Sakyuu-ya, Ogikubo 砂丘屋、荻窪

Not far from Ogikubo station’s south exit (yet far enough on a bitterly cold evening), Sakyuu-ya is closet-sized izakaya/ koryori-ya specializing in simple, strong tasting dishes designed to compliment sake and other tipples.

The counter seats about eight diners, at a push, and the master of the house has very little kitchen space in which to work but, nevertheless, manages to produce a variety of fish-themed, sake kasu (sake lees) infused dishes.

There’s a menu to choose from, although Woodster and I decided to try one of the omakase plans. Three price grades were available: ¥1,000, ¥2,000 or ¥3,000. We did the latter, which proved to be excellent value in terms of both quantity and quality.

Flame seared, fatty salmon 

Interesting otoshi – the beans marinated in Kahlua were great

Grilled fish and roast vegetables – reminiscent of Mediterranean cooking

Tofu and chicken, in sake kasu soup

Deep fried fish head, stuffed with roe baked in sake kasu

Dashi maki tamago

Sake kasu pizza!

Salmon and daikon in miso soup

03-3392-6909

Sakyuu-ya

Sakimura, Ningyocho 咲村、人形町

Bonenkai, much like birthday parties, are often great chances to try somewhere one might otherwise never have heard of.

This particular “forget the year party” saw us head out to Sakimura, an ageing izakaya on a side street off a back street just off the main drag of Ningyocho, about five minutes chilly stroll from the station.

Situated on the second floor of decidedly nondescript building, the interior was bare bones to say the least. The main dining area – spacious though it was – had the look and feel of a canteen, a place for truckers or late night shift workers to get sozzled at before drifting home. More than likely the furnishings had been done in the early eighties, and never bothered with since. Still, it added to the character.

Our party was, thankfully, put out of sight in a large washitsu. Tatami, low tables, cushions, faded beer posters and aching joints.

Some kind of set-menu had been arranged, and so bottled beer flowed uninterrupted, while a couple of old ladies supplied a regular stream of dishes. None of which were mind blowing, mind you, but they did the job in terms of keeping us drinking without embarrassing mishaps.

Aside from the tamago-yaki, daikon and chicken stew, yaki-soba and veggies, the stars of the night where the maguro kama (which yielded a generous quantity of succulent flesh) and the sashimi moriawase. This, despite being a little rough looking, like off-cuts leftover from the previous night, was surprisingly good.

Not bad, all round, as far as old skool izakaya go. One to visit with @izakayasanpo for sure.

03-3664-4085 

Sakimura

Toritetsu, Tokiwadai とり鉄、常盤台

For some reason I’d got it into my head that Toritetsu was a local affair. Actually it’s a sprawling chain covering much of the archipelago. It seems somehow less formulaic than many of the better known, much reviled chains that spring to mind. 

On the night my dining partner and I ventured in, it was packed. “Must be good,” said I. Turns out that the crowd had gathered to take advantage of an “everything for ¥100 night,” the menu’s specials included.  

Truth be told, Toritestu does a lot of “special” nights. There’s ladies’ night, men’s night, pensioners’ night, Thursday night, Friday night, etc. You get the picture. 

Bubbly staff and a cozy atmosphere went a long way to making the evening an enjoyable one, despite the length of time between orders placed and orders served... 

The food - for the most part yakitori standards - isn’t going to win any awards, but it’s not going to put you off the stuff either. I should know. After a month or so of almost nothing but yakitori I should be sick of the stuff. 

The otoshi, a very soft, creamy dollop of tofu, was quite tasty but almost impossible to eat with chopsticks. On the verge of punching someone after five minutes with it, spoons seemed in order.  

Many of the skewered morsels were on the teeny side. The ginko nuts especially so. The liver was tender, but pretty tasteless, too.

As far as budget yakitori goes, the sasami - plum and wasabi-topped - wasn’t bad. The tsukune was reasonable, and the slices of raw chicken flesh safe but a little bland. 

Better than Watami, not a patch on Kappa-chan.

03-5917-6808

http://tori-tetsu.com/

Ko-panda, Kichijōji コパンダ、吉祥寺

Kichijōji continues to boom, seemingly well on the way to becoming a small city in its own right – in the manner of Shinjuku or Shibuya – rather than just a well developed, over populated and highly sought after village – such as Shimo-Kitazawa or Jiyūgaoka. It’s yet to be ruined though. Still plenty to draw the casual diner, and enough “nostalgic” establishments remaining to bring a tear to the eye of seasoned Tokyoites.

An area (block?) brimming with such attractions is the old covered market/ traders ground across the road from the central exit of the station. What was once little more than a fetid warren of rundown alleys and stalls is now a frightfully hip dining and drinking spot clustered with “postmodern/ retro/ neo-Asian” bars and izakaya, many of which appear to be part of the increasingly sprawling empire established by the folks behind the Mishima Bar (opposite Iseya at the entrance to the park).

Ko-panda nestles amidst the lanterns, moldering electric meters and crumbling stalls of the alley known as noren komichi. Think black and white Kurosawa movies such as Stray Dog. At best you’d squeeze in 10-12, if slim. Little counter, little tables, little stools, little menu, little izakaya. A staff of one – the proprietor one would like to think – takes orders and pokes at the vat of tepid oden.

The most memorable thing about Ko-panda is the vaguely nightmarish paper-wrought little panda – think Silent Hill only with China’s favoured fluffy diplomatic pawn. The food is limited, not costly and intended to accompany your booze more than satisfy your appetite.

We did the oden, which to fair be was less hateful than it’s wont to be; some tasty yet overpriced cubes of cheese and some seasonal takenoko. The latter were enjoyable, but clearly at the lower end of the quality scale.

Great fun, but hardly worthy of a long stay. Visit before, in between or after dining spots. 

Sakanaya, Ebisu 肴や、恵比寿

A chain, not ubiquitous but settling in for a while by the looks of things, Sakanaya specializes in low prices and above average portions – washed down with super cheap (¥190) icy beer.

The two I’m familiar with (both in Ebisu, not far from the station) have deceptively narrow looking “front rooms” behind hanging vinyl sheets, furnished with plain wooden tables and chairs.

The upkeep of the interiors varies; I watched a ceiling mounted speaker come crashing to the floor, missing a diner’s head by a hair’s breadth on one occasion…

Both have Tardis-like interiors. Should you be beckoned to the inner sanctum (usually by a south east Asian baring a badge purporting a native Japanese name – think HSBC call center staff only with beer) you’ll be confronted with a cavernous space, most likely filled with trestle tables and benches, around which hoards of thirsty, ravenous youths or white shirted salarymen feast.

It can be disconcerting.

Service is pretty hit-and-miss. So is the delivery of all besides the beer.

The food isn’t going to win any awards – it’s not intended too.

Big chunky otoshi of maguro sashimi, bulging seafood nabe and lethal but delicious deep fried gobo are good enough, if unrefined. 

The daikon salad is impressive, you need climbing gear to tackle the beast. Doesn’t taste of much though. 

The rest is just big, and basic. Better than a kombini dinner, worse than you could do yourself, probably.

It’s about the beer. Best visited in the heat of summer, without an appetite. A couple of thousand yen should suffice.

Which is not to say there’s not a place for this kind of izakaya in the pantheon.

03-3444-7508

http://r.gnavi.co.jp/a454919/map/

Uosan, Monzen-nakachō 魚三、門前仲町

Uosan has been serving cheap, rough hewn and undeniably voluminous fresh fish since before the LDP was even a glint in Toby’s eye; which is to say since 1954, to be precise. 

The mere mention of this near legendary Monzennaka izakaya, situated not far from Orihara Shōten on Eitai Dōri, makes fish lovers and izakaya aficionados go weak at the knees. Or, perhaps, it’s the hour or so of queuing they endure in order to secure a seat that makes them so. 

There’s nothing fancy about Uosan, and none of the staff - the silver-haired mama-san included - waste time with the usual niceties.

Once the front door slides open the patient line of hungry fans dutifully cross the threshold and (unless they are regulars, ancient or have a way with old ladies) are brusquely told where to sit.

If lucky, a spot on the ground floor squeezed in between the other diners at one of the three counters will be awarded. If not, they are summarily banished to one of the three upper floors, and the perils of tatami mat seating. 

It’s a great business model. Open at 4pm, and have a full house and captive audience by 4:02pm. 

Initially, order taking and delivery of dishes takes time to get into a groove - be patient. There’s bottled Kirin beer, Uosan branded bottles of chilled (instantly forgettable) sake, and plenty of the warm stuff being sloshed about in tall tokuri, too. You’ll need some time to take in the menu, which is posted on the walls. There are 126 individual items listed on the wall above the kitchen hatch alone! 

It’s all about fish, although a few concessions to other categories are made, supplied by generations of Tsukiji fish-mongers; their family/ business names are proudly displayed upon one of the walls (as is the case at Okajōki). For variety’s sake, the plethora of fish on offer comes fried, grilled, stewed, boiled and pickled. It’s also absurdly cheap, very big, mostly fresh and pleasingly unrefined. 

While you’re tucking into plate after heaped plate of sashimi - the kampachi, tai and chūtoro were fantastic - and generous portions of juicy, glistening grilled fillets and steaks it’s hard not to notice the strange atmosphere... 

Hardly “cosy,” and not exactly relaxing either. It’s quiet, but in the way a museum or gallery is quiet. You don’t want to disturb the peace, and everyone around you looks so serious. I’d put half of it down to collective fear of the mama-san and her offspring, the remainder to concentration on the task at hand, which is to say consumption of more and more fish.

Either way, it’s not really the place for a party or, for that matter, a leisurely meal. Best to get your fix and head elsewhere for drinks, or something.   

Uosan does provide some great people watching opportunities. Many of the patrons are regulars, and probably locals to boot. Some read while eating, others eat their fill while listening to iPods. Others still spend more time gazing wistfully at everyone else's meals, and seem to forget to order much for themselves. Conversation with strangers is out. With your dining partners, limited.  

03-3641-8071

http://r.tabelog.com/tokyo/A1313/A131303/13003007/

Genki-ya, Ikebukuro げんき屋、池袋

A fortnight ago the deadly convulsions of mythological Namazu, the capricious catfish residing beneath this archipelago, were an issue far less pressing than the tribulations of a train home delayed by suicide.

Stranded in Ikebukuro station – chilly, surrounded by fed up commuters and with no way of knowing how long it would take for the tracks to be cleared – I gave in to hunger and convinced my similarly stranded dining partner to join me somewhere nearby for dinner. 

We plumped for Genki-ya, a little place situated on the East/ Seibu side of Ikebukuro on the way to the Sunshine 60 Building, due to all the descriptive menu pages and photographs plastered all over the street level entrance to this basement izakaya.

Neither interior nor food was noteworthy. A narrow space, filled with the usual worn wood table and benches, with tired beer posters for decoration. The young lady waiting the floor discharged herself admirably, considering the limited space and lack of customers.

Our meal served its purpose; it kept us off the platform/ streets and filled us up. Not bad, certainly not stooping to lower-end chain store levels, but hardly refined. Prices were reasonable, but not to the extent of Yukari! 

The award for most interesting dish/ flavour of the evening surely went to the sun-dried firefly squid, which despite resembling aging umbilical cords or Rabbi’s cuttings tasted really good, pungent almost, especially when dipped in cheap mayonnaise (as is traditional in these parts). The karaage and yakitori moriawase deserved no awards, but won’t get the chef in any trouble either. 

03-6907-4120

http://r.tabelog.com/tokyo/A1305/A130501/13053038/