Midtown BBQ

Rating: Very good
Meal:  Lunch for 2
Price: 7000 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted

Dishes:  "big boy" platter (3lbs+ of meat!), half order of wagyu brisket, 1 small beer

It's been a long time, I know!  We've been eating carnivore, and with the COVID nonsense haven't been getting out to eat at new places for quite some time.  However, I have big news...we are leaving Japan at the end of November 2020!  Crazy, we've lived here for 9 years now, but for a variety of convergent reasons, we have decided to move back to our hometown of Newberg, OR.  I am looking forward to continuing this blog as I work my way through all the new restaurants that have popped up there since we left.  Once they are all allowed to open up that is.

Anyway, as we are about two weeks away from leaving, we are starting to go out again more often.  We had a spare Saturday and decided to take the train up to Yokohama.  Now, we aren't currently allowed to eat inside restaurants in Yokohama, unfortunately, but we are allowed to eat outside.  We are still carnivores, so we decided to try one of the BBQ places we've heard about but never been to.  Midtown BBQ is a newer spot (started in Nagoya I believe?) that we checked out first.  I was sooo hungry as I'd skipped breakfast, so I was really hoping it would work out.

It's an underground restaurant, but as we came to the staircase it looked like there was no outdoor seating.  But then we spoke with the friendly manager (Mark) who said they were thinking about putting tables outside their door downstairs, where the air is still fresh, to accommodate those of us from Yokosuka who still have to follow these rules.  They hadn't done it yet, but would pull a table outside just for us if we wanted.  We wanted...so on we went.

The menu is quite full, but we just wanted the good stuff, and he recommended the Big Boy platter with 3lbs of meat.  Since we didn't have as many sides (veg) they threw a little more meat than usual, so it must have been closer to 3.5 lbs.  Then he sold me on the wagyu brisket, so we ordered a half of that.  This definitely upped the price, but without it I'd say the Big Boy platter is definitely a good deal for what you get.  Later we tried a small beer.

The food was delicious, though I wasn't as fond of the sausage (too hot doggy for me, and the burps later were intense).  Everything else, particularly the ribs, pulled pork and chicken were excellent.  The wagyu brisket was ok, I wouldn't go for it again.  Then again recently my boss had us over for a goodbye meal where he smoked a wagyu brisket for us and that was crazy crazy good...fresh of the smoker.  Hard to beat that.

So we stuffed ourselves as much as we could and had to take some home.  I did suffer the rest of the day a bit with being overfull, and couldn't eat anything else the rest of the day.  Reminded me of the times I ate OMAD (one meal a day) carnivore when I would eat that one meal prior to going to bed at night.  But I feel fine today.  My wife managed to eat the left overs for dinner though.

Overall, great spot, very accommodating, and delicious BBQ.  Highly recommended!

 

Kamakura Yumcha Lou

Rating: OK
Meal:  Dinner
Price: 2160 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Charshu, scrambled egg and greens, 6 pieces of dimsum
English Menu: No
Smoking: No

Grabbed dinner again at Yokohama Station last night.  Found this odd Chinese/Ramen restaurant.  Was interested in the dimsum, which was just ok.

Caspian

Rating: Very good
Meal: Dinner for 2
Price: 6400 yen
Dishes:  Soup, eggplant dip, yogurt drinks, kebab, lamb shank
Payment: Credit cards accepted
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No (yes outside)

Caspian is the first Iranian/Persian restaurant I've found in Japan since being here 8 years.  I've known about it for a while, but it's in an odd place that we almost never find ourselves, so I haven't been able to get it yet.  But yesterday was a Friday and my son and I had to go to Costco, so I thought we should drive a bit further to try this place out.

Dough

It's very nice inside, spacious, and has a totally different feel from most restaurants in Japan.  The staff appear to be Iranian and the dishes are legit.  They even have dough, the Iranian version of laban/ayran/lassi and it's salty!  Also, they have their own parking lot, with only 3 spaces, but still that's 3 more than most places!

Soup

There were so many great looking dishes, though sadly fessenjan was not among them.  My son had the basic kebab, which wasn't terribly expensive, and I had a lamb shank which also seemed well priced.  Of course, we ended up buying a few other things that elevated the price by the end, but it was worth it.

Eggplant dip

I did order a shisha, but I removed it from the price above.  This was a serious disappointment, I do not recommend getting their shisha.

Lamb shank

The food was all good, but under spiced, especially in the salt department.  Luckily there was salt on the table so that is easily rectified.  The lamb was super tender, falling off the bone, and the sauce was delicious.  The bread was great, thin, but still chewy, freshly made.  My son's kebab was pretty good, and it looks like they have some very interesting more expensive kebab options I'd like to sample next time.

Kebab

I'll definitely be returning with my wife when she gets back from her trip.

Rio Grande Grill

Rating: Very good
Meal: Lunch for 2
Price: 7776 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

My wife and I were in Yokohama last Saturday looking for lunch.  We wandered around an area we hadn't seen before, a kind of open air mall called Bay Quarter next to the Sogo department store, east of Yokohama station.  We spied a Brazilian BBQ restaurant and hesitated a moment before going in.  Brazilian BBQ is always expensive, but we figured lunch had to be cheaper than dinner (it is), so we might as well give it a shot.

Salad bar

I stuck to the meat, while my wife also had some soup and salad.  Once the servers started swinging by the meat began to pile up.  They had a lot of good stuff, and both of us commented that the flavors were good and the meat nicely salted (which was good as there was no salt on the table).  The salad bar was a bit disappointing however, and the soups were quite flavorless.

Chicken and sausage

I didn't bother getting photos of all the meat, just a couple, along with my wife's salad.  Buffets are hard for pictures.  Overall I enjoyed it, much more than the other one I ate at in Roppongi a while back (Barbacoa).  That being said, the expense means we are not likely to eat here often.  I hear there is another Brazilian BBQ that is a bit less chain-like in another are in Yokohama that I'm looking forward to trying out.

Some kind of beef or lamb

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

Hungry Tiger

Rating: Very good
Meal: Dinner for3
Price: 6000 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes:  BBQ ribs, regular hamburger steak, lamb rack and hamburger combo
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

Well, this was a surprise!  For many years now we've spied a restaurant called Hungry Tiger as we would drive by on the toll road.  It was high and inaccessible, and we assumed it was a "family style" restaurant that is common around here and not very appetizing.  Every year on New Years day we usually try to go out and find somewhere to eat, but since everything is closed we usually end up eating at one of these family style restaurants.  It's become something of an ironic tradition now.  The year before last we tried going to Hungry Tiger and were shocked to discover it was closed!  This year we are trying a new diet (keto) starting Monday and knew we wouldn't be able to eat out on New Years day, so we decided to eat at Hungry Tiger on Sunday instead.  It was not what we expected.

Apparently this is a Yokohama only chain that specializes in high quality hamburger steaks (known as "hamburg" here) and regular steaks.  The menu isn't very complex and they have English menus as well.  The main thing that jumped out at us was the pricing...nothing was under 1200 yen.  Definitely not your typical "family style" restaurant.  My son ordered some ribs, my wife wanted chicken but they were out so she had their standard hamburg, and I had a lamb rack hamburg combo.  We ordered the soup/salad/rice combo for one of the dishes.

All of us were quite pleased with the quality and taste.  My son loved his ribs, though wanted more, and the hamburg was very good, consisting of a huge hunk of high quality ground meat that finished cooking on the hotplate, cut in half face down.  The lamb was tasty too, though a bit tougher to chew.  All of it was drizzled in a couple of gravies.

A really enjoyable experience overall, and the restaurant itself is quite different than the usual you see here.  I suggested maybe we make Hungry Tiger the yearly New Year's tradition...as long as you don't go on New Years day!  That's the only day it's closed.

Dairyu

Rating: OK
Meal:  Dinner
Price:  1780 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes:  Deep fried intestines, gyoza, shumai, cold chicken
English Menu: No
Smoking: No

Another visit to Yokohama to hang with a friend from church.  We opted for a Chinese spot because they are usually cheap.  I forgot to take pictures of the food, sorry, but it wasn't all that inspiring.  I tried to stick with non-rice dishes but ended up consuming a lot of wheat dough instead.  The deep fried hormone (intestines) were quite delicious I thought.  The rest of it was just meh, with the shumai being the least enjoyable, quite sweet.  A truly unremarkable spot, just ok.  But I wasn't there for the food, so that's fine.

Jin Din Rou

Rating: OK
Meal:  Dinner for 2
Price:  3300 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes:  Soup dumpling sampler, shumai sampler, cold chicken with peanut sauce
English Menu: No
Smoking: No

My wife and I hopped on the train on Wednesday night and headed up to the Yokohama Sogo department store to check out some modern futons and actually try them out.  Then we had dinner upstairs on the 10th floor at Jin Din Rou, a chinese restaurant specializing in dim sum.

Cold chicken with peanut sauce

We opted for a couple of samplers, first of the soup dumplings, and second of the shumai.  Also we ordered a cold chicken with peanut sauce appetizer to round things out.  We were planning on ordering more if we felt hungry, but ended being quite satisfied.

Soup dumpling sampler

Of the soup dumplings, the oolong tea were the best, with the crab being a close follow up.  The shumai wasn't that great in my opinion.  The cold chicken was delicious.

Shumai sampler

I would have given this place a Very Good if it wasn't so pricey, especially compared with the dumpling spot right next to where our church is meeting now in Ueno.

Danke

Rating: Not great
Meal: Dinner
Price: 4286 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Steak and some drinks
English Menu: No
Smoking: No

At last I'm caught up with my backlog!  Last night I was in Yokohama again to meet a friend and afterwards ate at what I think is the last restaurant in this particular underground area of Isetan.  Danke is a german themed izakaya, but they seem at pains to scare away foreigners, from the greeting (In Japanese:  "Can you read Japanese?") to the completely Japanese menus (except for drinks!).

I went for a good looking steak that was quite disappointing when it showed up...it was much smaller than expected for the price.  Anywhoo, I ate it, quaffed some whiskey and got outta there.

RRainbow

Rating: OK
Meal:  Dinner
Price:  4500 yen
Payment:  Credit cards accepted
Dishes:  L-bone steak
English Menu: Yes
Smoking:  No

Another meeting in Yokohama, another underground restaurant.  I was sucked in by the big pictures of a "meat festival" at RRainbow (I am not messing with the ampersand in the name), a Hawaiian themed restaurant.  The steak wasn't very good and was quite chewy.  It was also quite expensive.  Oh well...should have stuck with the Hawaiian dishes!

Quite rare..I wasn't asked