Rrrroom Cafe

Rating: Very good
Meal: Lunch for 2
Price:  2870 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Basil chicken sandwich, spinach bacon sandwich, coffee and tea
English Menu: Yes
Smoking:Yes

English Menu

On Saturday my wife and I took a walk and a hike over the hills in the center of Yokosuka to buy something from a guy who lived up there.  He wasn't home yet, so we wandered further down on the other side and came across a very funky cafe called Rrrroom (the number of Rs varies).  They had some good looking food, so we decided to eat lunch there while we waited.

Pick your beans for your freshly made coffee

They clearly advertise their English menu, which was very nicely illustrated, but their daily specials remain in Japanese and we didn't notice them til after we had ordered.  They also have a resident cat, who slept in a nearby chair the entire time we were there.

 

Specials menu

We ordered two sandwich dishes that came with salad and soup, and we were quite impressed by them.  The only complaint I had was that they used sub-par super soft white bread.  The side dishes were almost better than the sandwiches and packed with flavor.

Spinach and bacon sandwich

Since they are a cafe, we also ordered a coffee and a tea, and I have to say the coffee was some of the best I've had here.  Overall, a great little spot that gets a Very Good, just barely missing an Excellent due to the bread situation. 

Basil chicken sandwich

Tea

Coffee

Campion Ale

Forgot to take a picture, so I found this on the net

Rating: OK
Meal: Dinner
Price: 2900 yen (including drinks)
Payment: Cash only (I think)
Dishes: Steak pie, 4 1/3 pint beers
English Menu:Yes
Smoking:No

Saturday night a friend from church invited several of his friends out to a pub to celebrate the birth of his second child.  Campion Ale is a British style pub located near Asakusa in Tokyo.   They brew their own beer, which is cool, and serve typical pub fare.

The ordering is all cash up front, done at the bar downstairs, which is a little inconvenient if you are sitting upstairs, but it does simplify group ordering IMO.

I ended up trying one small each of the beers, but only paid for 3 of them as someone had a stamp card and I scored a free one.  I'm not super fond of British style beers, and none of them really stood out to me.  For food I was seduced by the steak pie, but I ended up regretting it as it wasn't very good at all.  Fortunately, others ordered some pizza and it was good enough to keep this rating at an Ok.

Miya

Rating: OK
Meal: Dinner
Price: 3450 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Mixed veg dish, kimbap, chige soup
English Menu: No
Smoking: Yes

Miya is a Korean restaurant I found a near the Yokosuka Hospital.  It's quite spacious inside, more than the typical little restaurant.  The menu is full of various Korean dishes, but it was overall quite expensive.

They provided a sort of "mandatory" appetizer dish like an izakaya that was just ok.  I ordered a mix of 3 different veg typical of the little Korean dishes that are normally served all around the table.  Of course, these were not free as is typical of Korean restaurants in Japan.  There was kimbap on the menu so I ordered on and also a spicy looking hot soup (chige).  The food was decent enough, but not amazing, and with the high prices I have to knock them down to an Ok overall.

Sensing Touch of Earth

Rating: Very good
Meal: Lunch Snack
Price:  1550 yen
Payment: Cash only (pretty sure, could be wrong)
Dishes: Black bean rice with pickled vegetables, zucchini cheese toast with anchovies, cafe latte
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

My wife and I were looking for a place to eat a bite before heading home after church in Ueno on Sunday and we found ourselves on Kappabashi, the famous "kitchen street" in Tokyo.  We figured we'd surely find a restaurant in the pouring rain (approaching typhoon), but were finding that a bit difficult as many things are sold for restaurants on that street, but there aren't a ton of actual restaurants.  We walked past this cafe with the ridiculous name and decided to try it out.

The menu is very limited, mostly just snacks to go with your coffee. We ordered a couple along with a coffee and sat down.  It's a very funky place (in the good sense of the word).  It took a while for the food to be made, but it was quite delicious when it arrived and the coffee was excellent too.  The toast was my favorite, made with good quality thickly sliced bread, the cheese, thinly sliced cucumbers and anchovies combined to make an excellent taste.  The black bean rice was good too in a plainer kind of way, and the pickles were very tasty.

Overall, a great little spot that I would stop in at frequently if I lived in the area.

Hareruya

Rating: OK
Meal: Dinner
Price: 1000 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Curry tsukemen
English Menu: No
Smoking: No

Who doesn't love a good pun?  Hareruya (i.e. Hallelujah) is a little restaurant specializing in curry dishes.  The name uses the verb "hareru" which means "to clear up" (as in, the weather) and "ya" which means store or shop.  Cute!  And the place itself is too.  I believe this is the same spot that housed the lunch only 106 Cafe that I reviewed a while back.  Not sure if this is just the evening restaurant or if 106 Cafe is now defunct, but regardless I had not yet reviewed it in this incarnation, so I decided to try it out last night.

Interestingly, it is a vending machine place, kind of like a ramen shop.  But there is only one really ramen like item on the menu, the curry tsukemen, which is what I ended up ordering, along with a deep fried chicken drumstick.  I was asked if I wanted cold or hot noodles I believe, and I said whichever was fine with me.  I believe I got cold.  The dish of noodles is topped with some pork and cabbage, and the curry sauce is in a small bowl to the side for dipping the noodles into.  It was pretty, good, just ok really.  I'm not a huge Japanese curry fan these days, so there's that.  They did have some tasty toppings, including garlic olive oil, pickled garlic and the usual curry pickles.  The chicken was interesting...very much coated in something...maybe rice crispies?  Not sure...kind of cereal like.  Tasted ok too.

Overall, a nice little spot, but for me the food was just ok.

Camp Express

Rating: Very good
Meal: Dinner
Price:  1290 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Thai seafood curry with a chicken wing
English Menu: No
Smoking: No

This is a cute little place in the underground labyrinth of restaurants near Yokohama station.  It has a camping theme, and they serve mostly curry dishes in cast iron pans.  I wasn't expecting much, but it was much tastier than I thought it would be! 

Sakura no Mon

Rating: Very good
Meal: Dinner
Price:  2917 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Bacon salad, pork kimchi fry, roasted garlic chicken
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: Yes (pretty sure)

I was walking by the Gold's Gym building on Blue Street last night and noticed that the lineup of Izakaya type restaurants had shifted a bit.  It appears a couple of places have closed and one had been replaced.  I headed up to the replacement which turned out to be Sakura no Mon, which is a cute name that might translate as Cherry Tree Gate.

"Mandatory" appetizer

The entrance was attractive, which was good as the lobby area outside the elevator is kind of nasty and smells of stale cigarettes.  Once inside I was led to a familiar looking small enclosed room, precisely the same one I ate in before when this was called Tofuro.  Luckily the room was not stuffy this time, and the service was very prompt.

Huuuge salad

I ordered what I figured would be a smallish bacon salad, along with some pork fried with kimchi and some roasted garlic chicken.  When the salad arrived I was amazed to find it was large enough for at least two people, and the lettuce was deliciously crunchy romaine, quite hearty.  The other two dishes were about what you'd expect, both quite tasty.  I was, however, extremely full having eaten all of that salad by myself!

Pork kimchi fry

The price was pretty good too, so I am glad to give this place a hearty Very Good rating.

Garlic chicken

Surprisingly I was not asked whether I wanted a smoking section or not, so I'm not certain whether they have one.  Given that it's an izakaya, it's virtually certain that smoking is allowed, but at least inside it doesn't smell too much like it.

Esse Due

Rating: Not great
Meal: Lunch for3
Price: 6285 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Two pizzas, tomato mozzarella basil, sliced meat platter
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

I've actually eaten at this place before, prior to starting to do these reviews.  As the options for something new at Haneda are getting fewer, and my son was with us, we decided to go back here for his last meal in Japan prior to flying back to boarding school.

I wasn't very impressed...everything was very expensive, and not particularly delicious. 

Haneda Cafeteria

Rating: Not great
Meal: Lunch for 2
Price: 2160 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Two teishoku sets, one ginger pork, one katsu-nabe
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No but there is an isolated smoking section

As we continue to work our way though the restaurants in Haneda, my wife and I decided to try this unassuming little cafeteria over the left side of the outside area as we picked up my son from the airport yesterday.  You walk up to the counter, make your order, then site down and wait for delivery.

Ginger pork

The options were pretty standard fair for Japanese "shokudou" (cafeteria style restaurants) and we got two of our usual favorites, ginger pork and katsu-nabe.  Both dishes were just ok, but the higher than usual prices dropped the overall rating down a notch.  

Katsu-nabe

There are definitely better places to eat at Haneda and we still have several more to go before we can just go back to the best ones all the time.  Luckily we have frequent trips there due to our son's boarding school situation, so eventually I'll get them all reviewed.

One note is that it is unusual in still having a smoking section, well isolated from the rest of the restaurant.  One of the few places left you can smoke in comfort.