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restaurants (Page 60)

One of the biggest restaurant trends in Japan over the last two decades has been a steady erosion of the image that delicious food equals high prices, and vice-versa. These days, there are some real bargains to be found for those willing to do a little searching, particularly at lunch.

The afternoon dining market has gotten so competitive that often you can get an amazing meal plus change for the 1,000-yen bill you use to pay for it, which is exactly what you get with this gigantic tuna sashimi bowl.

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Tokyo café says the best ice cream topping is two more ice cream cones

Today, let’s take a moment to ponder a serious question: what’s the best sundae topping? The old stand-by of a dash of sprinkles? A handful of chopped nuts for a little crunch and texture? Or do you find the idea of all that empty-calorie decadence troubling enough that it threatens to ruin the fun, so your vote goes to a few pieces of fruit?

We say the correct answer is none of the above. For our money, the best way to crown your parfait is with a whole ice cream cone. Of course, some of our more sarcastic readers may ask, “Yeah, smart guy? Well then what do you put on top of the ice cream cone?”

Another ice cream cone, obviously. Did you even have to ask?

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What’s the secret to Coco Ichi’s reign of the curry kingdom?

Curry is pretty much the ultimate Japanese comfort food loved by children, adults and picky eaters alike. And with data showing that Japanese people eat curry more than once a week, it has definitely become one of the country’s national foods despite its Indian-British origins. And one curry restaurant in particular, Curry House Coco Ichibanya or “Coco Ichi” to its patrons, is reaping the benefits of this curry craze, claiming about 80% of the market share! With more than 1,200 shops in Japan and 116 overseas franchises, it seems like nothing can stop this curry giant.

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Japanese restaurant chain turns boring old chopstick sleeves into fun origami

Family restaurants like Saizeriya are a staple of Japan’s cheap culinary world. From fake Italian food to fake Mexican-Indian hybrids that taste far better than they really should, family restaurants are a great place to hangout for high school students, to grab a quick meal between meetings for harried salarymen, or to take hungry kids for frazzled parents. Though convenient, the chains aren’t exactly known for their high class presentation.

However, Aiya, a family restaurant focused on Japanese-style cooking, has come up with a way to offer their customers a bit more pizazz!

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Fresh sushi for night owls at Osaka fish market’s midnight restaurant

While Tsukiji in Tokyo gets the majority of the international attention, the Sakai Fish Market in Osaka is no slouch either, supplying seafood to diners in and around Japan’s second-largest city.

Unfortunately, much like at its counterpart in Tokyo, most of the sushi restaurants in and around the Sakai market open at the crack of dawn, and close for the day shortly after noon. So if you decided to sleep in, or don’t happen to work close enough to make a sushi run during your lunch break, you’re out of luck.

Unless you do like we did, and visit Osaka’s famous late-night sushi restaurant.

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Video game maker’s Akihabara pizza joint has great food, not a single maid

Aside from software development, Japanese video game maker Nitroplus has worked on novelization and illustration work for popular anime franchises such as Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Psycho-Pass, and Guilty Crown.

Yes, Nitroplus has its fingers in a lot of pies, including, surprisingly enough, pizza.

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You might not be in a real Japanese restaurant when…

In many countries around the world, Japanese cuisine has found a home. However, when one nation’s food culture lands in another’s backyard, things tend to get lost in translation. Deliciousness is always in the mouth of the beholder but Japanese people can often take issue with the way their food is prepared overseas.

For example, the website Madame Riri lays out their take of faux Japanese restaurants in Paris, a majority of which she claims is run by Chinese management. While we all might not share their hardline view of how Japanese food is prepared, they do have an interesting list of ways they believe can tell if a Japanese restaurant is truly run by Japanese people or not.

So without further ado: You might not be in a real Japanese restaurant when…

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Among the many colorful expressions in Japanese you’ll find kuwazu girai, which is used to describe a knee-jerk dislike to something unfamiliar before you’ve given it a fair shot. Kuwazu girai literally translates to “hating it without having eaten it,” and it was exactly the problem restaurateur Himi Okajima was having at his eatery, called Hakata Tonton, in New York’s Manhattan.

Okajima is a native of Fukuoka in southern Japan, and orders weren’t exactly pouring in from American customers for two of his hometown’s favorite dishes that were on the menu: pigs’ feet and cod roe.

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Unusual Cuisine: Deep-Fried Caterpillars “Make a Wonderful Beer Snack”

Those of you who abhor the very idea of eating food that’s been anywhere near a creepy-crawly may wish to look away now.

Here at RocketNews24 we like to pride ourselves on our willingness to take up unusual food challenges. If we’re not baking Big Mac bread or gorging on bacon, we’re fighting our way through a kilo of curry and rice for your enjoyment. So as soon as word reached Rocket Towers that a nearby restaurant was serving up genuine insect cuisine, our reporter Mr Sato immediately sprang into action and boarded a train to Takadanobaba.

Who’d have thought that deep-fried imomushi (hairless caterpillars or hornworms) could be so delicious that they could bring smiles to our reporter’s face?

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Lifehack for Curry Fiends: Get More for Your Yen at CoCo Ichibanya

Any Japanese curry fans out there? If you’ve tried it, you know it’s in a whole separate class from the Thai and Indian curries most Westerners are used to. The sauce is dark brown and generally thicker and sweeter than other Asian curries, though the taste varies from shop to shop, and is served with rice. Along with some onions, carrots and potatoes, you can usually find some nice chunks of pork or beef in your basic curry, and then you can choose from a variety of toppings to make it your own.

For curry connoisseurs there’s nothing sadder than when you are enjoying your plate of curry rice and suddenly realize that you’re running out of curry faster than rice. You’re left rationing the last of your curry or finishing your meal with a couple of bites of disappointingly plain rice. Most people don’t know this, but if you are eating at the popular chain CoCo Ichibanya–affectionately known as CoCo Ichi–you can order more curry for free! Read More

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