This post was written in 2006. Shop details and prices may have changed since then.
Yoshinoya has started serving gyudon again and is running an event called the Gyudon Revival Festival. It’s a limited-time gyudon sale ahead of the official relaunch in December. Remembering the bowls I ate back when I visited Japan as a tourist, I went for the first time in ages.
380-yen gyudon
The meat quality has dropped -_-; I remember it being tasty back then.. hmm.. I guess my palate has gotten a lot fancier since.
Kaisendon – I went looking for a place said to do a great seafood rice bowl.
It’s a restaurant called Yamayoshitei, attached to a small fish market. It’s about an hour’s drive from my place.
An 840-yen kaisendon.
Excellent value for the price. The fish is fresh and the rice is good too. The one downside is that the round-trip gas costs about as much as the meal -_- but it’s a place you really should stop by if you’re in the area. I’m actually not a big fan of kaisendon to begin with, because so many places thoughtlessly pile cold seafood onto warm rice, which defies common sense. Even some places that are pretty famous for their kaisendon do that. In that sense, this place gets the basics right ^_^
I went to Taiheiraku, said to serve the best ramen in the area where I live.
This place opens at 9 in the morning and stays open until the broth runs out. They say it usually wraps up around 1 p.m., but on weekends it was already closed by 11 -_-;; After all kinds of twists and turns, I finally got my ramen on my third visit.
300-yen ramen
Talk about rock-bottom prices ^_^ They have regular, large and extra-large, and the 400-yen large is the size of a normal ramen shop’s bowl. Apparently they’ve been in business in the same spot for decades.. so everyone from the kitchen to the counter is an elderly man or woman who has been there since the shop opened. The tradition runs deep, and so does the flavor. Their ramen is chuka soba, which you could call the origin of Japanese ramen, and it faithfully recreates that early taste. In today’s terms, chuka soba is close to shoyu ramen. The springy, perfectly cooked noodles, toppings that make every bite more satisfying and a smooth pork-bone soy broth all come together beautifully.
Wagyu gyudon
I satisfied the craving for a good gyudon that Yoshinoya had failed to fill somewhere else. Local Koshihikari rice and local wagyu.. the combination is something special. Apart from the slightly sweet sauce, it was a top-class gyudon.. Next time I’d like to try a local wagyu steak..
Japan has all sorts of regional specialties, but seafood, wagyu and soba are so common within Japan that they’re good wherever you eat them. On top of that, tonkatsu, curry and ramen have quite a few high-quality national chains and are loved by the whole country, so again, wherever you go in Japan you’ll find a good place if you look. If you want to eat something delicious in Japan, go for seafood, wagyu and soba; if you want to enjoy good food cheaply, aim for tonkatsu, curry and ramen ^_^;