My friends, I believe this to be the first review of this establishment since the world began. Or at least in the 3 months since the place opened. Located near the northern end of Tatsumi Shindo (picture shamelessly lifted from another blog), the charming, slightly decrepit, and frankly fairly daunting brick alley near the Monnaka […]
izakaya
Ichiriki, Monzennakachououou (一力)
[Jan 2011: This closed ages ago. It’s a shame, really.] 幸せ. I’m really not sure what prevented me from going into this place over 4 years of walking by it. I have a feeling it was the lack of menu outside, which is of course a frequent problem in Japan and one that any self-respecting […]
Kurosawa, Roppongi
Man, I really feel like I wrote this before. We’ve all been to Kurosawa, right? Shifting set of lunch options anchored by soba as well as buta-don, slightly interesting and slightly expensive dinners? Sure, we’ve all been. This is the Roppongi Kurosawa. It does that sorta ‘country Japanese’ ambience quite well, managing to feel homey […]
Daruma, Monzennakacho
I was browsing a food magazine at the barber over the weekend and they had a feature on ‘Downtown Izakayas’. Since everyone thinks Monnaka is so shitamachi, there were of course a few places. Daruma is the most downtown place in Monnaka, I think. For a long time I knew it as ‘the grubby-looking place […]
Ruri, Monzennakacho (るり 母ちゃん料理)
[Jan 2011: Long gone; I think this space is an udon now, but it’s on its second iteration at least since Ruri left.] I like to think that I’m a good judge of restaurants from the outside – the style, the menu, and signboard are all indicators of the care and concern of the owners […]
Uotei, Monzennakacho
I’m a little unsure what Uotei is supposed to be – izakaya? Sushi? Just a fish specialist? [As the first of many asides that I assume I’ll write soon, I’ve spent most of the last 4 years thinking it was called Sakana Tei, and only just learned from the web page that it’s actually Uotei. […]
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Sakana (肴), Takayama (Gifu ken)
Beginning a special 4-part sequence of ‘places I ate last weekend’ is Sakana, the reasonably-unassuming izakaya in Takayama that I have said before is at least tied for first in my list of favorite-restaurants-in-Japan. Extravagant praise, but I really like it. Really really. I really like izakaya, for a start. I love the way the […]
Issui (一穂), Monzennakacho
Is there anything better than a good izkaya? Well of course there is! Lots of things.Don’t be silly. But this place is definitely a good izakaya, which I would summarizewith the 3 F’s – friendly, fun, and fussy about food. I guess that’s 4, but I justmade it up.Issui is close to my place, in […]
Ogawa, Monzennakacho
In some periods my favorite place to go in Monnaka. The menu is always a single, hand-written page. That’s a little tough for me (in some places, I end up ordering what I can read!), but the writing is basically OK. Some standard and signature dishes show up every time, and these are worth getting. […]
Terada, Monzennakacho
There used to be a sad little kitchen-goods store in my neighborhood – sad because it stocked a bunch of really nice things and had a quaint, cramped interior, but rarely had customers. Perhaps the back streets of Monnaka aren’t the place to be selling Le Creuset? I was a little sad when it closed, […]