shin04
Located near Jutaro Station, there is a rumored restaurant called "Umagozaru" where you can enjoy delicious horse sashimi at a reasonable price. I made a phone reservation for Friday at 4:00 PM as the restaurant always seems to have a long line. Upon entering right after opening, I noticed that some of the staff members had a somewhat indifferent attitude, as I had also felt over the phone. Well, I let it slide as it was within acceptable limits. Looking at the menu, the prices were indeed affordable. I ordered the loin, thigh meat, rib meat, back rib meat, yukhoe (Korean-style raw beef), stir-fried bean sprouts, and raw tongue. Each dish had a good portion size and was delicious, with no gamey taste. And all of this only cost around 2,000 yen. This is incredibly cheap for horse meat. Particularly, the thigh meat was delicious, with a tender texture typical of horse meat and a subtle sweetness in the lean meat, making it enjoyable even for those who are not fond of raw meat. The raw tongue may not have been completely thawed yet, possibly due to the early opening time, but it was still quite tasty. One interesting aspect of this restaurant is the wide variety of shochu (Japanese distilled spirit) available. This time, I ordered pumpkin shochu, sesame shochu, kelp shochu, and chestnut shochu. These shochu varieties are more approachable and seem to appeal to female customers more than barley or sweet potato shochu. While the distinct flavors of each shochu were not strongly noticeable, it was more about the aroma and smoothness, making you think, "Oh, now that you mention it." It's not often that you can try all these varieties at other restaurants, so I'd like to try them all next time. I'm looking forward to trying the tsukune (chicken meatballs) and liver sashimi on my next visit.