Okonomiyaki (お好み焼き) at Sometaro Okonomiyaki (染太郎)

When I was in Tokyo I got to eat okonomiyaki (お好み焼き) at a restaurant known as Sometaro Okonomiyaki (染太郎). More details here:

Okonomiyaki (お好み焼き) is sort of a craze food in Japan; It is that's very common to eat along with beer, but at the same time it's a favorite for the kids as well. I have to first admit, that I'm not a huge fan of pancakes - I'm much more of a rice kind of guy - I've never really liked pancakes all that much in my life. But when I was in Tokyo, I needed to eat okonomiyaki. I had seen it outside of Japan many times before, but I had never tried it myself. Located very close to the hotel I was staying at Tokyo, I found a restaurant known as Sometaro Okonomiyaki (染太郎). We arrived a little bit early before they opened for lunch, and there were already a couple of people waiting outside to get in. So of course that's a good sign for restaurant from the beginning.

First of all Sometaro Okonomiyaki (染太郎), is just an awesome looking restaurant. From the outside it looked like a crumbling shack, and there was an orange tree that covered half of the roof. Walk inside and it feels like you're entering into a hut, but the restaurant opens up, and has an extremely warm and friendly feel to it. I loved the wood floors and the beautiful antiques that were decorated throughout the restaurant. The staff are also extremely friendly and happy to see us in the the restaurant sampling their delicacies.

There were a number of different pancakes styles on the menu, and we chose the house specialty, which was called something like asonomiyaki (not sure exactly), and then we also went for the classic okonomiyaki (お好み焼き). The asonomiyaki was a combination of pancake batter, mixed with cabbage, some pieces of seafood like bits of octopus, a few assorted other vegetables, and noodles. Everything was fried on a hot skillet in front of us, and assembled into a pancake like round shape. One thing you have to love about eating okonomiyaki (お好み焼き) in Japan, is how it's cooked right in front of you, so that you can enjoy the atmosphere of the restaurant while you eat.

Once both of the savory pancakes were cooked, the waitress first helped us to cut it, like a pizza, into four slices. She then proceeded to decorate it by squeezing on some mayonnaise, adding some sauce that was like a light teriyaki sauce with worcestershire sauce, and finally sprinkled on some seaweed flakes on to the top. You can you can think of okonomiyaki (お好み焼き) just as a savory pancake, fried battered that's mixed with an assortment of vegetables, some pieces of seafood, and some noodles mixed in. It's a mishmash of both ingredients, and probably cooking techniques and styles of a number of different cultures as well.

Overall okonomiyaki (お好み焼き) is good and tasty, and Sometaro Okonomiyaki (染太郎) was an absolutely awesome restaurant, but I'm not a huge fan of the dish. To me it sort of lacks spice. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad at all, in fact it was very good, but I'm just more of a guy who loves to eat things like rice and curry, or sashimi - something with a bit more protein and meat. Okonomiyaki was sort of like eating a fresh bag of potato chips, kind of junk food tasting. That was my first experience in Japan to eat okonomiyaki (お好み焼き), and more than the food, I enjoyed the atmosphere and the experience of dining at Sometaro Okonomiyaki (染太郎).

Open hours: 12 noon -- 10:30 pm daily
Address: 2-2-2 Nishiasakusa, Taitō, Tokyo 〒111-0035, Japan ()
Price: Not bad prices here, we had two okonomiyakis for around 1,400 JPY ($13.78)

Music in this video courtesy of Audio Network

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