Chotaro

Rating: Not great
Meal: Dinner for 2
Price: 5250 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Garlic fried rice, tamagoyaki, wagyu steak with teishoku set, whiskey highball, coke
English Menu:  No
Smoking: Not sure...no ashtrays but the place had a stale smoke smell

I was excited the other day to see a new basement restaurant had opened up in the Mikasa Mall, a covered walk way with many of our local shops.  It was a "meat bar" izakaya so that was a plus.  My son and I tried it out the other night and I was pretty disappointed by it.

Mandatory appetizer

It's down underground, and was probably a different kind of place before, I'm guessing a karaoke joint or something like that.  It's quite spacious, but unfortunately it's also kind of fusty and dank (not the good kind of dank) with a stale smoke smell to it.  We didn't see any ashtrays, so maybe that's lingering from the previous owners.  The decor is stunningly tasteless...truly something to behold.  There is no English menu yet, but that'll probably come in time.  Of course, the drink menu was in English, and I tried a bourbon whiskey highball, while my son had a coke.

Tamagoyaki

My son wanted fried rice of course, but didn't care for the kimchi version, so he settled for garlic (level up!) and some tamagoyaki.  I ordered the wagyu steak, as the advertise as a "meat bar".  My son liked his stuff well enough, but I was quite disappointed by the steak as it was one of the toughest I've had in some time.

Garlic fried rice

Overall I was unimpressed and am unlikely to return.

Rice, miso soup and pickles

Wagyu steak