Tag Archives: Japanese Food

09May / 2018

Ikinari Steak – Osaka, Japan

As I mentioned in a previous post, our last day in Osaka was located around the main Osaka Station. After some shopping, we had a hankering for some good lunch. I had a hankering for steak, lo and behold…Ikinari Steak! This was a quick find, there was a line of Japanese natives outside the shop, this should be good no? The prices were reasonable and they were busy, LET’S DO THIS.

Coca Cola • ¥300 (yikes!)

Wild Steak (300 g) • ¥1,390

Lunch Set A (Rice and Salad) • ¥300

Being non-Japanese speakers, it was a little bit confusing to order at this restaurant. The waitress was very nice and gave us English menus and proceeded to help us with the ordering. It’s a bit confusing because you have to walk up to the grill master to ask him to cook up your meat. Well, he didn’t really know English so we couldn’t quite get across that we wanted medium rare. Well the steak still came out pretty nicely cooked, though the hot plate kept cooking the steak past my temperature liking. For about $14, the serving of steak was a decent portion but I didn’t think it was anything special. In fact, I think I enjoyed the salad the most (is this becoming a theme?). I liked that they have all the salad dressings and steak sauces at your table for you to use. Aside from the costly soda, this lunch was good and cheap! I would recommend it if you’re feeling up to some steak!

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07May / 2018

Ichiran Dotonbori – Osaka, Japan

There are two Ichiran locations in the Dotonbori shooping area, one is on the waterfront by the big Don Quijote Ferris Wheel, the other is located deeper within the Dotonbori shopping arcade. We went to the second location and I finally got to try their famous cubicle dining system. Boy was that…interesting.

Does it look cramped? Well, it kind of is. They have both the cubicle dining and regular seats. The restaurant is like a zoo, you get in line and then are led to a machine to place your order. We got our dining tickets and were led to the line for the cubicles, a narrow staircase. We had a bit of a wait but it wasn’t too bad.

Here is the one side of the cubicle, you can order any extra toppings/side orders here…and drinks!

So they give you a new order sheet for any impromptu orders. Cash only!

They have a button for you to make your extra orders, other than that, you have no real interaction with the servers.

You see that bamboo looking mat in front of my noodles? That’s what they lift up to serve your noodles, then it’s back down for your privacy.

I ordered my noodles with an egg. Wasn’t a big fan of having to crack my own egg for the ramen, would have liked it to have been served already in my bowl. I can report that the egg was cooked perfectly, of course it was!

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02May / 2018

Yayoi Japanese Teishoku Restaurant – Osaka, Japan

I was in Osaka for 4 days and ate breakfast at Yayoi Japanese Teishoku Restaurant twice, I think that speaks for itself. This was a great restaurant, I wish I had taken more pictures. You order your food at the machine located in the front of the restaurant (there is an English screen!), take your ticket, have a seat and hand your ticket over to the waitress. Within 5 minutes, your food arrives. They have a little area that offers hot tea and a big pot of rice, in case you want more. The prices for the food, super reasonable. We only got to try breakfast there but that was enough for me. I’m sold and would love to return when I return!

How can you beat these prices??

Fried Egg Breakfast • ¥460

This was my first breakfast, simple fried egg and sausage. The set comes with unlimited white rice, tofu, nori, and miso soup. I like that this restaurant automatically serves iced water when you have a seat, not all Japanese restaurants do. Oh yes, that is a mountain of shredded cabbage you see. Japanese people love their cabbage, I wasn’t feeling too hungry so I didn’t eat the cabbage…gomen…

Silver Salmon Breakfast • ¥530

Ummm…five bucks for all this?? Salmon, raw egg, natto, miso soup, unlimited white rice….$5?? Great deal. I should have gotten this set both days. Mixing the raw egg into the hot rice…adding soy sauce…and then of course the natto…was so delicious, so satisfying. This is what I call an awesome Japanese breakfast. I wish we had these breakfast sets sold here in Hawaii, I would totally go all the time. Well having the same price here would help too but let’s be realistic…haha. Highly recommend this restaurant!

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11Apr / 2018

Yamauchi Farm – Osaka, Japan

For me, I have never had a bad meal in Japan. Even the cheapest restaurants offer quality food. While I love trying new restaurants, sometimes, since you are out all day, you just wanna get back to your hotel/apartment and eat something quick nearby. Luckily for us, Yamauchi Farm is a 5 minute walk to our apartment. We had just finished a full day at Universal, post to come soon, and we were famished and exhausted. What a great place to walk into, this restaurant has everything! Check out their menu, it is fully loaded! The servers weren’t great at English but they didn’t need to be, the menu had English in it and…they had an iPad for ordering! Yessss!

Yamauchi Farm Menu

So this was the starter served…uhhh?! The cabbage and daikon strips are not pickled in any way. It was served with this sauce…

This tasted like a miso paste with pickled vegetables. I didn’t quite know what to do so I just took some out and dipped the daikon in it because I was so hungry. Then I started wondering, was I supposed to lather this sauce on the veggies to ferment them quickly? Gosh I have no idea. I didn’t do it and the cabbage was totally wasted…

Passion Fruit Mojito • ¥480

You know I have a passion fruit drink and mojito weakness. The drink was good. And when I say good, it means I tasted no alcohol and it was just like juice. I’m so junk at drinking yeah?

Soft-boiled Eggs with Spicy Cod Roe • ¥350

Yummy, I will eat Japanese eggs all day everyday. While this dish was good, it was sooo salty. Definitely needed rice…

Freshly Shipped Sashimi Assortment • ¥1,380

This wasn’t my dish but most of the fish pieces were saba I believe. Lucky for me, my partner does not like saba so it was all mine.

Kyushu Kara-age Style Deep-fried Small Shrimp • ¥480

Collagen Loaded Salt-based Ramen with Free Range Chicken • ¥750

I needed some comfort food this night and this menu item drew me in! Not a big serving but for the price, it was great. I shared this with my dining partner, not sure how much collagen is really loaded in this baby but it tasted good.

[Kagoshima] Spicy Spring Bonito Yukhoe Donburi Rice Bowl • ¥580

Yup, I got this dish too. I was very curious about how this dish would taste. Yukhoe, I associate that phrase with the Korean raw beef tartar dish so I wasn’t sure what to expect. This restaurant serves raw chicken and raw horse I think?! So I was almost afraid of what I would get served. Well, I think it was actually the bonito fish…thought it was ahi. I don’t think I have had fresh bonito before, just the dried shavings on top of takoyaki. I really enjoyed this donburi – the orange yolk to mix in? Hey, I’m so there.

We were too tired to fully enjoy this restaurant experience and I kind of regret not being able to go back. There were some businessmen in there drinking and eating it up. Come to think of it, there were some really good restaurants right next to our apartment. We rented an Airbnb for this trip, I thought it was a great idea and the price is way cheaper than a hotel. Do you folks Airbnb when you travel? Anyway, this restaurant seems to be a chain so if you can find it when you are in Japan – give them a try!

 

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09Apr / 2018

Zuboraya Dotonbori – Osaka, Japan

I am back from Japan! It was four full days – and when I say full, I mean full. Sometimes vacations can be tougher than work, my feet are still recovering! So for our first day in Osaka, we decided to risk our lives, haha. We both have not tried fugu before and this was the day to try it. Yes, fugu contains tetrodotoxin and can cause asphyxiation…no big deal right? Okay, it’s somewhat of a big deal. But we found a popular restaurant, Zuboraya, and I knew we would be in good hands.

Fugu Sushi Combination • ¥1,300

Benntenn Course • ¥5,400

Two kinds of seasonal appetizer, raw puffer fish sashimi, puffer fish hot pot, puffer fish deep fried, zosui (rice added to the hot pot broth at the end, they also add raw egg!), seasonal fruit.

These are the two seasonal appetizers. They were interesting…the blue dish tasted like a crunchy part of the fish. Perhaps some type of cartilage or skin? The green sauce was sweet, almost tasted like a dessert. The yellow dish has a tofu-like dish that tasted a bit like coconut milk. Probably our least favorite part of the meal…

Fugu sashimi! Interesting texture, a bit chewy. The taste? Not much really, they serve it with a yuzu ponzu dipping sauce and the yuzu taste is quite strong.

Deep fried fugu, it comes with about four pieces of fugu (not boneless, so be careful), fried potatoes, shishito pepper and red bell pepper. The fish nuggets were delicious!

Here are the contents of the fugu hot pot, sorry I didn’t get a shot of it cooking! It didn’t look too impressive anyway…tasted good!

Raw egg, rice, and toppings ready for some zosui action!

The waitress cooks it for you – this was delicious! It was actually one of my favorite parts of the meal, it’s a shame it’s in the end because we were already full so we couldn’t finish it!

Seasonal fruit to finish off the meal, Japanese strawberries? Yes please!! They were so nice and sweet, perfect way to end the meal. I liked that this restaurant also gave you iced water to start automatically, they must cater to foreign visitors. And let me tell you, Osaka was FULL of foreign visitors.

 

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28Mar / 2018

Ramen Gashoken, Honolulu, HI

Let’s start this post off with a bit of a fail. One of our student workers told me about this shop so I had to check it out. Any ramen recommendations will be taken seriously and probably immediately. Ramen Gashoken is located in the Shirokiya Japan Village Walk, I wasn’t sure of the location so we walked up and down every single aisle. Every. Single. Aisle. Well guess what? We finally asked someone and they are one of the first shops you see when you walk into the place…haha face palm right? So if you decide to check this place out, you will see it right when you walk in.

Original Ramen + Half Size Kaedama • $11.80 + $1.50

Pork bone broth (a rich and cream soup), original sweet & spicy sauce, char siu (sliced roast pork), green onions, and kikurage (cloud ear mushroom)

So how was it? Good! Not amazing but it was good to me! It actually reminded me a bit of Tenkaippin Ramen before I thought they went downhill. The broth is nice and rich but doesn’t have the same bone marrow taste as Tenkaippin, just a nice thick tonkatsu broth. They use the thin Hakata type noodles and the char siu isn’t anything special. It was a good bowl of ramen but nothing I would have a craving for…in fact, I was wishing for some raw garlic to add to my bowl. I must miss Tenkaippin, maybe I need to give them a shot again? Hmm I just looked them up and they no longer serve Kotteri ramen so maybe not. Gashoken also offers a pesto type ramen, interesting right? That may be my next choice, I always start my experience with their signature/original dish though.

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26Mar / 2018

Gyotaku Japanese Restaurant – Honolulu, HI

It has been years since I’ve dined at Gyotaku Japanese Restaurant. Nothing against their food, I actually enjoy their food, it’s just that I don’t think the prices match what you get. Okay, not a great start to the post but the food is actually good. Let’s review…

Hamachi Carpaccio • $16.25

Delicious! Good flavor, I guess the price is about right for Hamachi?

Salad served with Teishoku Sets, yummy wafu dressing

Miso soup served with teishoku sets

Combination Bento (three choice) • $24.95

Chicken Karaage, Nishime, and Misoyaki Salmon. Not my entree but where can you go wrong? I do enjoy the karaage chicken from Gyotaku a lot so thumbs up from me.

Assorted Poke Don & Tenpura • $24.95

My dish! I love their poke don, do I think it’s worth $25? Umm..no. But they season their poke very well and I enjoy it a lot. It’s nice to enjoy this dish once in a while. Their tempura? Nicely battered and fried, always gotta add it on!

Okinawan Sweet Potato Pie • $5.50

One of my favorite desserts of all time! This thing is soooo good. Everything works, looks dense but it is so light…not too sweet. I shared this with my dining companion but I’m sure I could have scarfed it down myself.

They’ve done a great job with their renovations and the food is delicious. To me, it’s just a bit pricey especially for a family-type restaurant but I know I will get ono food when I do go.

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14Mar / 2018

Tsukada Nojo Hawaii – Honolulu, Hawaii

Tsukada Nojo Hawaii is a fairly new Japanese restaurant in Hawaii. I love the atmosphere of this restaurant, the decorations, servers, food, etc! They have a little parking lot in front of their restaurant but it is very small and it is shared with a sushi restaurant! So unless you can make it there right when they open, parking is a bit risky. Another plus to this restaurant? You can make reservation on Open Table! I wish all restaurants were on Open Table.

Miyazaki Mango Mojito • $9.00
Miyazaki Mango, Rum, Club soda, Mint
Known for their year-round season, Miyazaki mangoes are flown in to create this unique mojito with freshly muddled mint, citrus and rum

Yum, I’ve been here twice and got this drink both times. It’s delicious and refreshing, I just wish the drink was bigger.

Nikumaki Rice Ball • $3.50
miyazaki region’s comfort food: a pork belly-wrapped rice ball in sweet soy ginger sauce, served on green leaf lettuce, served with teriyaki sauce

Okay, we got this dish both times we came here. The first time the rice balls tasted good, the second time, not so much. The meat wrapped around the rice was too tough and the sauce was too salty.

Grilled Skillet Egg • $6.00
plain omelet

Okay this sounds silly but I LOVE THIS DISH. Why is it called a skillet egg? It actually come out in a cast iron skillet and they flip it onto the plate at your table. The egg is soft…souffle-ish and is seasoned like a dashi tamago. The first time we went, we bought two. This time we could only eat one, would have ordered two if we could.

Bijin Nabe • $40.00
chicken-based collagen soup with zucchini, watermelon radish, tofu, romaine lettuce, chinese cabbage, enoki mushroom, abura-age, green onion, watercress, and tsukune meatball

Doesn’t that look…delicious? Haha, I didn’t know what to expect when this was set at our table. But when it boils down, it is a collagen-rich yet light broth.

The bijin pot comes with some chicken tsukune. We ordered kurobuta pork belly as an add-on for our pot. This was delicious! And like other nabes, you can get rice or noodles to finish off your broth. We went with ramen, it was delicious but we were much too full to eat it all. They have such wonderful dining utensils/plates, I think it’s the little details that count and they think of it! I hope you folks get to try this place out!

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05Sep / 2017

Wagaya – Moilili, HI

Have I really not posted about Wagaya? Is that possible? Wagaya is definitely in my top 3 ramen spots for Hawaii, if not…number 1! I’ve been going since they opened and they have been consistently good, if not better than before. Their food is delicious, the broth deep in flavor. The only thing they need to up their game in is maybe the char siu…a bit thin. But everything else is so good. It’s a small family business and I really hope you get to try it. Let’s get to the pics!

Yummy…good food is coming. Parking can be scarce so plan ahead! They have a small lot but there is also a lot of street parking.

Homemade Gyoza – $5.95

I enjoy their gyoza, tasty! They have a happy hour special for gyoza but it only counts towards the deep fried ones. It’s too bad, I only like the pan fried ones.

AGEDASHI TOFU – $4.95

Can I just get excited for a little bit? Yes, you can get agedashi tofu anywhere. But this is the best way I’ve had it, seriously. Yes, at a ramen shop. The tofu is fried perfectly, the batter is very thin, light and crispy. Once you pour the sauce onto the tofu, the batter turns almost gelatinous. I know that doesn’t make it sound good…BUT IT ALSO DOES. Because it gets a bit gel-like, the sauce hugs the tofu completely. Hmm…I want to get this for myself next time. No need share. Haha okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit.

Garlic Wagaya Ramen – $12.75

Here is my go to. I get it with regular firm noodles, spice level 3 (they start charging more at level 4, lol). It’s just a perfect serving of ramen, and that soft boiled egg is perfection. I save that for last. 🙂

Hiyashi Tan Tan Men – $11.95

I must confess, this particular week – this was my second visit so I tried the hiyashi noodles for the first time. It is served cold with the sesame dressing on the side. It was nice to try something different but I definitely prefer their ramen. And the ramen comes with a whole egg, so I want the whole egg…so I will get the ramen. Haha, still delicious.

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30Aug / 2017

Tsukiji Shokudo Genchan Waikiki – Waikiki, HI

Ah yes. Slowly catching up on my posts but decided to stick a new one in! Tsukiji Shokudo Genchan Waikiki has been open for about a month and I wanted to give it a try. Oh, this place is hard to get to. Waikiki is already a pain but this place has absolutely no parking. One of the worst kept secrets is the Ross Store parking lot. If you know you’re going to buy something from Ross, you can park in their lot for 2 hours FREE. It’s great. We took full advantage, ate dinner, walked over to the International Market Place for dessert, shopped at Ross and got out just in the knick of time!

Tsukiji Shokudo Genchan Waikiki offers a pretty extensive menu: hotpot, sashimi, poke, Japanese pupus, and plenty of specials! If you check out their yelp page, I uploaded pictures of the menu from my visit.

Salmon and Avocado Salad – $10.80

Nice salad with a good dressing. Very generous with the salmon and ikura. The addition of limu is a bit of a headscratcher. I’m not a fan of limu so I’m glad it was just sprinkled on top so I could just remove it. Good salad.

Spicy Karaage – $7.50

Interesting preparation. My dining companion thought it reminded her of Korean chicken from Zippy’s, she’s probably right. It has big chunks of chicken thighs fried with a very light batter tossed in a savory soy sauce. Not spicy at all but I enjoyed it.

Spicy Trio Don Set – $19.98

According to the waitress, the trio of fish varies on the day. During our night, it was ahi, salmon and hamachi (and ikura!). It was good, nicely seasoned! Their sets come with the entree, rice, miso soup, and tsukemono. The tsukemono was interesting, the usual daikon dish and then a Korean seasoned bean sprout side dish.

Special Ahi Don Set – $18.86

Ah, my dish. I should have gotten the trio special above but I didn’t want us both to get the same dish. I was disappointed. Do you notice that it’s basically slices of ahi sashimi? I hardly would call this a special ahi don, I would have expected seasoning. Well, after I was able to dig in further, there was a mound of ahi chunks under the nori that was somewhat seasoned. Still disappointing, I wouldn’t get this dish again.

I think this restaurant was pretty good! I would definitely give them a try again knowing my new parking option. They weren’t too busy but I wonder if it’s because word hasn’t gotten out yet.

 

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