ぎんじろう☆彡
I tried to visit a shop that had a good selection of Japanese sake based on rumors, without making a reservation, for a pub crawl one day. When I turned off Route 1, I found a Japanese restaurant-like exterior. Upon opening the sliding door, there was a treasure chest-like sake refrigerator on the right. This alone seemed to promise that it was a great shop. I initially planned to have just a little bit for the pub crawl, but the menu had a wide variety of items, and the Japanese sake was especially delicious, so I ended up ordering a lot. Here are the dishes and drinks I ordered:
Dishes:
- Abalone, scallop, angel prawn with garlic butter (1,680 yen)
- Tender octopus simmered in soy sauce (680 yen)
- Tempura of prawn and sweet corn (880 yen)
- Imo buta (potato pork) shoulder loin cutlet from Ehime prefecture (1,980 yen)
Japanese Sake:
- Shinsei set of 3 (1,380 yen)
- Seishou (Ecru) namazake junmai from 2021
- Tenga (Viridian) namazake junmai from 2021
- Shuuzan (Cosmos) namazake junmai from 2021
- Kikuhime nigori sake junmai (638 yen)
Even though it was the second stop of the night, I was surprised by the large number of menu items. The friendly waiter's recommendation was the post cover menu item, where the essence of abalone, prawn, and scallop simmered and condensed, resulting in an explosively rich umami flavor. The abalone was tender, and the texture was superb, making it a perfect accompaniment to Japanese sake. The remaining umami was soaked up with baguette and devoured completely. I was surprised to see that the tonkatsu (pork cutlet) was made using shoulder loin meat, which I had never heard of before. The marbling reminded me of rib roast, but the flavor was that of shoulder meat. The shop also offered a variety of unique menu items not typically found in izakayas. The Shinsei sake tasting set of 3 for 1,380 yen, which I thought would be small, actually contained about half a cup each, which was generous considering that a single order of sake was only 1 cup. The shop's strong spirit of hospitality made me happy. I will definitely visit again as there were many more types of sake I wanted to try. (^ω^*) I have an Instagram account @ginjirou.star.