Unasho, Kanda (うな正)

I know, I know, I swore off places worthy of the ‘sad’ tag last year. This was an accident.

It was really late, and I was discombobulated by a bit of stomach distress, and it must have become mental distress, because I started thinking that eel on rice would settle things down. Not so much.

Unasho is towards the station end of the west Kanda shopping street. When I did my Kanda eel week, I found it on Tabelog and avoided it because it didn’t looks great. Turns out everyone thinks something similar. The waitress, the one with the long eyelashes and the styled hair but also with the sweaty t-shirt and the tired eyes, she was standing by the window calling out to people walking by. I kid you not, she was saying “You’re welcome to come in! We have empty seats! You’re very welcome!” It wasn’t pretty.

But empty seats they did indeed have, although not that many. The high counter is interesting, as were the big bowls of fried eel spines on it for free nibbling by customers.

Why is this man smiling? Because it’s 3 PM on a Thursday and he’s drinking heavily-spiked cold green tea in the company of a woman who’s not his wife. I always think there’s something desperate about that kind of laughter.

Just like there’s something desperate about my desire to forget this eel.

No, I don’t mean that – it just followed well from the previous sentence. But it’s low-grade eel, and it’s been grilled in a way that’s left it sort of filmed with greasy black grit. (That’s not meant to sound appetizing. Incidentally, Y800 is incredibly cheap for this, and a tipoff that the fish will be low-quality.) It tasted OK. One thing that’s interesting is their selection of grilled eel options, making this place almost like a ‘yaki-unagi’ shop.

But not interesting enough for you to get there.
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