Shuri

This photo of Nangoku Shokudo Shuri Yokohama is courtesy of TripAdvisor

because I forgot to take one

Rating: Very good
Meal: Lunch for 2
Price: 2900 yen
Payment: Goya champuru and gyusugi teishoku, rafute
English Menu: No
Smoking: No

My wife and I went to Yokohama on Saturday to look at some mattresses and while there decided to grab lunch.  We ended up at the More's City building where there are several restaurants on the top two floors.  We were going to eat at the Hungry Tiger but the line was insane, so we opted for the Okinawan Shuri.

Goya Champuru

The lunch menu was filled with the usual favorites and my wife wanted some goya champuru, while I liked the look of the gyusugi.  I also wanted to be sure I got my fill of fatty pork, so I ordered some rafute as well.  There was also an extensive list of awamori, complete with furigana for the names (making it much easier to tell what you are ordering) and age information.  I'd like to come back some time and try a few of their older vintages.

Gyusugi

The food was decent and tasty, and quite cheap (lunch prices).  I'd definitely stop back in here if I had a hankering for some heavy Okinawan food, which happens quite often I'd say.

Rafute

Kijimuna

Rating: OK
Meal:  Dinner for 2
Price:  3200 yen
Payment:  Cash only
Dishes:  Rafute, fu champuru, 3 drinks (awamori)
English Menu: No
Smoking: Yes

Please keep in mind, I only review food, so while this little underground bar has some of the best awamori I've ever tasted, this review is of the food.  Anyway, beneath Nawlins there are a couple of bars.  This one is marked on the sidewalk by a yellow sign with a green tree and "Okinawan Dining Bar" on it.  If you walk down the slightly scary staircase underground, you will open the door to find a really cute, nicely decorated Okinawan bar.  What immediately strikes the viewer are the 5 or 6 large clay pots on the counter.  These house various awamori (a distilled thai rice liquor from Okinawa), all of which are at least 4 years old, some as old as 8 years.  I've come to appreciate awamori and though I knew about this place I hadn't been back in a long time and realized I'd never reviewed it for its food.  The other night my wife and I were looking for nearby places to eat so we wouldn't have to walk far in this heat and humidity, so we stopped in for some awamori and okinawan food.

Rafute

The menu is not in English, but the proprietor (Mr. Cho) speaks decent English and can point stuff out if you need help.  I ordered some rafute, which is marinated pork belly sliced up.  My wife had some fu champuru, which is egg and meat stir fried with gluten (yup, pure gluten...eat your heart out!).  My rafute was a bit tarter than usual, and I wasn't terribly impressed by it.  My wife's champuru was definitely better though.  Obviously, food is not the main point at this place, but it was decent enough.

Fu Champuru

BTW, if you are interested in awamori recommendations there, so far the 4 year old Yanbaru Kuina is my favorite, with the 8 year old Zuisen a close second.

Yuntako

Rating: OK
Meal: Dinner
Price: 2150 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes:  Sashimi (fish and horse), goya champuru
English Menu: No
Smoking: Yes

The temperature outside is finally coming down and I risked leaving my air conditioned apartment to hunt for some dinner last night.  As we're trying a low carb thing I figured I could find some yakitori or something, but instead ended up at an Okinawan izakaya.

fish of some kind

I asked after the sashimi selections and didn't quite understand the response, but ordered them anyway.  The first dish was a plate of some kind of silvery fish that was ok, not great.  The second was raw horse meat, not my favorite, but certainly low carb!

horse sashimi

Then I waited...it took forever but finally I got my goya champuru and was decent enough.  Overall, not a great impression, but maybe if I go back someday and try some other stuff I'll like it more.

goya champuru

Ajijiman

Rating: Very good
Meal: Dinner for 2
Price:  8834 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Lots of little dishes, a bottle of awamori
English Menu: No, but good pictures
Smoking: Yes

After the second day of the tournament my wife and I got to leave a bit early and had some time to explore the main drag near our Airbnb for a good place to eat.  We ended up at a brightly colored izakaya specializing in Okinawan food as we were really craving some.  I wanted some awamori (local rice drink) and thought I was ordering a small serving but ended up accidentally ordering a bottle, thus inflating the price above quite a bit.  I didn't get a breakdown of the charges or I would have subtracted it.  I'm guessing it was between 3 - 4,000 yen (waaay more than just buying it at the grocery store, oh well).  It was delicious though and we managed to polish it off by the end of the evening.

Delicious awamori

We ordered a bunch of little dishes so I'll just put the pictures below and try to remember what they were.  The food was really quite good and we enjoyed ourselves a lot, so I'm giving this place a Very Good.

Ham wrapped avocado

Fried rice

Goya champuru

Fu champuru

soki

French fries

Not sure...delicious pork

Anone

Rating: Very good
Meal: Dinner for 2
Price:  3020 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Goya champuru, fried rice, tofuyou otoshi, coke, awamori
English Menu:Yes
Smoking:Yes

***Update 7/10/2018***
I popped back in to this place last night as I'd heard their selection of awamori was larger than I originally realized.  Had a couple of drinks and some sashimi.  It was quite delicious.  Also, they had an English menu, so figured I should update the review to reflect that fact.
***

My son and I went back to the building from last week, this time going upstairs instead of down, to try the izakaya there.  Turns out this place specializes in Okinawan cuisine, which is great, because I love that stuff!

Otoshi of the day - dashi broth with daikon and tuna

There was no fried rice on the (Japanese) menu, but I asked if they could make some and they did.  I went for the goya champuru (asked for a small bowl of rice) and couldn't help myself from ordering some tofuyou (delicious fermented tofu...like cream cheese).  A coke for my son and awamori for me.

Goya champuru

The decorations are really neat, the place feels like an old-school comfy spot that I wouldn't mind returning to some time.  There are tatami mats with backed seats (no hole for your feet) and bar seating.  The music was excellent (jazz and soul).

Tofuyou

A nice surprise, and I'm looking forward to bringing my wife back here some time.  Helps that it's 1 minute from our apartment.

Chahan

Hamakaze

Rating: Very good
Meal: Lunch for 3
Price: 2950 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Fried rice, goya champuru, buttered fish, katsudon
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

Finally!  We got some goya while in Okinawa!  Apparently goya is a summer vegetable, so many places weren't serving it.  Hamakaze is a smallish roadside restaurant right on the way to and from Okuma Beach Resort.  The food is better and cheaper than available on the resort, it's worth a stop.  When we went it was really busy but we found out this was due to a funeral happening just down the road that was letting out for lunch.  I imagine it's not usually so full.  We had to return in 30 minutes for a table.

Fried rice

My wife got a buttered fish teishoku that was super delicious.  My son was happy with is fried rice and I got a katsudon (I know, very unimaginative).  I also got a goya champuru dish so we could have that all important goya dish.  It was quite tasty.

Buttered fish

Katsudon

Goya champuru

Wahaha

Rating: OK
Meal:  Dinner for 2
Price: 3390 yen (includes awamori)
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Fu champuru, okinawan pancake (hirayachi), tofu-yo
English Menu: Yes
Smoking:Yes (lots)

After another late night of roller derby in Okinawa, my wife and I decided to walk down to this Okinawan izakaya called Wahaha that was really close to our hotel.  My son was satisfied with some conbini food, and we knew it would probably be smoky (yowzers, was it ever, my coat stank the next day).

Awamori with water and ice bucket

We were hoping to do our truly "okinawan" meal here (which means goya must be on the menu) but we were told they were all out.  I also wanted my wife to try "fu" champuru which is made with gluten that has the consistency of eggs.  This they had, along with an okinawan savory pancake (hirayachi) and tofu-yo (tofu fermented in awamori).  We also tried out some awamori, which wasn't as good as my favorite brand (Zuisen Couth FTW!) that I can get in Yokosuka.  (I did get to visit the Zuisen Distillery, so cool!)

Tofu-yo

Anyway, the food was all right here, but not amazing, and the smoke is a real turn off.

Fu-champuru

Okinawan pancake (hirayachi)

Nantoya

Rating: OK
Meal:  Lunch for 3
Price: 2430 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Soki Okinawan soba, Okinawan soba, pork bowl teishoku
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

This restaurant is located inside of Okinawa World, a theme park that I took my son and another boy to during our recent trip.  I do recommend the entire park, especially the caves and the Habu snake museum/show.  For lunch, we all settled on Nantoya in a food court area in one of the buildings.  They use a ticket vending machine for dishes, but everything is very clearly labeled in English.

Okinawan soba

I got a Soki Okinawan soba, which consisted of Okinawan soba noodles (which are not at all like actual soba noodles as they are not made from buckwheat) in a light broth with boiled pork of some kind.  It was pretty good.  I really liked the jushi (rice in with some veg cooked in a broth).

Pork rice bowl

One kid got a different soba dish, which just had some smaller pieces of soft cooked pork, and the other got a pork rice bowl.  No one complained about their food for once!

Soki okinawan soba