Iwamatsu Tendon

Rating: Very good
Meal:  Lunch
Price:  1000 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Large Shrimp Tendon
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

I've been meaning to review this restaurant and tried several times last spring before it got too hot to ride my bike for lunch.  I realized the other day that fall was truly upon us, so I brought my bike to ride out to Iwamatsu Tendon.  I was thrilled to see no line when I arrived, but then realized that was because every seat inside was already full.  It's a small place, with counter seating only, and it's quite popular, a good indicator.

So I waited outside for about 10 minutes until a seat was vacated.  Upon sitting down I was asked what number, and I confusedly looked at the Japanese dishes hanging from the wall (my kanji reading skills being ok, but not great).  After butchering one of them the lady pointed towards a different English menu with numbers next to each item, making ordering much easier.  I got a large shrimp tendon.

Tendon is short for tempura don, or tempura rice bowl, and that's what this place specializes in.  I was also asked if I wanted pickled vegetables or miso soup, and I opted for miso soup, though it never actually arrived.  Oh well, the tendon was plenty of food, with 2 enormous shrimp and several very delicious vegetables.  They cook it fresh right in front of you, no shortcuts.  I think this place deserves its reputation.

I got a fairly spendy dish as I wanted to try it out, but they also have several very cheap options on the menu that looked great from what I saw of other people's dishes.  I really like this place and would very happily return.

Daizendori

Rating: Very good
Meal:  Lunch for 2
Price:  1840 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Roast chicken teishoku, Chicken tofu soup
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

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Update 5/6/2017

Daizendori has now been replaced by Kaisenmisakiko, a sushi-go-round.

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Up on the top two floors of More's City mall in Yokosuka there is a newish restaurant called "Yakitori-ya Smile" that I've been meaning to try for some time.  My wife and I were getting groceries so we decided to try it out for lunch today.  However, turns out that at lunch a different restaurant operates out of the same space:  Daizendori.  The dishes are primarily chicken based, but are definitely not dishes you'd usually get at a yakitori restaurant.

I liked the look of a stone bowl chicken soup and my wife went for a roasted chicken teishoku.  We both loved our dishes, quite surprised at their tastiness.  My soup was amazing, the broth being thick and very full tasting.  The chicken was just boiled, but adding a little salt helped that just fine.  The tofu, while soft, was flavorful as well.  My wife's dish was good too, though she agrees that I won this round.

We were quite surprised by how good this place was and look forward to returning.  And of course, we still need to review the other restaurant that opens in the evening.  Very Good.

Miami Garden

Rating: OK
Meal: Dinner
Price: 1130 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Camembert and bacon cream sauce spaghetti
English Menu: Yes
Smoking:Yes

I was in Yokohama last night to meet a friend and afterwards needed to grab some dinner, so I basically picked the first thing I saw, which was Miami Garden.  It has the typical chain Japanese Italian feel to it, but with a little more variety on the menu.

I went for a cream base Camembert and bacon spaghetti dish, with a large portion of pasta (I was hungry).  It was decent enough, not amazing.  The noodles were nicely al dente.

The restaurant itself is very smoky, even though they asked if I wanted smoking or non-smoking, it didn't really seem to make a difference.  Overall I'd give the food an Ok, but the smoke decreases chances I'll ever return.

Shinatatsu Ramen

Rating: Very good
Meal:  Lunch for 2
Price:  2000 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Chicken ramen, stir fried pork miso ramen
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

Shinatatsu Ramen is a food court in Haneda Airport that is a relatively new addition that is a little hard to find being tucked away in a corner prior to the main airport itself.  To find it, look for the 7-11 that is on the departures floor just before you get to the main airport ticket counters.  Keep going back and you'll see it back there.

Creamy chicken ramen

It's an interesting concept with 3 different mini-store fronts, each with their own menu and ticket machine.  Since this is an international airport everything is well labelled making ordering easy.  My wife loves chicken broth and there was a creamy chicken ramen available that was actually quite tasty, though I thought the noodles were a bit disappointing.

I went for the stir fried pork miso ramen, and though there was a bit of a snafu with someone else grabbing my bowl and they had to make another one for me after I got tired of waiting, it ended up being well worth the wait with very tasty pork fried with miso paste and nice think firm noodles in a delicious miso broth.  Sadly I forgot to take a picture...once I finally got it I dug right in.

There were several other dishes that looked really good, and neither of us got to try the tonkotsu broth specialty place, so there's plenty to try next time!

Katagaiminamaeshokudou

Rating: OK
Meal: Breakfast
Price: 540 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Eggs and (not real) bacon teishoku
English Menu: No
Smoking: No

I was returning from dropping of my wife at Narita Airport this morning when I discovered I was hungry.  I had already eaten leftover 7-11 ramen for breakfast, but for some reason I was peckish again.  So I stopped at a rest area with a restaurant sign and found this food court.  Within the food court only one restaurant was open, the nigh unpronounceable Katagaiminamaeshokudou.  The "shokudou" just means "cafeteria" but still...just take a look at all those kanji!  I asked for the name and wrote down what I heard, but now that I look at the written name I can see it can't possibly be that, but oh well, I doubt they'll care too much.

Beggars can't be choosers, and of the mostly fishy items on the menu I saw a bacon and eggs teishoku (with rice, miso, seaweed and tsukemono) that looked promising.  I shuddered a bit when I saw the eggs broken over the bacon and then popped into the microwave, but it came out surprisingly all right, as long as you are prepared for the disappointment of the bacon being not...actually bacon.  Not in the American sense of course.  I mean, the strips look kind of like bacon, but none of the delicious cured tastiness or crispiness is there.  That's par for the course in Japan (aaaand pretty much anywhere not the US).

Overall I wasn't too displeased.  Still, it hardly merits more than an Ok.  Price was great though!

Shouryuhou

Rating: Very good
Meal:  Lunch for 3
Price:  4000 yen
Payment: Cash only I think
Dishes: Fried rice teishoku, black pepper stir fried chicken teishoku, spicy fried green beans, stir fried lamb with negi
English Menu: No
Smoking: Definitely

Wow...what a great restaurant!  Apart from the smoking, all 3 of us loved it.  My son was happy with his fried rice of course, and my wife's black pepper stir fried chicken was really tasty.  I couldn't help myself and ordered the dry fried green beans with szechuan peppers and the lamb with negi.  Such a nice surprise.  We were just downtown trying to fix a bad wheel on some luggage of ours at a store that would supposedly honor the warranty.  Not so much on that front, but lunch was a success!

I'm reasonably sure I've butchered the name of the place, but oh well...there's only so much I can do when Chinese is filtered through Japanese.

Takafuku

Rating: OK
Meal: Lunch for 2
Price: 3240 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Pre-cooked sukiyaki, beef and egg bowl
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

Had to pick up my son at the airport yesterday and got to review another restaurant at Haneda International Airport:  Takafuku.  Takafuku is a sukiyaki/shabushabu restaurant with lots of raw meat on the menu that you get the pleasure of cooking, if you want to.  It's all rather spendy.

Sukiyaki

We opted for pre-cooked meat, a sukiyaki teishoku and a beef and egg rice bowl.  It was all pretty good, but for the price I have to knock it down to an Ok.  Both of us would have been just as happy at Sukiya.

Beef bowl