Our notes recording selected things we dine on this 18 day trip to Japan! This is a long visual record, so it’s split into two parts.
Day 02 Lunch: Hamburger Set with Rice at the restaurant above Fancy Shop at Lake Kawaguchi. We had a lot of hamburgers with rice this trip!The restaurant is on level 2 and above the souvenir shop, and you can watch the world go by below.Day 02: cakes and hot beverages at Cheesecake Garden. We got a complimentary hot beverage for every cake purchased.Green matcha cheese cake for my birthday!Day 02 Dinner: Beef Udon at the Kawaguchiko Shopping Center BELL Food court.The foodcourt has half a dozen stalls offering different cuisines. Some of the udon items were not available though at the evening we went by.Day 03 Lunch at Denny’s at Lake Yamanaka. These family restaurants were a life-saver. The kids live on a staple of french fries and McDonald’s, and restaurants like Denny’s was the next best thing!300g Hamburger Set. The kids loved the fare at Denny’s so much we had it twice: one at Lake Yamanaka, and another in Shibuya.Day 03 Dinner at The Park Cafe: Sausage and pancakes. This lovely cafe was also the only dinner option at Nagaike Water Park, and we had to make haste too as their last order was at 4:30PM before closing at 5PM. We were the last diners that evening, and the cafe started shuttling down for the day immediately after we left.Bacon and pancakes at The Park Cafe.The cafe closed early at 5PM, with last orders at 4:30PM.Day 04 Lunch at Swad Bhanchha Ghar Restaurant near Shin-Okubo. The naans were fantastic and offered generous curry portions. We had naans thrice this trip – kids love naans – and the best by far was at this very restaurant in Shin-Okubo. The wait staff were really nice too and queried where we were from.We would have loved to return here again for another meal this stay, but did not finally as there was no opportunity to.Day 04 Dinner at Ippudo Ramen Tokyo Dome City. Having Ippudo Ramen (and Saboten Tonkatsus) is a standard inclusion in every Japan itinerary of ours!Ippudo Ramen in Japan is much more reasonably priced in Japan than in Singapore.Day 05 Lunch at Todai Kitchen Deli & Tea at the Samuel Cocking Garden on Enoshima Island. There are at least two other cafes/restaurants in the Garden area.Curry set with rice. The food was so-so, and pricing on the high side. I reckon there really are better dining options on the island, especially in the street that leads to Iwaya Caves.Sandwich at Todai Kitchen Deli & Tea. The restaurant has very limited seating at the level where the lift up the Sea Candle is, but there is outdoor seating at the level above (accessed by the stairwell near the gift/souvenir shop).Fish & Chips at Todai Kitchen Deli & Tea. Nothing fantastic about the food, but the kids were hungry.Day 05 Tonkatsu Dinner at 和幸リエール藤沢店 at Lierre Fujisawa. We had this at Fujisawa Station after returning from Enoshima Island. Tonkatsus pretty good, and you get free-flow rice and cabbage.I went to a similar restaurant in the same chain in Osaka during the September trip this year.Day 07 Lunch at Saboten Keio Mall Shinjuku Station. This is my go to Tonkatsu restaurant for any Japan visit, excepting when we’re in Kyoto. When we’re in Kyoto, we go straight to Katsukura at Kyoto Station!Tonkatsus from Saboten are as good as ever. I brought my colleagues to the Saboten at Canal City in Fukuoka during our September 2023 trip, and they were impressed with the pork cutlets.Day 07 Dinner at Pietro Tokyo Dome LaQua.Shrimp and Mushroom pasta. Delicious! We had pasta about four times this trip, and we found the pastas at Pietro Tokyo Dome LaQua the best of the four places.Day 08 Lunch after our TeamLab Planets visit: Uomasala, a small restaurant that serves up Indian cuisine.Naan sets are at about 900 yen, and you can ask for one refill of naans too. Of the three naan restaurants we dined at this trip , we placed this one the last. It’s still good, just that we liked the other two more.Day 08 dinner at Spaghetti Goemon, a restaurant opposite Suidobashi Station and near our hotel.Cream and mushroom pasta. Yummy too and almost as delectable as what we had just a few days ago at Pietro Tokyo Dome LaQua.
Continued in the next post that covers Days 09 to 18!
