Thrashzone Meatballs

Rating: Very good
Meal: Dinner
Price:  2800 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Two meatball sandwiches, 2 beers
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

Thrashzone is a brewing company/bar in Yokohama, the makers of what is probably my favorite beer in Japan.  Previously I had met up with a friend for theological discussions at the Thrashzone bar near Yokohama train station occasionally.  That place is nice enough, playing soft heavy metal in the background, but only provided some rather excellent french fries on the food menu.  That's ok though because the stars of the place are the beers.  I absolutely love Speed Kills, and their other beers (Hop Deicide being another good one) are excellent if you like strong, northwest style IPAs.

Stout

My wife and I went out to a Baystars baseball game in Yokohama on Friday.  She got the tickets for my birthday, but since she knows full well that baseballs games are a special kind of torture for me, she really got them for her birthday, which is in August.  But I'm a good sport (hah!) so I decided to enjoy myself the best I could.  Plus, a Japanese baseball game is it's own unique cultural event, so I was pleased to experience it for the first (and probably last) time.

Speed Kills Light IPA

We had some time before the game began so I began hunting around the area for a place to eat using bento.com's handy area reviews (highly recommended!).  I was amazed to discover Thrashzone Meatballs, the first expansion of the Thrashzone brand I am aware of.  It is located very close to the Yokohama Stadium, so we headed for it to see what there was.  Meatballs sounded very intriguing.

Meatball sandwich

It's a very spare, concrete room with the usual beers on tap.  I had the Speed Kills Light, which was just as strong as usual, so maybe the "light" refers to less hops, but I couldn't tell, tasted great to me.  My wife had their stout, which we don't often have, and I have to say I was quite impressed.  The meatballs come in two types:  in a pan or on bread.  We opted for the sandwich variety, which was pretty good actually, though I think you would get more meatballs for the price by going with the pan options (they range from a few up to 13).  The bread wasn't soft nothingness with a good chew, but not too chewy.  The meatballs were the best surprise as they were not that hyper-processed nastiness you get with store-bought meatballs, but were clearly real meat and nicely spiced.  It reminded me of some German dishes we've had before.  They came in a red sauce which didn't overwhelm the sandwich.  Lastly the cheese on top was some kind of real cheese, possibly gouda, also with good flavor.

Overall we were very surprised by the quality of the food and combined with the excellent beer that definitely rates a Very Good in my opinion.  I'll be happy to accompany my wife to future baseball games, as long as it means I get to spend the time in the nearby Thrashzone!