Torinosu

Rating: OK
Meal:  Dinner for 2
Price: 2500 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Beef salad with fresh spring roll wraps, fried rice, sesame balls, beef rice ball
English Menu:Yes
Smoking: Yes

Another Thursday, another Chinese restaurant.  I realized the other day that I had forgotten about another Chinese restaurant in Yokosuka that my son and I had eaten at previously, but never got reviewed.  This place is a bit hard to find, located down an alley way and then in the depths of a building.  It's kind of a cave back in there, with brick walls...a bit unusual.  It's also not very comfortable, the consisting of little rattan stools.

Raw springrolls and beef salad

They have English translations of everything and pictures, which makes ordering easier than some places.  There were no dinner teishoku so my son ordered his usual fried rice, while I opted for something different on the specials menu...a beef salad with raw spring roll wraps.  The beef was cooked, and at first I wasn't sure I had enough spring roll wraps (just two) but I was able to make big messy burritos out it all.  I wasn't feeling to hungry, so I just got a beef rice ball wrapped in lotus leaf in addition.  My son asked for his favorite dessert, sesame balls, so we got some of those too.  I really liked the beef rice ball, and the sesame balls were quite good as usual.  My son liked his fried rice well enough, but I thought there was an off flavor to it and it was extremely oily.

Overall, it's a nice enough spot, with some interesting dishes.  Still a far cry from what I would consider a great Chinese restaurant though.

Cha han (fried rice)

Sesame balls

Beef rice ball

Jang

Rating: Not great
Meal: Dinner
Price: 1200 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Mini mabodofu rice bowl, gyoza, appetizer sampler (3 types)
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

 So I met a friend for shisha near Yokohama station the other night and afterwards was hunting for a restaurant to review.  Unfortunately I did not plan ahead, so I wandered around, wasting time, looking for a place to review that looked good.  I didn't find anything, so I ended up back at Jang, a restaurant I'd eaten at before, a long time ago.  It's a bit unusual, which is why I went back there, hoping for at least an Ok review.  However, I must, sadly, give it a Not Great, possibly due to my own poor choices, but, well, you'll see.

What sets this particular Chinese restaurant apart is their liberal use of mala sauce, a mixture sichuan peppers and other stuff that numbs the mouth and is also quite spicy.  Unfortunately, the dishes are quite limited, consisting of either noodle dishes or mabodofu (silken tofu cubes with some ground meat in spicy sauce).  Having eaten noodles for the past 3 days, I was ready for something else, so I opted for a mini rice bowl with mabodofu, a platter of gyoza and an appetizer sampler with a soy egg and two types of pickled vegetable.  Lastly, I wanted a spicy meal, so I got level 3 spice with my mabodofu.  That...was a mistake probably.

The appetizer dish was good, the gyoza fine, and then the mabodofu (a dish I generally don't like due to texture issues) was...well it's hard to tell because the spice level was so high I literally couldn't taste anything.  I added some soy sauce and garlic to try and obtain some flavor, but I guess the spice numbed me up so thoroughly, all that was left was the mushy texture of silken tofu and rice.  I ended up not finishing it because...what was the point?  I guess it would make a good weight-loss program.  There was a little bit of actual heat (I was a sweating a bit by the end), but I wouldn't call the meal super hot spicy.  Just an overdose of numbing...like going to the dentist and getting shot up with Novocaine.

I am giving the place a Not Great instead of a Nasty (which was how I felt after that meal) mainly because it was my fault for over spicing the meal.  But still...I didn't really care for the dishes available and am not likely to return in the future.

Hakata Ramen

Rating: OK
Meal:  Lunch
Price: 780 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes:White broth ramen with an egg
English Menu: No
Smoking: No

Apologies up front, but I didn't get the correct name for this restaurant while I was there, thinking I could decipher the kanji in the sign later.  Turns out I took a picture of the ramen style (hakata ramen) rather than the actual name.  I'll get it right later and update this post.

So...today I took my bike to work so I could go further afield and try something new for lunch.  My wife and I were walking by this place the other day and noticed the previous ramen shop (unreviewed by me) had closed and been replaced with a new one!  So that was my destination.

I arrived and there was a line out the door.  That could be just due to its newness, we'll see if the line is still there in a few months.  There's a ticket vending machine as usual, and (currently) no English translations, so I'd suggest aiming for something over 700 yen to ensure you get an actual meal.

The style of ramen here is Hakata, known for being a lighter pork bone broth and thinner noodles.  Ippudo Ramen is a famous brand name associated with the style internationally.  Another interesting thing they do here is after you get your ramen, you can ask for "kaedama" which means "another helping of noodles" (along with the usual specification of hardness/softness:  katame or yowarakai), and they will cook that right up for you.  I suggest asking when you have about half your noodles left so it arrives while the broth is still warm.  It appears to be free for now, though I don't know if that will last past opening buzz.

I do want to go back and try a "black" ramen that they have advertised...it might change my opinion up a rank to Very Good if so.  But for now, while it is nice to have some variation in styles available downtown, and the free second helping of noodles is also welcome, it didn't really impress me much.  I thought Ippudo's flavors were better overall.

Echigo

Rating: OK
Meal:  Lunch for 3
Price: 3240 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Maguro katsudon, oyakodon, tempura teishoku (all came with cold or hot soba)
English Menu: No
Smoking:  Yes

Echigo is a small restaurant on the street that leads from Yokosuka Chuo station to road 16.  I'd eaten there a long time ago but never reviewed it, so today we all went there for lunch.  It has some slightly different meals, and my wife said the soba broth was better than many she's had before.  They also had an interesting deep fried cutlet of maguro (instead of pork) for a katsudon that she quite enjoyed.  I had the tempura, which was a bit too oily.  The cold soba was fine.  My son's oyakodon was ok too.

Tempura and cold soba

Overall we felt it wasn't that great, but  not bad either.  The fact that smoking is allowed in there means we probably won't frequent it often.  Also, the lunch special price of 1000 yen was a bit high, though it came with tons of food...too much actually.  None of us could finish our dishes.

Maguro katsudon and hot soba

Oyakodon and hot soba

Curry Port

Rating: Not great
Meal: Dinner for 2
Price: 2210 yen
Payment:  Cash only (currently, but they will probably take cards at some point)
Dishes: Chicken biryani, chicken curry set with naan
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

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Update:  5/4/2017 - Well that didn't last long...Curry Port has been replaced by Manila Kitchen. 
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Wow...another new Indian restaurant in Yokosuka...could it be different than all the rest?

Sadly no.

My son and I tried it out last night and both of us were unimpressed.  My chicken biryani (no lamb?) was rather listless in flavor, no clove, cardamom, cinnamon flavors to be smelled...let alone seen.  And the chicken pieces were tiny and not well flavored either.  My son didn't care for his curry and passed it over to me to finish.  They didn't have butter chicken curry on the menu dinner sets menu (that's a complaint from him).  The naan was sweet, like all the rest here.

So yeah, no dice.

Ichibashokudo

Rating: Very good
Meal: Lunch
Price: 830 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Pork fried in kimchi sauce teishoku
English Menu: Yes
Smoking:Yes (upstairs only)

Ichibashokudo (marketplace cafeteria) appears to be a common name for this type of restaurant as you'll find hits all over Japan for it, but it's not a chain.  It's more of a "kind" of Japanese food spot where you can get a variety of teishoku dishes, but they aren't really a "mom and pop" teishoku shop either as there seem to be many more employees and lots more options on the menu.  Anyway, we have this one quite close to Yokosuka Chuo station and I quite like it.

I ordered the Pork Kimchi teishoku (you can also just get rice bowls if you prefer, a large helping of rice for an extra 100 yen), which turned out to be strips of pork fried up with onions and kimchi aji (the salty red chili sauce that goes into making kimchi proper).  This was absolutely delicious and paired well with a bowl of white rice.  No need for soy sauce that's for sure!  The miso was pretty good the pickles were tasty too.  It's always nice to have some veg and the shredded cabbage filled that role well.

It's not a super special place, but it has tasty food for cheap, and it's a cut above in it's class.

Pronto

Rating: Not great
Meal: Lunch
Price: 1120 yen
Payment:  Cash only
Dishes: Shrimp and avocado pesto linguine
English Menu: Yes
Smoking:Yes (section leaks)

Pronto is a "cafe and bar" located under Yokosuka Chuo station.  It's a chain you'll see lots of places in Japan.  I had never eaten there, and their posters always look so appetizing, I figured I should try it out.

Of course, it's a cafe and bar, which means smoking.  They do have different sections, but the smoke leaks.  It wasn't too bad though, I've been in worse.  They have the kind of generic italian dishes you see in most cafes, and I got the shrimp and avocado pasta meal.  I didn't realize it would be as expensive as it was actually, I was expecting something in the 800 yen range.  It came with a negligible salad and terrible cup of coffee.

The dish itself was unremarkable...the avocado didn't seem fresh and the shrimp was a bit chewy.  The noodles were firm though and the pesto sauce was adequate.  Over all, not a place I'd go out of my way to eat at in the future.

Ekimenya

Rating: Not great
Meal: Lunch snack
Price: 360 yen
Payment:  Cash only
Dishes: Cold soba
English Menu: No
Smoking: No

Many train stations have an Ekimenya (Station Noodle Restaurant).  It's a standing restaurant with simple soba or udon noodle dishes served hot or cold with tempura.  It's pretty fast food, not the best, but not terrible either.  I figured I should review the one at Yokosuka Chuo station and since I didn't want to eat my entire lunch there I just got some cold soba with dipping broth.

 

Ryushu

Rating: Very good
Meal: Lunch
Price: 2000 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Vegetable and miso fried pork, cashew chicken, rice
English Menu:No
Smoking:Yes

My wife and I hiked in the hills between Ikego and Taura on Monday (Presidents Day FTW!) and ended up near Keikyu Taura station about when we were ready for lunch.  We wandered around the area and the only thing open and appealing was a chinese restaurant named Ryushu.  It's small, but surprisingly clean inside.  I kept looking at all the ventilation filters and was surprised to see them quite sparkling...somewhat unusual for a chinese restaurant here.

The dishes are all pretty typical for a Japanese Chinese restaurant, but we both quite liked ours and so decided to rate it above an Ok with a low Very Good.  We didn't go for the teishokus and instead ordered off the main menu.  I always like a miso fried pork dish with veg and my wife likes cashew chicken.  We asked for rice to go with and dug in.  Egg flower soup came with both dishes, and it really hit the spot after the cold outside.

While smoking is clearly permitted (ashtrays were present) no one was smoking while we were in there, so it made things more pleasant.

Kisshowa

Rating: OK
Meal:  Lunch for 3
Price: 3330 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Katsudon with hot udon, oyakodon with hot soba, Shrimp and vegetable tempura with cold soba
English Menu: No
Smoking: No

This restaurant in the Toyosu Lalaport mall may have replaced something I've already reviewed, but I can't recall which one.  Anyway, it's a pretty ordinary Japanese restaurant specializing in udon and soba noodles with accompanying dishes.  It  was pretty cheap, and not bad, but not great either.