Koshikiya

Rating: Very good
Meal: Lunch Snack
Price: 185 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Menchi (deep fried minced meat)
English Menu: No
Smoking: No

Koshikiya is a small butcher shop near Womble Gate.  It doesn't look like it would have any food to eat, but before and during lunch there is a little side area past the register where you can go and order bento or fresh deep fried goodness.  Everything is in Japanese, but it's all good.  I haven't tried a proper bento here yet, but I saw them cooking one up fresh in the back and it looked awesome.  Perfect if you are going down to Mikasa Park and want to bring along lunch.

I was a bit peckish after a smaller than usual lunch, so I stopped in to order a menchi, which is basically minced meat with some vegetables deep fried.  I waited while they fried it up and ate it slowly on my way back to work.  It was very hot and fresh, and quite delicious.

It's nice to have a place that can fry things like this up fresh, unlike the grocery stores or convenience stores where you never know how long it's been sitting there.  Plus you can grab some local meat for dinner while you're at it.

Masagu

Rating: Very good
Meal: Lunch
Price: 750 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Tsukemen (dipping ramen noodles) and rice with some meat and veg on top
English Menu:No
Smoking: No (I don't think)

Masagu is a new spot for me.  Most of the ramen restaurants reviewed on this site I had already tried several times before actually reviewing them.  But this place is tucked down a side street over by Womble Gate and I didn't even know it was there until I reviewed the place next to it a few months back.  Every time I've been back they haven't been open yet, since they don't open until 11:30am.  Today I was a bit late for lunch so I decided to walk over there and catch them as they opened.
It's very unassuming outside and I was expecting the usual grimy, smoke-filled, slippery floored establishment, but it's very open and clean inside.  It looks like its trying to be more of a ramen shop/sake bar, and there are lots of nice looking sake bottles lining the bar area.  There are no English menus, but the menu is pretty simple.  Just ask for ramen or tsukemen (dippiing noodles) and you'll be fine.


I went with the tsukemen set which came with a little rice bowl topped with stir fried veggies and meat.  The rice dish was nothing special.  But the tsukemen was quite good, with noodles that were a little softer than usual, but great texture.  The tsukemen was nice and concentrated, but not overwhelmingly salty, and the charsiu pieces had good flavor while not being overly fatty.

Quite a nice lunch for the price and I'm looking forward to coming back and trying the ramen proper!

Shinshuen

Rating: Not great
Meal:  Lunch
Price: 700 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes:Oyakodon
English Menu:No
Smoking:Yes

Shinshuen is a small Japanese restaurant located quite a ways up the road past Shioiri Station.  It didn't look appealing but I decided to try it anyway.  It pretty much lived up to my expectations. 

Kichinrou

Rating: Not great
Meal:  Lunch
Price: 650 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Miso beef and vegetable teishoku
English Menu:No
Smoking:Yes

Another crummy Chinese restaurant...although it's a lot of food for just 650 yen!  But wow, the oil my food was swimming in was kinda gross.  Not recommended. 

Rakeru

Rating: OK
Meal:  Lunch for 3
Price: 3000ish yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes:Mushroom butter and soy sauce omurice, another omurice dish, french toast
English Menu: Yes
Smoking:No

Corn soup

Another mediocre restaurant reviewed at the Toyosu mall!  Rakeru has a nice interior and a pleasant atmosphere.  The food is meh and a bit expensive, so we probably won't be back.  It's mostly omurice (omelletes filled with rice), hamburg steak and desserts.

French toast

Mushroom, butter and soy sauce omurice

Omurice dish of some kind

Sparta

Rating: Very good
Meal: Dinner for 2
Price: 8,000 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Lots of little dishes in a course
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

My wife and I decided to have a "date night" and head into Yokohama for beers and dinner.  The beers were at Antenna America, and excellent little spot on the top of a building in a rather unfortunate section of Yokohama (seedy much?).  The weather was perfect, not too cold, not too hot, and we got to sit out on the porch (inside is standing only) and drink our excellent beers (Stone 19th Anniversary Thunderstruck IPA and Sierra Nevada Hoptimum).

Appetizer platter, the pickled octopus was excellent!

Afterwards, we walked downstairs and a few steps down the street to eat at Sparta, one of the very few Greek restaurants in Yokohama (there may be another one somewhere, but I haven't tracked it down precisely yet).  It ain't a cheap date, but hey, we don't do this very often.  We wanted to try a variety of dishes, so we ordered one of the "courses" for 4000 yen each and after what seemed a long wait, the food started to arrive.  Once it started coming, we didn't have to wait long in between each dish.  Although the dishes were small, all together it made for a very filling meal.  We just had to figure out how to get back home on the train without falling asleep and missing our stop!

Pumpkin soup is in season...

I'll stop the commentary for now and just post pictures, but overall this was a Very Good meal.  My one regret was not getting an of the grilled dishes as I do love Greek grilled foods.  But we got to try a bunch of things we might not have otherwise.

I didn't give them an Excellent mainly because nothing really blew me away.  It was all a very good representation of Greek food, but not amazing.

Spanakopita

Greek salad

Fried fish

Stuffed eggplant

Lemon sauce meatball (excellent)

Moussaka, also a highlight

Baklava

Ebisuya

Rating: Not great

Meal:  Dinner
Price:  450 yen
Payment:  Cash
Dishes: Hot soba noodles with tempura and egg
English Menu: No

Smoking: Possibly

The ramen shop I wanted to eat at was closed the other night, so I went across the street to a tiny little mom and pop soba/udon shop.  It's really cheap, I'll give it that!

I picked a 450 yen item from the vending machine and hoped it would be ok.  I just had to specify soba as opposed to udon, and it was in front of me in less than a minute.  Meanwhile the lady got back to cleaning the floor...

It wasn't very good unfortunately...

Senrihanten

Rating: OK
Meal:  Dinner for 2
Price: 3000 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Fried rice, pan fried ramen noodles, beef with black bean sauce
English Menu: Yes
Smoking:Yes

Fried rice

Last night my son and I scoured town for a Chinese restaurant I hadn't yet reviewed.  I recalled eating at Senrihanten, across the street from Yokosuka Chuo Station, a long time ago and liking it.  So we headed up there, a straight shot up Blue Street from the base.

Pan fried ramen...thing

It's a smoking restaurant, so be prepared for someone to light up while you're there.  We grabbed the menu and had no trouble picking something from the pictures, but they did try to give us an English menu a bit later.  I didn't have it this time, but I really liked the black sesame rice they make.  Instead my son ordered his usual fried rice, and I tried something that was recommended:  some kind of pan fried ramen noodles.  And just in case that didn't pan out I also ordered an interesting looking beef dish that turned out to be beef with black bean sauce (score!).  The fried rice was nothing interesting, and the ramen dish was equally blah.  The ramen dish was pan fried a bit crispy with an egg batter to hold it together, but the flavor reminded me of something I might have made in college with instant ramen noodles.  The beef with black beans was pretty good, although they did the super soft beef thing that I'm not as fond of.  The black bean flavor was prominent though, which I appreciated.

Beef with black bean sauce

Overall, eh...nothing really good and the price was a bit high, so I'll leave them with an Ok.  There were some "all in one" dishes that were cheaper though, so maybe I'll just stick with those in the future.

Wood Island Curry

Rating: Very good
Meal:  Lunch
Price: 1280 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes:Dry Keema Curry
English Menu: No (maybe, they didn't offer one and I didn't ask)
Smoking: No

Wood Island Curry is a fixture in Yokosuka, and quite a tourist attraction in its own right.  It's located directly out of Womble Gate on the right, and you'll frequently see tourists lining up before it opens around 11:30am, especially on weekends.

Dry Keema with special curry spoon

I love the Dry Keema curry here, so that's what I ordered.  It's still Japanese curry flavor, but there is little sauce, just minced meat.  They also add almonds and crunchy peas to the mix (a nod to real keema curry's big peas).  Oh, and there's a sausage in there somewhere.  I quite like it.  I also like their pickle garnish as it seems more natural than the artificially colored ones you frequently see.  It's a bit spendy for the amount and the lack of additional teishoku amenities, but it is an unusual dish.  If you get the Navy Curry meal, you will also get a salad and glass of milk...which is a nice touch.

It's not a Coco's curry, with 10 levels of heat.  It's a mom and pop shop with 3 or 4 menu items and the tiniest kitchen you've ever seen.  There aren't a lot of seats, so get there early if you don't want to wait.  Also while the Mom of the "mom and pop" is a very nice lady, the Pop is a bit Soup Nazi (if you know what I mean).  He's not mean, just a bit stern, so don't try ordering anything fancy.  He's got what he's got, and that's it.

Another thing about this place is it has quite a bit of character.  They seem to always be riding whatever the latest anime tie-in with Yokosuka.  Right now there is a special "red curry" that is tied in with the Arpeggio of Blue Steel anime in theaters at the moment.   They also have a special curry spoon.  I kid you not, this is a spoon designed to make the tortuous process of feeding oneself with a spoon as easy as possible.  There's a little crook in the spoon itself to seeming bring the spoon more in angle with the mouth so you don't have to turn your hands as much.  You can even buy them to take home if you like...

I heartily recommend trying this place out for some truly local Yokosuka curry and character.

Musetto

Rating: Very good
Meal:  Lunch
Price: 864 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes:Taco Rice Bowl
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

Musetto is an oddly situation little cafe/restaurant.  It's right off the "honch" aka Dobuita Street, heading up towards the 7-11.  I thought it was a hair salon for the longest time, and maybe it was, but now the bottom floor is this restaurant/cafe, and upstairs is a salon.

The menu items are simple and typical for this type of place:  a few pizzas, hot dogs, and taco rice.  Taco rice is ok, so I went for that.  First, however, a pumpkin soup arrived, and man was that tasty!  I resisted the urge to pick the bowl up and drink it, at least until the last few spoonfuls.  The taco rice bowl was pretty hefty with a rice cooked with something else to give it a reddish color (beans of some kind?).  The taco meat was pretty good, not too sweet, and the fried egg on top of course always makes me happy.  And they used fresh tomatoes instead of some nasty attempt at salsa.  I think this was one of the better taco rice dishes I've had here.

Overall, this place made me more pleased than an Ok rating would indicate, so I gave it a Very Good.