Waraku Ramen

Rating: Very good
Meal: Lunch
Price: 780 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Tsukemen
English Menu: No - the ticket vending machine was out of order when I was there, so you have to just tell them what you want or point to the menu (no pictures)
Smoking:  No

I had a slow Saturday to myself today so I hopped on a bus in the direction of Kenritsudaigaku station and got off a little earlier than usual to see what might be open during the lunch hour.  I came across Waraku Ramen, a spot I've seen many times from my car as I drove past, but there is not good parking in the area, so you need to live here or be walking by to actually stop in.

The ticket vending machine was broken, but they had a little typed menu with their house ramen, tsukemen and variations.  I felt like some tsukemen and they whipped it up quite quickly.  The broth was nice and strong, a bit fishy, which I like, and the soy sauce egg was delicious.  The meat was good enough and when I was almost out of noodles I was given a small bowl of noodle broth which I wasn't sure what to do with, so I used it to dilute the remainder of my soup so it wasn't so salty to drink down.

Overall, pretty good and I'd be happy to come back and try more items on the menu if I ever happen to be walking by again.

Geodana Indian

Rating: OK
Meal: Dinner
Price: 1600 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted (8% charge included)
Dishes:  Garlic tandoori chicken, salad
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

Well, this is interesting...Geodana, which is a local group that owns several bars and restaurants, has opened an extension to it's South American restaurant next door where the Delicious indian restaurant used to be.  It is now an Indian and South American restaurant, and you can order off of either menu and the food will be cooked in one of two kitchens and brough to your table.

I decided to try the new indian place out last night.  I'm on a bit of a low carb kick, so I just got some garlic tandoori chicken, which turned out to be pretty huge, 4 pieces worth.  In addition I ordered a salad and ended up cutting the chicken up and mixing it into the salad, which was not bad really.

However, from what I can tell from the menu and otherwise, the quality of the indian food is pretty much on par for the area, which is to say, just ok.

Sital

Rating: Not great
Meal: Lunch
Price: 1940 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Two curry set (chicken saag, keema), mutton curry set
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: Yes

After church this Sunday my wife and I wandered around the Kappabashi area looking for a restaurant.  Turns out the famous area that sells restaurant equipment is a bit light on actual restaurants, go figure!  So we wandered closer to Ueno station and found Sital.  I suspect it's meant to be Sitar, but r/l in Japanese are basically interchangeable, so it makes a kind of sense.

Salad

It's small, and the selection is pretty basic.  It's pretty much your typical Nepali-style Indian food filtered through Japanese tastes.  So, not great.  The curries were all quite thin and sweet.  The rice was particularly unpleasant and tasted like it had been sitting cool in the rice pot for quite some time.  

Two curry set

Definitely not a spot I'd willingly go back to.

Mutton curry with rice

Amiyakitei

Forgot to take a picture, but this is from Yokosuka Food Corner

Rating: OK
Meal: Lunch for 2
Price: 5391 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes:  Yakiniku set, stewed intestines, kimchi set, bibimbap, salad bar
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

My wife and I finally ate at a yakiniku restaurant along 16 that we've driven by countless times.  It's got a handy parking lot, which makes it attractive if you're looking for something to eat while driving.  I hear it's pretty popular with the gaijin crowd, and they did seem quite prepared with an English menu and everything.  This place is a chain, and it's obviously been around a while as it's a bit dingy inside.

Stewed intestines and kimchi set

My wife wasn't feeling the meat, so she ordered a bibimbap and salad bar.  I was, so I ordered a more expensive than usual platter of meat that ended up being quite a bit.  Could have shared that for sure and I was quite full by the time we were done.  I also wanted some kimchi and I do love me some stewed intestines!

Salad from the bar

Overall it was just ok, though quite a bit easier to order at than some yakiniku restaurants.  Still, I think we've had better in town, so I gave it an Ok.

Soup and bibimbap

Most of the meat (there was more)

Susan Indian Restaurant

Rating: OK
Meal: Lunch
Price: 1600 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes:  Mutton masala, small rice, whiskey high ball
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

Another restaurant review near Kenritsudaigaku station.  This little Indian restaurant is pretty much par for the course for Nepalese-Indian restaurants in the area.  The mutton masala was tasty, but sweet and very creamy (actual cream...not really normal in Indian cuisine).

Mitouya

Rating: OK
Meal: Lunch
Price: 1080 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes:  Ramen
English Menu: No
Smoking: No (didn't see any ashtrays)

After church on Sunday in Ueno, I was by myself, so I popped into a ramen shop nearby for some food.  The ramen was decent, the eggs were nice and runny, and the pork was very good, but overall it wasn't incredible.

Marco

Rating: OK
Meal: Lunch
Price: 1000 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes:  Carbonara lunch set
English Menu: No
Smoking: No

In an effort to salvage what remained of a lunch gone bad as I continue reviewing spots near Kenritsudaigaku station, I found Marco, an italian restaurant, relatively close by.  The lunch special is quite decent, with several choices for the main course, a nice pre-meal set of 3 tasty items, a salad, dessert and a hot or cold drink for 1000 yen.

I chose the carbonara pasta set, which was decent enough, though unremarkable.  The 3 little bites were nice looking, but lacking in great flavor.  Overall I wasn't super impressed, but it was good enough.  Probably wouldn't come back on purpose though.

Sobakko

Rating: Nasty

Meal:  Lunch
Price:  750 yen
Payment:  Cash only
Dishes: Cold soba with mountain yam, kimchi, egg and one shrimp tempura
English Menu: No

Smoking: Not while I was there, but possibly

Another Kenritsudaigaku review, Sobakko was pretty terrible.  The shrimp tempura was one of the grossest things I have ever eaten at a Japanese restaurant.  Then I mixed up the ingredients and tried to eat the soba with the slimy mountain yam and it just tasted...terrible.  I realized as I faced the prospect of trying to eat this grossness that I didn't actually have to eat it, and shameful though it was, I said thank you very much and left to find something else to eat for lunch.

I guess it's possible I just didn't do a good job picking my dish, but ultimately that doesn't matter.  These reviews are based on my experience eating there, and if it's bad, unless there are serious mitigating circumstances, that's how I'm going to call it.

Yokosuka Sarumen

Rating: OK
Meal: Lunch
Price: 1030 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes:  Sarumen, miso karaage
English Menu: No
Smoking: No

A friend mentioned to me the other day that a new restaurant had opened up and we should check it out.  This new restaurant is called Yokosuka Sarumen, which translates to Yokosuka Monkey Noodles.  It's not exactly ramen, but close enough that's what I'm going to classify it as.  Their claim to fame is that the noodles are made using wakame (seaweed) that is harvested off of Sarushima (Monkey Island), a small island quite close to Yokosuka.  You can take a ferry out to visit it and spend the day on the beach or exploring the island and its WWII battlements.

Sarumen

Their location is possibly either excellent or terrible, depending on how things go.  They are sandwiched between one of the best little tendon (tempura don) restaurants in town, and a pretty decent hakata style tonkotsu ramen joint.  There is often a line outside the tendon restaurant, so I could see people getting tired of waiting and just opting to eat at Sarumen.  However, once people have eaten there, they may find it hard to return knowing the other options that are available right there.  In any case, I wish them the best of luck with their endeavors.

Karaage

I had a regular bowl of their signature sarumen, though you can go up in size.  I also had  a side of miso karaage (fried chicken).  The noodles themselves were rather bland and uninteresting, though not offensive.  The karaage was quite tasty, and lacked that heavy powdered ginger/garlic taste that the typical konbini offerings do.  My friend opted for the single ticket teishoku including noodles, karaage, and rice, and he was quite disappointed that the soup was as small as it was, while there was so much karaage.  Unbalanced, he said.

Overall I'd give them an Ok,

Hanamaru

Rating: Not great
Meal: Dinner
Price: 1200 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Oden, some tempura pieces, udon with an egg
English Menu: Not really (not necessary)
Smoking: No

Hanamura is a cheap, fastfood-like chain that is quite common.  Recently a branch opened up in Yokosuka, replacing a shabu-shabu restaurant (Onyasi).  I decided to give it a quick review yesterday.

Quite a bit of food for 1200 yen

This type of oden restaurant usually also has tempura.  There was a special going on with oden available as well.  I went kind of nuts and got way too much food, but that's the way things go.  First you follow the arrow and grab your tray.  If you want oden, you get oden.  If you want tempura, you take as many as you wish.  Then you come to the udon section, where you can easily point to the picture of which one you wish, and choose your size.  They make it there and put it on your plate.  There are a few optional things to add on top, and then you pay for everything you've picked.

The oden wasn't great, but I did like the sticks with "meat" (probably intestines).  The tempura was really gross...kind of cold from sitting out and very greasy.  I couldn't eat more than a couple of bites.  Lastly, the udon dish I got was quite yummy, with seasoned meat and soft-boiled egg with the yolk still runny.  Once all mixed together it was creamy and quite nice.

Despite one decent dish, the overall impression of the place is unpleasant, and I would probably avoid going here unless I was showing someone else or couldn't afford anything else.  Even then I'd probably pick Sukiya over it.

Shinki

Rating: Very good
Meal: Dinner for 2
Price: 3200 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Drinks and yakitori
English Menu: No
Smoking:  Even if no one is actually smoking, you will smell like yakitori when you leave

The menu is a bit difficult to make out...

A friend at work recommended Shinki in Yokohama as one of the best examples of yakitori he's ever had in Japan.  So I and another friend decided to try it out on Friday night.  The spot is tiny, with no sign.  When we arrived we were lucky and there were two empty spots at the bar next to each other, so we squeezed our way behind everyone else and sat down.

Sake

My friend ordered an ulongchahi and I had some sake.  Both were adequate.  We had been told to definitely try both the chicken skin and liver for sure, and we ordered a few other things as well.  Pictures below.  The overall impression was very good, the yakitori was definitely some of the best I've had.  If I were a huge yakitori fan, I might even rate this place Excellent, but I just can't get super excited about yakitori for some reason.  But even so, this was exceptionally good.

Chicken skin, crisp on the outside, soft (but not rubbery) on the inside.

Cucumber and miso paste

Liver...melts in your mouth

Rosu, fatty pork I believe

Motsu - innards of some kind