I met up in Shibuya with a friend visiting from Korea. We couldn’t decide where to go, then I heard that Komagata Dozeu, the loach restaurant where I’d had a really great meal before, had opened a Shibuya branch, so that’s where we went.
The burner
It has an old-fashioned feel.
Chopped green onions
You pile on heaps of them.
Loach nabe from the lunch course
It’s a lot less tasty than at the main shop. For one thing, you can feel the bones when you chew. At the main shop it was pure clean flavor and the bones were all soft and mushy. The price is about the same, so I was a little disappointed.
Side dishes that come with the lunch course
Nothing special.
With the green onions piled on, it’s not bad.
Honestly, the green onions tasted better than the loach.
Mitsuya Cider
You don’t see it in bottles like this much these days… The Lafite-ish design is pretty, though.
Yanagawa nabe from the lunch set
A nabe of loach with burdock root and egg. About the same as the main shop, maybe even slightly better. It makes up for the loach nabe letdown to some extent.
Miso soup
A really rich flavor. Delicious.
The lunch set was around 1,700 yen, which isn’t bad at all for prices in this neighborhood. If the loach dishes had been just a bit better I’d come often, so it’s a bit of a shame.
A front shot on the way out
The atmosphere is better than the main shop. The service is friendly too, and I don’t think foreigners would have much trouble here. (Though the menu being only in Japanese is a bit OTL…)
One unusual thing…
They write out the names of that day’s reservation guests like that. I think it’s the first time I’ve seen that in Tokyo…