Gohanya Honoka

Rating: OK
Meal:  Dinner
Price: 980 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Steak donburi (rice bowl) teishoku
English Menu: Yes
Smoking:No

Gohanya Honoka is a relatively new spot, so Google Maps still shows a different restaurant there.  But I think it's been over a year since they opened, so I'm not sure how long it takes for Google Maps to get updated.  I've eaten here once before and it's an ok place, though it looks like it should be nicer than it is.  It's basically a Japanese teishoku restaurant, but it's newer, fresher, more modern in design, and staffed by younger people than one usually finds in a teishoku restaurant.  Usually it's an old couple running the place.

Steak donburi

The English menu is nicely laid out with pictures to make selection easy.  When I was here for lunch, I don't recall what I ordered as a main dish, but I do recall they gave me some nasty spaghetti mayonnaise thing as a side dish and it kind of turned me off to the whole experience.  This time I ordered a "steak donburi" teishoku.  The side dishes were just some tsukemono (pickles) and miso soup.  The miso soup was quite good with full flavor.  The pickles were good too.  The steak donburi itself wasn't bad, with thinly sliced portions of beef still pink in the middle arranged in a dome around the rice.  Oddly, I didn't care for the rice itself...I'm not sure why...perhaps it was too hot or something, but while I often enjoy the plain rice itself with a bite of meat I wasn't getting it here.  There was something on the menu about their "special rice", so maybe that has something to do with it.  It wasn't terrible, I just found myself wanting some kind of sauce to put on it to make it more enjoyable.

Overall, this meal was better than the last one by a long shot.  And while I would like to give them a higher rating based on their ambition, the food taste itself doesn't quite merit more than an Ok.