Yakiniku Sakai

Rating: OK
Meal: Lunch
Price: 1400 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Yakiniku lunch set plus half size oxtail soup
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No (smoking section available)

Ah yakiniku, not my favorite cuisine, but if you are going to eat it, lunchtime is best.  Most places have lunch specials that aren't insanely expensive and come with a salad, rice and soup.  Yakiniku Sakai is located a bit down the road from Yokosuka proper, next to a pachinko parlor.  It's got a big garage attached and a lovely view of Tokyo Bay and Sarushima.  Looks like it's been around since the '80s given the general upkeep, but it's sufficient to the task.  Also, they use actual charcoal, so that's a plus.

I cooked my meat, at it, and paid. It was ok.  The oxtail soup was disappointing in that it had no meat chunks in it.

Just average really.

Kushiya Monogatari

Rating: Not great
Meal: Lunch for 2
Price: 3400 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes: All you can eat deep fried food on sticks
English Menu: No (not needed)
Smoking: No (but you will smell like a fry cook afterwards)

I swear I wrote a review on this place but apparently it disappeared.  Kushiya Monogatari is "kushiage" or "things on sticks that you deep fry at your table".  This is a thing in Japan, and probably only in Japan, which makes it worth checking out at least once.  Then you can decide if this is something you like.  My wife and I have done it twice now, and we're pretty sure it isn't our thing.

Chicken precooked

This place in More's City is convenient, clean, and relatively cheap at lunch.  It's 70 minutes, all you can eat.  Be sure to put your coats under the seats as they will reek otherwise.  You go get your sticks, bring them to your table, batter them up, roll in panko, and put it in the deep frier in the middle of the table.  There is an English set of instructions with recommended times.  There are several multi-timers available in various app stores that make this much easier to keep track of.

Chicken post cooked

Aside from stuff on sticks to deep fry, there are lots of other foods available, my favorite being rice and pickles.  But you can also eat curry (for the kids I'm sure) and salad.  There's a dessert section too with a chocolate (white this time, yuck) fountain do dip marshmallows in.

I was suffering the rest of the day from my stomach's reaction to the grease...getting old sucks!  And the pace is pretty frantic as you have to constantly keep getting more sticks, keep track of all the times for different things, and refilling your batter/panko as you make a mess trying to properly coat everything.  Like I said, worth doing once (or twice) but it's not our thing.

Tori no Su

Rating: Very good
Meal:  Dinner
Price:  3710 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Pork and chicken yakitori, chicken rice dish, hot sake
English Menu:Yes
Smoking:Yes

Tori no Su is an izakaya located above my favorite liquor store (Hitomoto).  For some reason I had never tried it so I gave it a shot last night.  It's a bit louder and more boisterous than most izakayas I've been to, but it wasn't too bad.  They had an english menu that made ordering easy.

Otoushi and sake

The otoushi (mandatory appetizer) was really tasty with some very salty fish and fish roe combined with blander but tasty re-hydrated tofu.  I had a couple of pork belly on sticks as well as the yakitori combo.  The pork belly was really good and the yakitori mix was more of a hit or miss affair.  Mainly because I'm not super fond of cartilage, but the other stuff was quite good.  Loved the liver.  I also ordered a rice with chicken dish that complemented the other food nicely.  I was definitely full when finished.  Oh, and of course some hot sake to chase away the chill of winter.

Overall a pleasant experience and the food was very good.

Pork belly

Yakitori mix

Chicken rice dish

Katsuya

Rating: OK
Meal: Lunch
Price: 1090 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Katsudon and tonjiru
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

A friend of mine at work wanted to show me a new tonkatsu restaurant he had found.  It's a bit of a drive from work, but we made the trip in an hour barely.

Katsuya is a chain of tonkatsu restaurants that my wife and I had eaten at once long ago closer to Yokota.  We remarked that it was a good thing this chain didn't exist closer to home as it's very convenient, usually has parking lots, and is quite cheap.  We noticed this branch open up at some point, but since we don't live down near Kurihama anymore we haven't had a chance to eat there again.

It was quite decent, and I would probably give it a Very Good were there not such great competition.  I would say it goes  Hirokatsu, then Wako, then Katsuya, then 7-11.  However their tonjiru (pork soup) was absolutely delicious and I was glad I got an extra large bowl of the stuff.  This place is always a welcome sight when I'm in my car around lunch time.

Joukoen

Rating: OK
Meal: Lunch for 2
Price: 1700 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: 2 rather forgettable dishes
English Menu: No
Smoking:Yes

We were downtown on Sunday morning for the first service of a new church plant we are a part of.  We won't be meeting every week for a while yet.  After the service several of us went to find a place to eat lunch together and this spot was selected, a Chinese restaurant whose name I'm not sure I caught correctly.

The fare was pretty typical of Japanese Chinese restaurants, and the prices were nice and low.  We weren't there for the food, so I didn't pay too much attention, but it was pretty unimpressive.  Nonetheless we had a good time there talking with people and I don't harbor any resentment towards the restaurant.  I was rather busy so I didn't get around to taking a picture of the dishes (no need to be that obnoxious), but you can see the types of dishes on the menu above.

Hokkaishabushabu

Rating: Very good
Meal:  Dinner
Price:  2600 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Lamb shabu shabu
English Menu: No
Smoking:Yes

Still looking for every last restaurant near me to review, so I swung by this shabu-shabu place I've seen for a long time, but since I'm not terribly fond of shabu-shabu I had avoided it thus far.  Hokkai Shabu Shabu specializes apparently in Hokkaido versions of shabu-shabu, which in this case seems to mean lamb.  I ordered the cheapest thing I could find on the menu and got a free drink with it (maybe it was all you can drink but I think you had to go up one level for that).  I got a Sapporo beer of course!

The big nabe pot had a ton of broth and veggies in it, and while that started to boil they brought me a platter full of lamb.  I think if you had a bowl of rice each, you could easily share this between two people.  But I didn't ask for any rice and just ate my meat and veggies.  The tough part was towards the end when I wanted to drink up ever last bit of broth.  I ended up turning the gas off and using the napkins to pour the broth into the small bowl and slurp it down.  It really hit the spot on a cold night.

So oddly enough I really enjoyed it despite its shabu-shabu-ness.  A pity some people arrived and lit up, but otherwise it was a pleasant experience.

Beavertails

Rating: Very good
Meal:  Lunch snack
Price:  1150 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Nutella covered and basil garlic butter
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

Sadly, the pouteen was sold out

Seeking to make the most of our "street/fair food" frenzy at the La Qua near the Tokyo Dome, my wife and I determined to have some of the delicious looking "beavertails" (aka fried bread with stuff on) being sold from a mobile van in the middle of the open area.  Oh my, am I glad we did!  This stuff is like manna from heaven!  You can put pretty much anything on top, or just slather with butter and go to town!  Not overly oily, and deliciously crisp in the center, they are dangerously addictive.  Probably a good thing we don't have one anywhere near us.

Beavertails is a Canadian franchise, so I'm not sure how it got over here, but I'm glad it did.  Maybe we'll see more of them around town if they get popular.  Highly recommended.