Restaurant "Hyakuichiya"

A special occasion calls for a special restaurant. And December is the month of year that's full of such occasions. If you are looking for a place to catch up with an old friend or to entertain someone special to you, Hyakuichiya is the place to go to.

Located a ten-minute walk to the south from the south exit of JR Tsujido Station, it's in a quiet neighborhood and has a stylishly simple facade.

The interior decor is Japanese and modern, reminiscent of the highest of Japanese aesthetics: "wabi" or elegant simplicity and "sabi" or aesthetic rusticity.

I had lunch with a former co-worker of mine at the restaurant last Saturday, and enjoyed having grilled lean beef and hamburg steak. Both dishes came with some vegetables and mushroom, some steamed and others fried. They were all exquisite. The former dish came with soup, steamed egg custard, and raw fish. Both the soup and the egg custard had beef in them. Both the soup and the egg custard were rich. And the raw fish dish, which used raw yellow tail for ingredient was dipped in soy sauce with thin slices of shiitake mushroom and kelp, and sprinkled with chopped Japanese ginger and shiso seeds when served. It was quite interesting. I may want to try making it myself some day.

That day I was lucky to be shown to a very good table that had a little privacy thanks to a partition to separate the space from the rest of the restaurant. It was a kind gesture of the owner whose wife is a former co-worker of me and the friend who came with me that we had the privilege of lunching in the best room though neither of us were regular there.

There are two restaurants under the name of "Hyakuichiya", and according to the friend, the owner's wife, the one I didn't go to this time was only recently opened. It's a yakiniku restaurant, and it's open from 5:00 p.m. to midnight. The price range is lower here than the other one where I had lunch last Saturday. I want to go there some day when I want to enjoy good meat in a casual atmosphere.