I wanted to eat something good in Hakone, but all I could find were pricey places or famous spots that were hard to get to, so I decided to head to Odawara. The Odawara Oden Honten I had seen in the Romancecar pamphlet looked tempting, and since Odawara is known for its shirasu (whitebait) and kamaboko, I also wanted to find out just how good they are.
The front gate of the oden restaurant
It is about 1 km from the station. You have to walk 15 to 20 minutes, so without a map it would be hard to find. And since it is a popular place, it is best to book, even if only right before you go. It was dark so I have no photos, but on the way to the restaurant I stopped briefly at Odawara Castle near the station. A historically famous spot. It would have been great in daylight, which was a bit of a shame.
The table setting
A clean, neat interior that women would like too. I arrived around 7 and the place was packed.
The counter
The basic oden is served straight from the counter, while the special dishes are brought out separately from the kitchen.
Beer
This is Hakone Shichiyu Beer, and for a local craft beer it is really quite good. Maybe it is the water..
Chikuwa and tsumire
I was hungry, so I started with the standard oden items.
Kamaboko and shiro hanpen
Overall the basic oden items are lightly seasoned. Maybe that is why, despite the good ingredients, they did not leave a strong impression.
Gyusuji
This is gyusuji (beef tendon) oden, and it just melts away. The miso seasoning was a bit strong, but it was delicious.
Sanma tsumire
Oden made from minced autumn sanma (Pacific saury). You could call it a proper Japanese dish rather than oden. The broth had a rich sanma flavor too.
Toto-age
Fried oden made of fish paste shaped like a fish. Cute, but it tastes like regular oden.
Shirasu dango
The area around Odawara is famous for shirasu, so there are lots of dishes using it. I was curious what kind of oden would come out, and it turned out they mix ground shirasu into the oden itself and also put whole shirasu inside.
Inside the shirasu dango
The salty, savory taste of the shirasu goes really well with the oden.
Squid mouths sauteed in butter and soy sauce
Bite-size pieces of squid, stir-fried. Not oden, but it makes a great snack with drinks.
Egg and daikon
I ordered a few more of the standard oden items. The daikon and the egg are tasty, but nothing feels particularly special. Compared to the oden place near my home, there did not seem to be much of an advantage.
Fried tsukune made with local jidori chicken
The flavor of the chicken really comes through. I had already eaten quite a lot, but this kept going down.
Grilled tofu with negi-shio
A simple dish of grilled tofu topped with green onions, but the tofu was delicious. This one is also meant to go with drinks.
Gyusuji chazuke
While eating the gyusuji I figured that, with its strong miso seasoning, it would suit ochazuke better than eating it as is, and as expected it was sublime. So this is how good oden can be.
Odawara oden chazuke
A simple chazuke with oden in it, with a cleaner taste than the gyusuji one. This was delicious too.
Kinmedai age-age tsutsumi
This one came out a bit late. You cannot see it in the photo, but there is simmered kinmedai (splendid alfonsino) inside the oden. The broth was good and so was the oden.
After eating this well it came to about 3,500 yen per person, so the trip out to Odawara was well worth it.