八王子 風味

I was so pleased that I trusted myself to try something new last time I was in Hachioji. Good experience. Good food! Setting; 5/5 As far as yakitori bars go, I have little experience. But from the walk downstairs, the paper-covered sliding door that was opened by Fuma-san who greeted me in stern Ja...panese, the dark wooden varnished bar, the suited singletons drinking mixed soju/hoppy on ice (and avoiding going to whatever serves as home), the wall to wall bottles of soju to the leather-clad bikers in the corner, this is THE bar to go to in Hachioji. OK, so the appearance of bikers, wearing dark shades, indoors, at night is maybe a worrying and questionable fact but otherwise this place is friendly and the food was good. I was polite and demurred meekly as the token foreigner in the room. Atmosphere; 4/5 It’s a basement bar, it is dark and it has a barbecue for cooking meat and fish. So it is a bit smokey and you’ll end up needing to shower and dry clean your work suit, but there are tables away from the bar if you have a bigger group. The tunes being played are happy, uplifting, girl-power J-pop; perfect for an after-work relaxation session so that you don’t end up with thoughts of ending it all after yet another 18hr day at the office. It’s clean, does not smell of stale beer and the chefs and other clientele are friendly. I enjoyed my evening immersed in Japanese. Food and Bev; 3/5 With no English menu, and no English speaking staff, i felt pretty bold about my choice! I managed to order a simple vegetable ramen noodle, barbecued chicken and a Kirin beer. The menu is not expansive but a lot of things came off the barbecue from chicken wings, while fish, fish balls, shucked oyster!!! and more. Plenty of variety. While nothing blew me away, the chicken was barbecued well with crunchy, crispy skin and a wedge of lemon to zest it up and the ramen was steaming hot with plenty of full umami tastes. Service; 5/5 Given I do not speak a word of Japanese, and was totally out of my depth with Fuma-San, I had an hour if excitement and new-experience thrills. I am totally returning next week just to surprise them and see what reaction I get. One of the other bar-flies struck up a conversation with me (he did not speak English) and we conversed using sign language and the whole-heartedly inadequate Google-translate app. It is THAT kind of bar! Value/Price; 5/5 ¥1,560 for a beer, ramen and chicken thighs, all listening to upbeat JPop? What’s not to value?

March 2019に訪問