Kuimonoyawan

Rating: Very good
Meal:  Dinner for 2
Price:  5256 yen ( -1500 yen for drinks)
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes:  Oden, yakitori, tsukune, carbonara gyoza...and other stuff...see below
English Menu:Yes - best English accomodation I've ever seen in a Japanese restaurant
Smoking:Yes but individual booths limit the seepage

Thursday night is Izakaya night and my son and I ate at the next to last one located in the Gold's Gym building on Blue Street, Kuimonoyawan.  This a chain you see advertised everywhere in Japan, usually recognizable by the giant "wan" (わん) on their signs.  Although the hallway outside the place reeked of nasty old stale smoke, the restaurant itself was nice, clean and well decorated.  We were shown to a private 2 person booth with an area under the table for our legs (much appreciated).

Communication sheet

They brought us 2 very nice English menus, along with a "communication" sheet with every possible interaction spelled out in English and Japanese so you could just point to something to be understood.  I was quite impressed with the flow-chart like diagrams and decisions laid out very well.  I wouldn't mind stealing of these sheets for especially difficult situations!

Otoshi salad (one free refill!)

The food itself was surprisingly large in size and I ended up over ordering for the two of us.  Recent experience leads me to assume all the dishes will be quite small, but not necessarily at this place!  The oden was a mere 650 yen, but when it arrived the bowl took up most of the table and there was literally half of a giant daikon radish sitting there.  I think I ended up eating about 1/8th of it.

Tamago, hot and surprisingly tasty

My son's picky tastes were not so easily catered to, as he did not care for most of the cheese inside things he ordered (some of the yakitori) or the tsukune.  He did like the cheese platter (missing from pictures for some reason) which had camambert and gouda.  He was most disappointed by the carbonara gyoza dish which contained potatoes and onions, two of his least favorite things.  I, on the other hand, liked pretty much everything that came, with the exception of the yakitori which was very small in size, kind of cold, and not very tasty.

Holy cow oden!

I think I actually look forward to coming back to that place some day, and it's nice to know they are about as common as McDonalds!

Beef tongue croquette

Cheese stuffed tsukune with raw egg yolk for dipping

Carbonara gyoza (with potatoes and onions)

Various "special" yakitori sticks...not great