Gaijin Gourmet: Need a Drink & Yakitori in Shibuya? I Got a Fantastic Place!

I've always thought that, generally speaking, Shibuya is usually a terrible place to eat and drink; it's too expensive; the food isn't very good and the place is loud and full of kids... Great if you are 20-years-old and looking to pick up on girls...

But yesterday, in Shibuya, I was introduce to a real diamond in the rough.

The place is called "Sumire" and, are you sitting down? Well you will be sitting down at this restaurant when you hear this; the price of a draft beer is ¥120!  ¥120 yen!? That's about $1.50 (USD) for a draft beer in a glass! Wow!

Even on weekends and holidays the price is only ¥280 a glass!

Sumire is not really an "eating place" the drink menu is large but the food menu is small: Just a handful of types of yakitori and a few salads and sushi and sashimi dishes... The typical menu at a Japanese Izakaya

See? It says ¥120 for a draft beer on weekdays!

Takoyaki is ¥280 yen 

Gyouza or "Pot Stickers" are ¥280 yen 

The entire food menu is really cheap too and was pretty tasty!

Spacious and very clean.

 

Sumire
Telephone number is: 03-5728-3360
Address: Maruyama-Cho 6-2, Shibuya

When we walked in, I saw this sign and thought, "Who does?" 

ADDENDUM ADDED July 11, 2012: For English impaired foreigners, this doesn't say "No Foreigners!" It says, basically, "foreigners who come in here and start trouble, not welcome!" I know lots of foreigners in Japan are English challenged and don't understand this simple sentence and the use of the adjective, "troublesome." So let me make it simple for you; if it said, "Blonde Foreigners not allowed." Does that mean all foreigners not allowed or just blonde ones?... 

You don't need to thank me. Just don't go here and raise hell. They'll call the cops on you.

The food was good and the drinks great so I decided to see if the kitchen was clean and, sure enough, it was. Friendly staff too!

Here's a map to Sumire: http://yahoo.jp/5LP7XT

I've circled Shibuya O-East for you. Sumire is about a 2 minute walk. Great place to go before or after a show!

Tomorrow night! June 5th. Free Beer in Tokyo! InterFM 6 O'Clock Yatsura party!

Tomorrow night! June 5th. Free Beer! No kidding. I'll be at Flat in Futakotamagawa from 5:30 pm doing a live FM radio report (and having a drinking party like last week's bash at Taiho). Be there and when you walk in, say, "InterFM Yatsura" and get your first beer free (or drink of your choice!)

明日！６月５日（火）１７：３０から全員集合！炭火焼「ふらっと」！二子玉川駅（田園都市線と大井町線）合い言葉："InterFM Yatsura!"を言えば最初のドリンク一杯無料サービス！

Flat　ふらっと

4-10-1 Tamagawa, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo

東京都世田谷区玉川４−１０−１

Tel: 03-6313-1445

Map URL: http://yahoo.jp/LQhUnd

Here's information about Flat!

Mr. & Mrs. Shimodai - the folks who run Flat.

Finally! There's a new delicious Yakitori that just opened near my house. It opened on April 20th, 2012 so I went there last night to participate in the venue's fare and was quite pleased.

Flat - Look for the Akachochin (red lanterns!)

The shop's name is "Flat." It is a 5 minute walk from Futakotamagawa station on the Den-en-Toshi Line. (Two stops by express train - six by local train - from Shibuya). It is on the side of the station a few minutes walk from Takashimaya so it's a great place to go if the ladies want to go shopping too! 

Room for about 12 to seat on the first floor and a standing bar for four people or so. On the second floor, there is a tatami room that seats ten. 

Friendly staff and a spic and span cleanliness (always a must for the Gaijin Gourmet!)

The kitchen is kept spotless and anyone can easily view the food preparation. The standing bar is directly opposite the barbecue rack (to the left of this picture) so anyone can see how clean and spotless the facilities are.

It says, (ふらっと　炭火焼）"Flat Sumibiyaki" (sumibiyaki means "cooked over charcoal") 

All the cooked chicken items I had were very delicious. 

I don't like dethawed frozen meats and the menu at Flat had fresh chicken. Delicious. It is about ¥160 per piece, which is a tad bit pricy, but like I said, it is not frozen meats so the taste is superb... Good Yakitori never needs sauce and only salt. I don't even use salt so I can really taste good meat. This place has good quality chicken! Fresh!

The owner and head chef is Shimodai san. If you go there, tell him "Mike sent you!"

Flat

4-10-1 Tamagawa, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo

東京都世田谷区玉川４−１０−１

Tel: 03-6313-1445

(If you want to have a party of more than 4 or so, bettre call first, this place gets packed!)

Map URL: http://yahoo.jp/LQhUnd

Gaijin Gourmet! New Delicious Yakitori (Chicken BBQ on Sticks) In Futakotamagawa! (Just ten minutes from Shibuya!)

Finally! There's a new delicious Yakitori that just opened near my house. It opened on April 20th, 2012 so I went there last night to participate in the venue's fare and was quite pleased.

Flat - Look for the Akachochin (red lanterns!)

The shop's name is "Flat." It is a 5 minute walk from Futakotamagawa station on the Den-en-Toshi Line. (Two stops by express train - six by local train - from Shibuya). It is on the side of the station a few minutes walk from Takashimaya so it's a great place to go if the ladies want to go shopping too! 

Room for about 12 to seat on the first floor and a standing bar for four people or so. On the second floor, there is a tatami room that seats ten. 

Friendly staff and a spic and span cleanliness (always a must for the Gaijin Gourmet!)

The kitchen is kept spotless and anyone can easily view the food preparation. The standing bar is directly opposite the barbecue rack (to the left of this picture) so anyone can see how clean and spotless the facilities are.

It says, (ふらっと　炭火焼）"Flat Sumibiyaki" (sumibiyaki means "cooked over charcoal") 

All the cooked chicken items I had were very delicious. 

I don't like dethawed frozen meats and the menu at Flat had fresh chicken. Delicious. It is about ¥160 per piece, which is a tad bit pricy, but like I said, it is not frozen meats so the taste is superb... Good Yakitori never needs sauce and only salt. I don't even use salt so I can really taste good meat. This place has good quality chicken! Fresh!

The owner and head chef is Shimodai san. If you go there, tell him "Mike sent you!"

Flat

4-10-1 Tamagawa, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo

東京都世田谷区玉川４−１０−１

Tel: 03-6313-1445

(If you want to have a party of more than 4 or so, bettre call first, this place gets packed!)

Map URL: http://yahoo.jp/LQhUnd

Gaijin Gourmet: Best Place for Drinking (Cheap and Delicious) in Ebisu! Ebisu Yokocho!

Ebisu is one stop from Shibuya. It's a big town. I hated going there because I thought that there were no good places to eat or drink. Oh, sure, there are lots of expensive places (and expensive places are supposed to taste good, right?) but I didn't know any good, cheap, old fashioned Japanese style, places to eat and drink in Ebisu until last night.


Finally! I found one. It's called "Ebisu Yokocho" and it's actually, not just one shop. There's several all in one place! "Ebisu Yokocho" (Ebisu Street) and it's only 1.5 minutes walk from the station! Sapporo in Hokkaido has it's own Ramen Yokocho and there's Okonomi-mura in Osaka. Now, thank the lord, I've found a great and cheap place to eat and drink in Ebisu. 


Ebisu Yokocho opened in 2008 and it really looks the part of an old, out of the 1950's or 1960's Japanese style drinking and eating establishment. Here's their webpage (sorry only in Japanese): http://www.ebisu-yokocho.com/access.html


There is now a reason to look forward to going to Ebisu!


I was only there for 30 minutes so I didn't have time to get all the details, but here's a load of photos for you and, as they say, a picture speaks a thousand words. Here, have a quick and fun vacation to Japan (and a location map):

View from outside

Kampai!

There's at least ten shops down this aisle. Lots of women too so that means the food is good!

My best friend, Michio

Everywhere was full of customers

All sorts of tastes

The atmosphere of Japan from a long time ago

Like garlic? They got garlic!

Hoppy and Haippi

I love this yakitori place!

Did I say ten shops? Nope. Nineteen shops shown!

I highly recommend this Yakitori shop. Easy to find too! It's called Kappa chan and it's the first shop when you step into the door on the right side!

Kappa chan

東京都渋谷区恵比寿1-7-4

1.5 minutes walk from Ebisu station

Ebisu Yokocho