Hidakaya

Rating: Not great
Meal: Dinner for 2
Price: 1400 yen
Payment:  Cash only
Dishes: Fried rice, spicy ramen
English Menu: No
Smoking: Yes ("smoking section" is really the same room)

So there's this huge apartment building that they've been working on for the past 4 years or so.  It's getting close to being finished and some places are opening up in it at last.  I was pleased to see a restaurant opening the other day, and my son and I decided to give it a shot.

Unfortunately, it turns out to be just another Japanese chinese food restaurant, this one a chain that can be found everywhere, like McDonald's.  In fact, if you think of it in that category, it's probably pretty good actually.  They actually have another branch about 2 blocks closer to Chuo station!  I'd been meaning to review it eventually, but it wasn't high on my list because I had eaten there years ago and not liked it much.

Well, turns out the food quality consistency is spot on...it's still not very good.  But it's cheap!  Very cheap...and my son was happy with is fried rice.  I got a special spicy ramen with veg in it that wasn't bad at all for the 700 yen price tag.  Definitely on the list of places I'll probably frequent someday when I'm scraping every yen coin trying to survive on an English teacher's salary (a not too distant future I'm sure).  It's nice to know such places exist on just about every corner.

However, there is the smoking issue.  There's no actual barrier between the smoking and non-smoking sections.  Yes, it's 2016 and a brand new restaurant opens in a brand new building and you will be inhaling lots of second hand smoke with your food.  I get it with the old places...but new?  And a restaurant chain?  Weird...