HASSHUKagoshimatemmonkan

Hasshu is a VERY Japanese eatery, where guests are seated in secluded booths with low tables and a hole underneath for leg space. In the booths around us, two groups of men were roaring with laughter, presumably not entirely sober, while we tried to make sense of the menu. Everything is in Japanese..., but with pictures and vignettes, you can decipher whether you're ordering bird, fish, pork, beef, or perhaps horse or deer. While we struggled with our order, the sweet young server came and grilled a couple of slices of wagyu beef 'on the house' using a gas burner. A delightful start. Our sashimi with three types of tuna was - naturally - superbly fresh and delicious. As a gimmick, a piece of the tuna's thick, black skin was on the plate; one must understand that the chef fillets the fresh tuna themselves. The menu's colors apparently aren't entirely true to life, as we thought we had ordered some fried pieces of chicken. The dish turned out to be - raw chicken liver!!! Thankfully, the plate also had sesame oil, onions, garlic, and ginger, and when mixed together, the raw liver tasted surprisingly good. The cucumber salad turned out to be sprinkled with dried fish flakes (perhaps bonito), another surprise. Even something we thought was a kind of potato croquette - large round balls with indistinguishable filling - tasted entirely unexpected. All in all, an exciting and relatively inexpensive evening at Hasshu. Fortunately, we love surprises, but the restaurant is probably only recommended for tourists with the same attitude as us.

Visited April 2024

The food is varied, true izakaya food, and extremely tasty. The selection of beers and sake is great and tasty.The staff is friendly and fast.

Visited February 2017