Like the nearby Uotei (and I mean “15 feet away”), the tiny back-alley kappo Tamamura shows both the blessing and the curse of this style of restaurant. It’s casually elegant, it’s quiet, it’s friendly in a restrained way, they always seem to have a table, the food is always excellent, and it’s never cheap. At least they’re nice […]
Monzennakacho
Daruma, Kiyosumi Shirakawa (だるま)
Weird stuff, my friends. As I was leaving work I realized that not only was I really hungry, but I was thinking “It’s good to be hungry. Maybe I’ll skip dinner.” That sort of thinking has got to stop, and since I needed to go to the rice store I decided to eat a bunch […]
Tonkou ramen, Kiyosumi Shirakawa (焼き豚ラーメン 東煌)
In retrospect, not the brightest thing, an early lunch of ramen before Thanksgiving dinner. But it was early enough, and I didn’t even eat it all. Which is not a good sign, no. Most times when I jog, I’ll go through Kiyosumi Shirakawa one way or another. I always see this place, and the wooden […]
En, Monzennakacho (えん)
Clearly I’m not spending enough time walking the streets of Monnaka at night; there were several new places since the last time I got around, and that’s a rarity. This one looked really nice on Friday night when Mayu and I were binging on my old favorite places, so when we found ourselves with time […]
Kizushi, Monzennakacho (喜寿司)
Friday night, I turned down invitations from colleagues after work in order to meditate and prepare myself for Saturday. “I vant to be alone,” I thought, but a few seconds of research yields the information that, as usual, the famous quote isn’t really what Garbo said. Being in America for a few weeks, I hadn’t […]
Umejin, Kiyosumi Shirakawa (梅仁)
Mmmmmm, rollin’ around on a Friday night, after the sun goes down and after practicing guitar for an hour. Nothing particular in mind, but I took a book, so I was ready to settle in and read. After 20 or 30 minutes of aimless cycling, I passed Umejin, and remembered that it had looked sorta […]
Osakaya, Monzennakacho (大阪屋)
Ahhhhh, Osakaya. When people say ‘Monzennakacho’, they’re always thinking of bargain fish specialist Uosan or else they’re thinking of Osakaya. This is probably because it features in various guide books (including the Gauntner sake book, which is in English). It’s not what it used to be, which doesn’t mean it’s not nice. Just…different. The […]
Usataro, Monzennakacho （うさたろう）
Usataro is quite close to Monnaka crossing, on one of the southside streets. It has an appealing facade with big windows, lots of bottles, and red paint on most of the exposed surfaces. Looks like the kind of place that could be good even if it’s a bit formulaic. Why did it take me almost […]
Okamo’s Diner, Monzennakacho
Yo Okamo, whassup? You’ve been doing business in my town for years (2), I dunno why I never stopped by. Misguided effort to limit caloric intake on weeknights, I suppose. Okamo is here, hiding below a much bigger sign for a pub. (Yes, a “pub”, if you know what I mean. But not like you’re […]
Monzennnnnakacho
The weather is lousy again this year, but seriously – is this not a nice setta trees on the river just south of Eitai Dori in Monnaka? All you haters…you know what you can do. Iitokodayo.