ASAKUSA Underground > Okonomi-yaki, the grill as you like
While Sushi and Tempura enjoy their international popularity, many delicious Japanese foods are totally ignored by world chefs. One is Ramen noodles and another is Onigiri, triangle-shaped, pressed rice enveloping a small portion of meat, vegetable, or cooked fish, normally wrapped with Nori, dried see weeds.
In addition to them, the name of Okonomi-yaki should be mentioned. It is a Japanese Pizza without cheese. Okonomi means "As you like". Yaki is the Japanese word for "grill". The table in front of you is a huge pan and you can grill it as you like. Of course, if you don't know how, a waiter in the restaurant will prepare it for you.
In Asakusa, there is one Okonomi-yaki restaurant worth visiting. It is Sometaro. The restaurant has been a guardian angel of poor artists. The artists adored the establishment, the people. Novelist Jun Takami named the restaurant when it was opened in 1938. Poet Ango Sakaguchi nearly burned his hand on its hot metal plate of the table No.2. You should visit its old wooden building and see the autographs of well-known visitors. You can find names like photographer Nobuyoshi Araki and Tora-san actor Kiyoshi Atsumi among them.
All its grill dishes are modestly priced about \550.
-Asakusa Sometaro
2-2-2 Nishi-Asakusa, taitou-ku, Tokyo
tel. 03-3844-9502
台東区西浅草2-2-2
No holidays
To find out the exact location, use diddlefinger.
The site is your best guide when you work in Tokyo or travel in Japan.
[Caution]
At Sometaro restaurant they proudly serve their Okonomi-yaki in the Tokyo style, which means we have it without mayonnaise. Having it with mayonnaise is commonly practiced in almost all Okonomi-yaki restaurant, but it is not the Tokyo way.
The author mentioned above that Okonomi-yaki is a Japanese pizza without
cheese.
However, there is an Okonomi-yaki restaurant where they serve it with cheese.
Its dough is slightly softer than in other restaurants and very tasty. You can have this new wave Okonomi-yaki at Marutaya in Chiba (Near Keisei Midori-dai station, in front of Chiba University).
If you are a baseball fan, you might have heard of ex-Mets-skipper Bobby Valentine.
He is managing Chiba Lotte Marines now. Lotte Marine players frequent this Marutaya restaurant. Two MLB recruits Masahide Kobayashi (Cleveland Indians, 2008) and Yasuhiko Yabuta (Kansas City Royals, 2008) left their autographs here.
-Marutaya
zip.263-0023, 1-27-9 Midori-cho, Inage-ku, Chiba-shi
tel. & fax. 043-274-6147
千葉市稲毛区緑町1-27-9
Business hours: 11:30 ~ order before 22:00
To find out the exact location, use diddlefinger.
The site is your best guide when you work in Tokyo or travel in Japan.
-----Conversation Tips-----
"Wakarimasen. Yaite kudasai."
"I don't know how to do this. Please do it for us."
[words]
wakarimasen: I don't know. This could be the most important phrase for you.
kudasai: please or "give me, please". A very polite word.
yaite: to grill.
Please let us know what you think. ASAKUSA Underground editorship will sincerely appreciate your effort if you correct our inaccuracy and poor English.
Please contact us.
Okonomi-yaki, the grill as you like
While Sushi and Tempura enjoy their international popularity, many delicious Japanese foods are totally ignored by world chefs. One is Ramen noodles and another is Onigiri, triangle-shaped, pressed rice enveloping a small portion of meat, vegetable, or cooked fish, normally wrapped with Nori, dried see weeds.In addition to them, the name of Okonomi-yaki should be mentioned. It is a Japanese Pizza without cheese. Okonomi means "As you like". Yaki is the Japanese word for "grill". The table in front of you is a huge pan and you can grill it as you like. Of course, if you don't know how, a waiter in the restaurant will prepare it for you.
In Asakusa, there is one Okonomi-yaki restaurant worth visiting. It is Sometaro. The restaurant has been a guardian angel of poor artists. The artists adored the establishment, the people. Novelist Jun Takami named the restaurant when it was opened in 1938. Poet Ango Sakaguchi nearly burned his hand on its hot metal plate of the table No.2. You should visit its old wooden building and see the autographs of well-known visitors. You can find names like photographer Nobuyoshi Araki and Tora-san actor Kiyoshi Atsumi among them.
All its grill dishes are modestly priced about \550.
-Asakusa Sometaro
2-2-2 Nishi-Asakusa, taitou-ku, Tokyo
tel. 03-3844-9502
台東区西浅草2-2-2
No holidays
To find out the exact location, use diddlefinger.
The site is your best guide when you work in Tokyo or travel in Japan.
[Caution]
At Sometaro restaurant they proudly serve their Okonomi-yaki in the Tokyo style, which means we have it without mayonnaise. Having it with mayonnaise is commonly practiced in almost all Okonomi-yaki restaurant, but it is not the Tokyo way.
The author mentioned above that Okonomi-yaki is a Japanese pizza without
cheese. However, there is an Okonomi-yaki restaurant where they serve it with cheese.
Its dough is slightly softer than in other restaurants and very tasty. You can have this new wave Okonomi-yaki at Marutaya in Chiba (Near Keisei Midori-dai station, in front of Chiba University).
If you are a baseball fan, you might have heard of ex-Mets-skipper Bobby Valentine.
He is managing Chiba Lotte Marines now. Lotte Marine players frequent this Marutaya restaurant. Two MLB recruits Masahide Kobayashi (Cleveland Indians, 2008) and Yasuhiko Yabuta (Kansas City Royals, 2008) left their autographs here.
-Marutaya
zip.263-0023, 1-27-9 Midori-cho, Inage-ku, Chiba-shi
tel. & fax. 043-274-6147
千葉市稲毛区緑町1-27-9
Business hours: 11:30 ~ order before 22:00
To find out the exact location, use diddlefinger.
The site is your best guide when you work in Tokyo or travel in Japan.
-----Conversation Tips-----
"Wakarimasen. Yaite kudasai.""I don't know how to do this. Please do it for us."
[words]
wakarimasen: I don't know. This could be the most important phrase for you.
kudasai: please or "give me, please". A very polite word.
yaite: to grill.
Please let us know what you think. ASAKUSA Underground editorship will sincerely appreciate your effort if you correct our inaccuracy and poor English.
Please contact us.