もずく酢。胡麻豆腐。刺身の盛り合わせ。
Mozuku(seaweed in vinegar) and sesame tofu. Sashimi.

あんこう鍋。雑炊。
Anko-nabe(Angler-fish/Monkfish hotpot). So good! The big pile of orange paste is Ankimo, which the madam told us to taste a bit before she put the lid on the nabe. The dashi is delicious from the start – we all drank a bowl while waiting for the ingredients to be cooked. The meat of Anko has firm texture, the skin is jelly-like and chewy(full of collagen). The rich-tasting Ankimo is of course the best part! Rice and egg are added to the soup to make zouzui. Yum!

This place is very popular during winter season when Anko is available. I had to book like 2 months ago and it was not an easy task cos the staff don’t seem to be very patient on the phone. While you are there, they are efficient and simply do everything for you – you just sit and wait for your bowl of food. You are only allowed 2 hours, which is more than enough because, before you finish the sashimi, they will start making the hotpot, and before you finish your first bowl of anko and soup, the staff will come and scoop more ingredients into your (donburi-size)bowl. We had to wait a long time for the zousui though(Maybe they forgot to cook rice? ^^;;).

The place was packed with people smoking so not exactly a comfortable place to stay long. In fact I got a massive headache because the guy at the next table(very close) was an impossible chain-smoker who didn’t quite stop even when he was eating.

We all had beer and nihonshu, about 6600yen each. Well very reasonable for the amount and quality of food you get. Taste-wise this place definitely makes it to my favourites, but the environment is a little too much for me!
ほていさん