A friend came to visit, so I booked a table at an izakaya that’s fairly well known around here. It may be just a neighbourhood izakaya, but it serves regional dishes made with ingredients shipped straight from the source, so it’s nothing to sneeze at. For the same price, the quality is miles ahead of your typical big-city izakaya.
Otoshi, bamboo shoots
It’s spring, so bamboo shoots. That much sense of the season is standard wherever you go in Japan.
Assorted sashimi, 7 kinds
The freshness is decent. Then again, I can eat this level any time, so it didn’t exactly wow me..
Toyo no Aki junmai ginjo
You can’t have good food in front of you without a glass of fragrant sake. I ordered Toyo no Aki, one of my favourite local sakes; the name means “bountiful autumn.”
Assorted sushi
It’s not a sushi specialist, but what comes out is perfectly decent.
Boiled vegetables with anchovy sauce
This was a new item on the menu, so we gave it a try. It’s no match for an acqua pazza, but it still went down well.
Nodoguro simmered in soy sauce
Nodoguro is a local specialty, and here a whole fish was only about 1,200 yen, which is really cheap. Elsewhere you’d pay double that.. It’s a nicely fatty fish, so the flavour goes without saying.
Salt-grilled nodoguro
Since it was so cheap, we ordered a salt-grilled one too. Nodoguro never disappoints.
Crispy fried burdock
It’s deep-fried burdock root, and the crunch tastes a lot like French fries. But without that heavy, greasy potato taste you keep reaching for more. It was a big hit. I’d never have thought to order fried burdock on my own, but going as a group lets you try all sorts of dishes, which makes an izakaya even more fun.
Rolled omelette
A standard item. I ordered it for the people I came with.
Assorted tempura
We ordered from light to heavy: sashimi, then steamed, grilled and finally fried dishes. Not bad at all.
Beef tongue steak
From here on we added a few more things we fancied to round off the meal. The beef tongue steak was just so-so for the price. Dishes that come out near the end tend to sit there and go cold, so it’s probably better to order something served cold.
Grilled rice ball with sea urchin
An onigiri brushed with sea urchin and grilled. The rich, nutty sea urchin flavour has soaked in nicely.
Ginger ale
It wasn’t a heavy-drinking kind of night, so I had a ginger ale. I had to go to work the next day, after all.. We ate really well and it came to about 4,000 yen a head, so the value for money is great. It’s just an ordinary izakaya, so I wouldn’t tell someone coming from far away that they must go, but it’s a good spot for a drink in the neighbourhood. There are quite a few izakaya with this kind of concept nearby, so I’ll make a point of working my way around them regularly whenever I get the chance.