Sheng Long Ting

Rating: OK
Meal:  Dinner for 2
Price: 2500 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: "stamina" fried rice, Miso sesame ramen
English Menu: Yes
Smoking:Smoking section on second 3rd floor

And bringing my day in Zushi to an end my friend and I decided to grab dinner at Sheng Long Ting, a Chinese restaurant right next to the Zushi JR station.  A friend of mine had told me it was pretty good, and I was suckered in by the sign looking all "chinesey".

Thankfully they separate their smoking and non-smoking sections by floor, so we didn't have to enjoy other people's cigarettes.  The Japanese menu goes on forever, but they did have some of it translated into English as well.  We weren't too hungry, nor did we want to spend a lot, so we got some cheap options.  I went for the "stamina" fried rice with every known meat thrown in (including shrimp and squid), while my friend opted for the miso sesame ramen, a bit of an unusual dish.

My fried rice was fine, nothing amazing.  He quite liked his ramen (I didn't taste it personally) but later was less enthusiastic, especially as the pork was a bit too chewy.

Oh well...I continue to hope someday I'll find that amazing Chinese restaurant...

Beach Muffin

Rating: Very good
Meal: Lunch snacks
Price: 1000 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Bean soup, fried potatoes
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

Beach Muffin is one of those tiny little funky spots that you'll find in the Kamakura/Zushi area.  They are a Vegan cafe, which is quite unusual.  Also, on the weekends they have 4 taps of Yorocco Beer available, a local Zushi microbrewery.  I was going to meet a friend there to sample the brews and was happy to try some food as well, though not as much I wanted (so I'll have to come back with some Vegan friends for a fuller review).

Mmmm...IPA goodness

The beer was excellent (though not included in the price above, each glass is 800 yen), I recommend the Porter and the IPA.  I ordered a bowl of bean soup and my friend ordered a basket of fried potatoes which he assured me was excellent.  It did take an awful long time for the food to arrive, but as my friend said...this place is seriously chill, so don't expect fast service.  On the other hand, you can hang around all afternoon and chat with friends without being pressured to leave, so that's nice too.

Bean soup (be warned:  here be celery!)

The soup was probably quite good, but unfortunately contained lots of celery, so I didn't have more than a bite or two.  My wife would have loved it I'm sure.  The potatoes were indeed excellent, coming in a large amount, nice firm wedges, and covered in a lot of satisfyingly chewy batter that reminded me of cheese (but it wasn't!).

Great fried potatoes

Apparently the house is really old and used to be a tofu store, so meat has never entered the kitchen...thus the vegan theme.  I met the proprietor as he was running off to perform a wedding (a common side job for gaijin here), and he was quite an interesting guy who I hope to chat more with in the future.

Anyway, I'm giving this place a Very Good rating based on the fries, and hope to try more of their food next time I visit.

Cantina

Rating: OK
Meal:  Lunch
Price: 1380 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Chicken and cabbage pizza
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

Zushi is a seaside town, kind of a yuppie attraction for Tokyoites who want to have a day at the beach.  It's got a kind of laid back vibe and there are all sorts of interesting spots to eat there.  I don't get there too often, but the other day I was going to meet a friend for some beers in the afternoon, so I figured I should get over a bit early and get a few reviews out of the deal as well.

Small salad

Cantina is an Italian Seafood restaurant right on the beach.  It's a little fancy, but as usual, lunch time is the time to try such places as they almost always have affordable lunch specials.  I went for the chicken and cabbage with mayo pizza.  Honestly, all of those things sounded good to me at the time, but when it arrived the whole thing together didn't really work.  The cabbage in particular had a strange flavor to me and I wouldn't have been surprised if they used some celery or celery salt as well.  There wasn't much to the taste and I had to ask for salt and hot oil to get it down.

Chicken and cabbage pizza

Overall I wasn't too impressed, so it gets an Ok.

Espresso

Hidakaya

Rating: Not great
Meal: Dinner for 2
Price: 1400 yen
Payment:  Cash only
Dishes: Fried rice, spicy ramen
English Menu: No
Smoking: Yes ("smoking section" is really the same room)

So there's this huge apartment building that they've been working on for the past 4 years or so.  It's getting close to being finished and some places are opening up in it at last.  I was pleased to see a restaurant opening the other day, and my son and I decided to give it a shot.

Unfortunately, it turns out to be just another Japanese chinese food restaurant, this one a chain that can be found everywhere, like McDonald's.  In fact, if you think of it in that category, it's probably pretty good actually.  They actually have another branch about 2 blocks closer to Chuo station!  I'd been meaning to review it eventually, but it wasn't high on my list because I had eaten there years ago and not liked it much.

Well, turns out the food quality consistency is spot on...it's still not very good.  But it's cheap!  Very cheap...and my son was happy with is fried rice.  I got a special spicy ramen with veg in it that wasn't bad at all for the 700 yen price tag.  Definitely on the list of places I'll probably frequent someday when I'm scraping every yen coin trying to survive on an English teacher's salary (a not too distant future I'm sure).  It's nice to know such places exist on just about every corner.

However, there is the smoking issue.  There's no actual barrier between the smoking and non-smoking sections.  Yes, it's 2016 and a brand new restaurant opens in a brand new building and you will be inhaling lots of second hand smoke with your food.  I get it with the old places...but new?  And a restaurant chain?  Weird...

Sakanashokudou

Rating: Very good
Meal: Dinner for 2
Price: 1800 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes:Kaki fry don, karaage fried chicken teishoku
English Menu:No
Smoking:  No

I asked what the name of this place was and was told "Sakanashokudou" which means...Fish Cafeteria...   But on the menu cover is "oshinagaki" so who knows?  There are actually two (possibly 3) different restaurants in this L shaped building.  The top part of the L lies against the main road and contains a "make your own bento" shop, along with a small seating area if you want to eat it there.  As you travel away from the road towards the short part of the L, through a nice looking Japanese garden and path, there is an entrance right where the two L parts come together.  When you enter you are asked which restaurant you wish to go to, and if you choose Sakanashokudou, you'll be seated right there.  The other option is a yakitori restaurant which is upstairs.

We aren't too into fishy dishes (that aren't sashimi or sushi), but we found some nice looking options in the menu regardless.  My wife saw the kaki fry don, an unusual dish of deep fried oysters mixed with the sweet egg and onion sauce usually reserved for oyakodon or katsudon on rice.  It had to be hers.  I saw an interesting looking take on karaage (deep fried chicken bits) which seemed to be an entire large piece of chicken deep fried similarly and then sliced.  It came with the typical teishoku (rice, miso, etc...).  Neither of us liked the pickles there, they were a bit funky tasting, but the miso soup was good (red miso) and each of us really enjoyed our individual meals.  Best of all, the price was 1800 yen, quite a good deal for dinner.

We really enjoyed this restaurant and wouldn't mind coming back for more of their more "fishy" dishes some time.

Di Punto

Rating: OK
Meal: Wine and appetizers for 2
Price: 5000? yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Bottle of wine, gorgonzola stuffed shiitake mushrooms, creamy oyster bake
English Menu: Yes
Smoking:No

Di Punto is a wine bar right next to Chuo station that my wife and I have been meaning to try for some time.  Our "date night" was up last week so we decided to try it out.  If we liked it we might stay for dinner, otherwise we were just there for wine and appetizers.

We ordered a bottle of shiraz wine, which might have been pretty good except for the fact that the bottle was ice cold when it arrived, and no amount of cupping the glass would warm up the wine to room temperature.  Quite a misstep for a wine bar in my opinion.

The gorgonzola stuffed shiitake mushrooms was tasty, but spendy for the two little things.  But I did take the idea home and make the same thing but better (and far cheaper) for dinner the next night!  The oyster bake dish wasn't all that great.

It's a nice date spot, but it gets very crowded towards dinner time proper, and I don't think the food deserved the price.  Needless to say, we found another spot for dinner that night.

Maisen

Rating: Very good
Meal: Lunch for 2
Price: 2370 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes:Katsudon, mixed set
English Menu: Yes
Smoking:  No

Maisen is a very famous tonkatsu restaurant in Tokyo.  This Maisen is not that Maisen.  My wife and I had to take our car into the LTO (Land Transportation Office?) for registration renewal and found ourselves out by IKEA in Yokohama.  Nearby there is a Lalaport mall that my wife had heard housed an excellent tonkotsu restaurant called Maisen.  We decided to eat lunch there and proceeded to try and track this place down.  Oddly, it isn't actually it's own restaurant.  There is an interesting food court area at this mall with several high-end restaurants providing different food options for reasonable prices.

There is a row of registers where you can peruse a combined menu, order and pay.  Then they give you a little beeper and you go find a table.  When your beeper beeps, you go to the counter for your particular restaurant and retrieve your meal.  Quite an odd setup, even by Japanese standards, but it works.  I guess this place gets pretty popular some times.  It was a Monday though, and before lunch time proper, so it was empty for us.

Anyway, we ordered from the Maisen menu, wishing to try this legendary tonkotsu.  I got a katsudon, which is tonkatsu with egg and onions on top of rice.  My wife got a mixed set consisting of panko battered and fried vegetables, a small piece of tonkotsu, and a crab cream croquette.  It was all actually quite good, though there are probably better dishes available on the menu.

Kind of a cool spot.  I'd like to come back and try some of the other restaurants some day.