O.M.Gs!
If anyone ever says they were disappointed by the food options in Tokyo, then "tell 'em they're dreamin'!!"
We visitied an Okonomiyaki restaurant called Sakura Tei in the heart of trendy shopping district Harajuku.
Okonomiyaki is a kind of patty or fritter that can be made from different sorts of ingredients, ranging from veggie, meat, or seafood. The ingredients are mixed together with egg, then cooked on a Teppanyaki (BBQ) hotplate. Monjayaki is a bigger version of the same thing. Traditionally, you're given the ingredients and you cook it at your table.
Sakura Tei has a lot more to offer on their menu, all of which you cook yourself on the Teppanyaki hotplate in the middle of your table.
I chose to get a simple vegetarian onomiyaki, while my partner built her own which inlcuded wild-harvested medicinal herbs. My daughter chose slices of some kind of mushroom wrapped in a rasher of bacon!
It was all incredibly tasty, and very filling.
"But how on earth do I know how to cook these things?" you ask. We were given some instruction sheets (which you can take home as a souvenir of your visit) which explain very clearly (and in English) how to cook your items.
This is what mine came to looking like:
And then after I mixed it all together thoroughly, I poured it onto the hotplate (that's the bacon-wrapped mushrooms on the hotplate also):
We then poured various sauces and spices over our creation as we wanted.
This was our most expensive meal to date, costing us around ¥6100, which also included 2 large pitchers of beer, a Gin-&-Tonic, and Single-malt Scotch (on the rocks). So still very reasonably priced for three people.
The surroundings were very hip and groovy, and the clientele were mostly hip and groovy youngsters. I could have been in Fitzroy (Melbourne's Hipster capital), with the street-art style murals and Beatles music playing in the background.
And it's also pet-friendly! I think the table next to us had three dogs hanging out with them.
Would highly recommend this place, and would certainly not hesitate to visit again. If only something like this existed near home!!!
For details and bookings, check out their website.
Restaurant Information
Sakura Tei Okonomiyaki Restaurant
3-chōme-20-１ Jingūmae, Shibuya City, Tōkyō-to 150-0001, Japan
Okonomi-YUMMY!!! Cook your own meal at Sakuratei
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