice
Hmm, this was okay. Pretty salty but what do you expect with mentaiko??
Gyoza
Gyoza was good. I always love gyoza and the did it just fine! Was I itching to return back to this restaurant? Not really, no repeat visits this trip. We had plenty of repeat trips to Ichiran (let’s not go there, unless I post about it).
Happy New Year everyone! By now, you’ve heard of Ya-Ya’s right? The restaurant that President Obama visited so it’s become a bit of the “it” restaurant right now. Funny thing is, I’ve been meaning to try Ya-Ya’s before his visit and actually made my reservation the day before news broke!
So how was the visit? Join me on this photographic journey…
Pink Cadillac | $14.00 We start with muddled watermelon then add Suntory Haku Vodka, Lillet Rose and St Germain Elderflower Liqueur. This is served in a mini carafe over watermelon and lychee ice at the table.
Look, I’m not going to beat around the bush on this. This drink was delicious. Doesn’t it look pretty? I don’t know if you can see it but the ice cubes are pink and white. I ordered two of them. I’m not a drinker and I just had to have two. Gotta admit, the Chinese in me loved that the ice cubes were flavored. That’s like a whole other drink! Delicious, I would definitely order this again. Wait, does that mean I had 4 drinks? Hmm…
Complimentary Bread
Fresh out of the oven, ono! I always like molasses bread. The pointy bread was interesting…I think it tasted good because it was still warm and somewhat soft from the oven. If the pointy bread was served cold, I bet they would be hard and rubbery.
Life hack: remove the butter ramekin right when they bring the bread to the table. Don’t be like us and end up with melted butter from the heat of the bread!
Creamed Spinach | $11.95
What can I say about creamed spinach? Tasted like the typical creamed spinach you get at a steakhouse, nothing unique or special about this one.
Créme Brulee Corn | $10.95 fresh Kahuku corn hand shucked & cobbed; served w/ a sweet candy shell
Why? Why? Why? I think they wanted to put an interesting spin on corn and our curiosity got the best of us. We ordered it. Waiter said our orders were great choices. Okay. This was the worst corn dish I have ever ordered. Look, corn is already sweet. It was an abomination to Kahuku corn.
Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy creme brulee like any other dessert loving human being. But this? It does not work. Burnt sugar over creamed corn does not work. It was much too sweet and the sugar was much too hard (yes, it’s supposed to be). This just doesn’t work. I would not order this again, blech!
Ya-Ya’s Lobster Pan Roast | $54.95 w/ live whole Maine lobster, crab meat, Manila clams, sea scallops & jumbo Kauai shrimp
I apologize for the different colorings with the photos. What is it with restaurants and the dark dark lighting? How was this dish? DELICIOUS. So good. I will share a few tips if the restaurant reads this, nothing to do with the taste.
Provide gloves – Yes, we had to go at this dish with bare hands.
Provide a seafood bib – I get it, you’re a nice restaurant but this dish is very saucy and my white shirt still got stained as careful as I tried to be.
Crack the lobster – if you’re going to make your diner dig out meat from the entire lobster, help us out by making it easier to get to the meat. It must have been quite a sight to watch us eat this (talking fully hands-on).
Provide wet wipes – Well since we didn’t have gloves, our hands were complete drenched in the sauce (there’s lot of delicious sauce). I had to dirty my cloth napkin (was all red) and still had to run to the bathroom to wash hands.
PRIME Bone-In Prime Rib | $65.95 “Double Prime” slow roasted overnight 32 ounce
Best prime rib I have had in my life. Hands down. Am I an expert on that? Probably not. I only get to grind on prime rib at buffets but those are okay, no? This hunk of meat was the most tender and perfectly seasoned piece of prime rib I have ever had. Melt the “mout” kine tender, I am still dreaming of it. I was also able to take home the leftovers which DID NOT GO TO WASTE, LET ME TELL YOU.
Haha, after the creme brulee corn catastrophe, this was still ordered. Cute little serving of cheesecake with the burnt sugar topping. I don’t know about their plural description of fresh berries, came with one sliced up strawberry.
Your eyes don’t deceive you. This is a picture of the dish right when it was placed on our table. Vanilla Ice Cream became vanilla soup – maybe while it was waiting in the kitchen? If you know me, I don’t care for vanilla ice cream anyway so I just ate the beignets. Tasted great with the chocolate sauce, I would order this again!
Okay, the reason I brought up the Obama visit was because it may have impacted the service on our visit which means I can’t judge them too harshly for it. It was busy in the restaurant when we arrived and only got busier. They have a very big bar area with two big TV screens showing the football game. At one point during our dinner, two male diners stood by me to watch the TV and made loud cheers (restaurant is small – the bar and the tables are all together). Not quite sure what atmosphere this restaurant is going for, it’s definitely not a sports bar so that was a bit odd.
I don’t know about you, but I tend to dine and leave. I don’t stick around after eating to have long conversations. Well, same thing this time but we were still in the restaurant for over 3 hours. Huh? I know our food took quite a while to come out but I didn’t realize it was that long, once again, it was probably due to the popularity from Obama. I will forgive that.
Bathroom! Oh my gosh. The bathroom is located outside of the restaurant around the corner and is shared with other restaurants. You need a key to get into the restroom area, then you could access male/female/family restroom. Well, each time a person had to use the restroom, the hostess would escort the person to the restroom with the key so she could bring it back with her. Not exactly a sustainable practice. I went multiple times due to lobster sauce hands and too much liquid intake.
The food was delicious (minus the corn), the service itself was actually really good. Great waiters who were thoughtful and worked as a team. We were a bit ignored near the end but I assume it’s because of how busy they were. I would definitely give them a chance again. And yes, it was expensive! It was a holiday get-together. Gotta start the new year right!
My first visit to Romano’s Macaroni Grill was years ago when they were a fairly new restaurant. I didn’t have a great experience so I haven’t returned for all these years. Well, I had a recent visit and was pleasantly surprised by my experience. Maybe it’s because I’m older now but I enjoyed the food and thought their menu was of pretty good value! I’m looking forward to my next visit.
White Peach Sangria | $9.75 romano’s bianco white wine, peach puree, sparkling white wine
Good drink! Not great but not bad, worth another order!
One of my few complaints? No complimentary bread! You can order bread but shoot, why would I want to do that?? Man some nice crusty bread would have been great with these meatballs, they were delish!
Can’t comment too much on the lobster ravioli since this shrimp scampi was mine. How was it? How can you go wrong with copious amounts of garlic, butter, cheese and shrimp? It was delicious. Very rich. I don’t do so hot with rich foods anymore but am willing to risk it!
New York Style Cheesecake | $8.95 shortbread crust, fresh strawberries
My dessert! I loved this dish. Looks super rich but the citrus really cuts through the richness. And when they say citrus cake, they mean it. The cake is like sopping wet, lol. It’s okay, I don’t mind an (extremely) moist cake. Love lemon curd, love the caramel sauce surrounding the cake. I would definitely order this again!
I got treated to a wonderful lunch course at Arancino for my birthday. A belated birthday celebration and it was very nice, a bit awkward when they brought out the birthday dessert (my birthday was in August, lol) but it was nice that they asked if we were celebrating anything! I think the lunch course is a pretty good deal, I heard dinner is pretty pricey. Well, you are paying for their rent at a high end hotel! If you want to try them for dinner, you should try their other locations. Let’s take a look at their lunch course though!
Fresco Hawaiiano | $6.00 hawaiian pineapple juice, blood orange, soda
What a wonderful and refreshing drink. I don’t care much for alcohol in general so I appreciate a good variety in non-alcoholic drinks.
Complimentary Bread
Rosemary bread! Isn’t it the cutest? They serve you olive oil with the bread but you can ask for balsamic vinegar and even butter, free of charge!
Well, doesn’t this look…appetizing? LOL, where do I begin? The anchovy garlic dip is warmed by a tea light candle. The veggies are delicious, anything dipped in garlic is good. So the “soil” is not edible, I don’t know why I was hoping it was like sauteed mushrooms or something. It’s just…rocks.
Tartare di Mare | $21.00 fresh ahi, kona kampachi, avocado tartare, tobiko
Okay, I’m a little silly. We had a wonderful server by the way, he was very nice and respectful and attentive! I had to giggle to myself when he described the dish…at the avocado tartare part. I mean, I guess to me avocado is always tartare. This was a delicious appetizer! I would get it again.
Spaghetti con Tobiko e Calamari | $22.00 flying fish roe, calamari, garlic olive oil sauce
They are known for their uni pasta and I actually usually get it. Unfortunately, uni pasta can be quite rich and my tummy can’t take it well anymore. If you get the uni pasta as part of the three course meal, you have to add $8.00.
So how was this dish? It was good! The calamari was nice and soft and I loved crunching on the black tobiko. I enjoyed it!
Pizza Funghi e Tartufo | $27.00 eryngii, shimeji, maitake, mozzarella, gorgonzola, marscapone, parmigiano reggiano, white truffle oil
Okay, I know I should have enjoyed this. This is a seasonal pizza and includes so much mushrooms and cheeses! For me, it was lacking a little something. Possibly spice? Just very bland to me and I could hardly taste the truffle oil. They do offer red pepper flakes if you want it…
Bonet | $12.00 chocolate & amaretti custard, caramel, amaretto disaronno, house made whipped cream
Isn’t this dessert beautiful? Well it tasted great too! Sinfully rich and chocolate-ly, you can’t go wrong. I would recommend this dessert!
Complimentary Birthday Dessert
The secret’s out, my name really is Jenny, not just maybe. Ah well, I’ll keep this domain anyway. Isn’t this the cutest? Thankfully they bring it out but don’t make all their staff members sing to you. Whew. I didn’t realize they sprinkle silver flakes all over the plate and I went a little overzealous blowing out the candle. My apologies for the mess.
I don’t know the name of this dessert but it was a very nice meringue/baked baked alaskan pie type dessert. There was a nice chocolate cake within the meringue. Delish!
Do you see all the prices with the dishes? That’s ala carte prices, these dishes are actually included as part of a three course special lunch (appetizer, entree, dessert) for $43 each person. That’s a good deal considering the prices of these dishes individually!
