グルメ大家さん
It's getting quite cold in December, so I headed to Nishi-Azabu in search of warm hot pot dishes. I found a restaurant called "Wokoku" and made a reservation right away. It's located about 300m south of the Nishi-Azabu intersection, where the foot traffic starts to thin out. The menu features dishes like Mizutaki, Saga beef shabu-shabu, and sukiyaki, all inspired by Kyushu cuisine. However, since I was with a friend from Hakata, we decided to try the "Agu Totoro Nabe" instead. Despite the Kyushu theme, they actually use Agu pork from Okinawa, so it seems they aren't too strict about sticking to Kyushu ingredients or dishes (laughs). We started with a Saga beef salad, which was delicious with the fatty Saga beef complementing the vegetables well. Next, we ordered a horse sashimi platter, which turned out to be quite a large portion for the price of 3,480 yen. It was too much for us! (laughs) Once you order it, you won't need to order it again. I thought it would be better to reduce the quantity and lower the price. Finally, the main dish was the Totoro hot pot. It was filled with plenty of vegetables, topped with Agu pork, and generously covered with grated yam by the staff. As a dish, it was very tasty, and as a fan of grated yam, I couldn't get enough of it. While some items may seem a bit pricey, overall, the prices are reasonable. Despite being a bit off, being able to enjoy delicious food and drinks at this price range in Nishi-Azabu is not bad at all. The only thing that bothered me was that smoking was allowed throughout the restaurant. The two women at the next table were smoking cigarettes the whole time, which was quite distracting. The lack of awareness of the female customers smoking cigarettes and the attitude of the restaurant allowing it was concerning. It felt like they weren't keeping up with the times.