Sutamina Taro (All-You-Can-Eat) Restaurant

Sutamina Taro Restaurant

Yakiniku (Barbecue)

Yummy barbecue!

Make your own pancake or crepe (just follow the pictures)

Cotton Candy Machine

How to make a cotton candy

Pour the sugar into the hole

Get the paper stick and grab the cotton, simple!

My son, getting the cotton candy from the machine

Inside the restaurant

Desserts

Sushi

Tako yaki (octopus ball), shrimp tempura, chicken karaage

Orange, apple and lychees

The food section

Sutamina Taro Restaurant- Jan 2, 2010

Last week we're supposed to go to Oki Doki Recycle Shop but we found out that it was closed already, it's actually permanently closed maybe out of business or they moved to a different place (I don't know what's the actual reason, I'm just guessing hehehe). We thought that we missed the store so we even turned around and saw no sign of Oki doki, it's really closed. We saw the actual store with no signs and no displays inside and it's empty (I should have taken that picture too LOL).

Anyways, we were hungry that time so we ended up going to a yakiniku restaurant which is a few blocks away from that store. I just found out the real name, while I'm writing this post I asked my daughter if she can read the name of the restaurant. So there you are...it's Sutamina Taro! Thanks for having a daughter who's taking Japanese class ;-)

This restaurant is an All-You-Can-Eat, it offers a lot of varieties of dishes such as sushi (of course hehehe), ramen, udon, soba, tako yaki, chicken karaage (fried boneless chicken), salad, french fries, fruits, desserts such as cheese cake, mochi, strawberry cake and many more. You can make your own cotton candy and crepe which are the 2 favorite things that my son like to do here.

I think this was our 5th times eating in this buffet restaurant; some of the pictures above were taken last August and last week ( I combined them).

Price: (this is weekend and holiday price only)

Adults- 1980 yen (~$22)
Children- 1340 yen ($15)

The weekday's price is cheaper but forgot the price probably 1000 yen for adults

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Directions (for US military newcomers here in Misawa):

Using back road not the toll road : (We always use this route since we are far from the toll road entrance and to save from toll fees hehehe)

1. Go out from the Falcon or POL Gate
2. Go straight and make a left on Universe
3. Go straight (pass Eneos gas station and family mart), make a right when you see Lawson on the right and Esso gas station on the left
4. Go straight all the way to Hachinohe (approximately 30 minutes or more from this intersection), this is route 45
5. At the end of the road is the T-intersection ( so you won't worry of getting lost) where you will see the Sega World, make a right on this T-intersection (you may get confused but this is still route 45)
6. Go straight (pass Popeye Pachinko and you should pass the Yellow hat on your left side)
7. Make a left on Route 29 (going to Kabushima), the landmark intersection is the Cyber Pachinko & Slot
8. The restaurant is on your right (you would pass Uni Q Glo on the right hand side)
9. You will make a U-turn when you see the Pachinko Parlor on your left hand side (be careful the road is a bit narrow for a van to u-turn)

Using Toll Road:

(Note: You should know how to drive going to Hachinohe using toll road before you can follow this directions since I'm too lazy to type hehehe)

1. When you exit the Hachinohe toll road, turn right onto route 45
2. Go straight until you hit the T-intersection (You will see Sega World)
3. Follow steps 6 to 9 on above directions

ENJOY!!!

Friday Shootout- Food and Restaurants

Today I will only feature my 4 favorite restaurants here in Misawa. Most of my photos here were taken from my compact and my cellphone cam because I can't bring my big DSLR camera, I'm too shy to show off hahaha.

1. Viking Restaurant (All you can eat)

April 16 was our 16th wedding anniversary; my husband and I celebrated it with just a simple lunch in Viking restaurant, it's an "all you can eat buffet" for ¥ 1000 or $10 each, a total of only ¥2000 or $20 for our anniversary (remember we have global crisis, i don't want to spend too much hahaha). The first photo is the Viking Restaurant, it was crowded when we went here since it's lunch time. A lot of military servicemen go and lunch out here. We even had hard time finding a parking spot and so my shot wasn't that good enough too.



In front of Viking Restaurant


Yakiniku or grilled meat; we have to get our own meat and grill here; we also had miso soup and cold soba


Yakiniku beef and pork with onion and bell pepper on the side



Cooked grilled meat



My husband picked these- Fried oyster, chicken and gyoza


I picked these: Sushi- salmon, tuna and oyster with sweet corn :-)

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2. Sapporo Ramen

Our favorite ramen restaurant is "Sapporo" although it doesn't show its name on their board, I have to ask my daughter the name of this restaurant. Last Wednesday my husband and I had our lunch here, for ¥ 1700 or $17 (2 miso ramen and 1 gyoza) we were full already. Most of the ramen restaurants here do not serve sodas, you have to buy your soda from the vending machines. They just serve water.


Here's the front view of Sapporo Ramen



Miso Ramen for ¥ 650 or $6.50


Gyoza for ¥400 or $4- I like their gyoza; the inside meat has a lot of ingredients in it that makes this delicious (oishi!)


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3. Korakuen

This restaurant was newly built just last 2008; the name of the restaurant is in Japanese. My family had our lunch here today and my daughter even asked the name of this restaurant just for this shootout LOL; she can't understand kanji very well so she asked the cashier and we found out it's "Korakuen."

We ordered a set of miso ramen, gyoza and fried rice for ¥ 890 ~$9; 1 kid's meal and extra fried rice and pork w/ rice.

We spent ¥ 2141 today or ~$22 (4 people)

In front of Korakuen


Egg and pork with rice and seaweed or nori


fried rice



Kid's meal: shoyu (soy sauce) ramen, fried rice, orange juice and a token to get a free toy from their vending machine

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4. Kappa Sushi

Kappa sushi is my favorite sushi bar; I had my previous post about this restaurant and that time we call this as "100 yen sushi bar" since we didn't know its name. One plate costs 100 yen. Since my husband was off this week so we ate our lunch here last Tuesday. We spent ¥ 1500+ or $15+ for our lunch.

I have to hide my camera here since they prohibited cameras inside.

Click this if you want to check out my previous post about this sushi restaurant.


Kappa Sushi





Tokkyu lane- mini train that serves your order fresh from the chef's kitchen


Seafood yuke- this is my favorite

Tako yaki- my kids love this; tako means octopus but it tastes like squid ball

shrimp tempura




squid- I haven't tried this yet


natto- rotten soy beans (yuck, ewwww hahaha); I haven't tried it yet and I will never try it. My daughter said it's stinky and slimy


I don't know the name of this but I will never try it too hahaha


Tiramisu for ¥ 150 or ~$1.50



Mochi- sweet rice with beans inside


, ** Next time I will feature more of Japanese food here in my blog, it will take up a lot of space now and it's hard to read if you have a long post :-)

Thanks for taking the time.

Cheese Roll House

Cheese Roll House


Inside the restaurant- look at the spelling..... "handemade"


Collection of Plate Numbers from different states


More plate numbers! Find your state here :-)


Crunchy Cheese Roll


Miso Ramen
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One of the restaurants around Misawa which I tried was the Cheese Roll House. Their specialty of course...cheese roll, cheese wrapped in wonton wrappers....hmmm yummy! They also have yakisoba, ramen (shoyu or miso), grilled beed donburi and gyoza (my kids favorite!).

I noticed inside that small restaurant was their unique wall, full of vehicle's plate numbers, I would think that the owner collects plate numbers of each state (US). Some have dedications from the vehicle's owner. I should have brought my California and Hawaii plate numbers in the restaurant and give them to the owner :-)

100 Yen Sushi Bar

One of our favorite places to eat sushi is the 100 yen sushi bar. Actually we don't really know what the name of that sushi bar is since we can not read kanji, we just call it 100 yen sushi :-) The price per plate is 100 yen (2 sushi/plate) for most of sushi but they also have 150 yen for some expensive ones like tuna and I forgot the rest hahaha. The dessert is 150 yen, they have cheese cake, chocolate cake, tiramisu and choco pudding. I like their free green tea too, I'm not a tea drinker but when I tasted their green tea...hmmmm I liked it. You can buy green tea from their over the counter shelf. I bought 2 and it costs 100 yen per pack.

The last picture above is the mini train that carries your special order, they call it tokkyu lane. If you want some sushi that you can not find in the bar then you can order it from their touch screen menu monitor (second picture), just press the "order" button and in a minute you will be receiving your special order fresh from tokku lane just grab it and press the red button and the train will leave that quick :-) cool huh?!!

Some of the sushi and food that we have tried here are: tuna, salmon, sea urchin, crab livers, tako yaki (octopus), soy beans, natto (rotten soy beans, eeewww), salmon with onion toppings and mayo sauce, shrimp, crab legs, centipede (it's like centipede but I don't know the name of that fish hehehe, see the 4th picture), spicy tuna roll, shrimp tempura and tamago.... and a lot!!! We are trying to taste them all hahaha

During weekend, it's really crowded and you have to wait in line maybe 30 to 40 minute waiting time and I probably recommend you to go on weeknights or weekdays.

Driving Directions:

From Misawa AB main gate:

Travel out from the main gate
Go straight and make a right turn on the second traffic light (first traffic light is the corner of Lalala karaoke bar)
Go straight until you see a Y intersection, make a left on this intersection
You will see on your left side this sushi bar before the McDonald's traffic light.
The sushi bar is along side of the road, a lot of parking space.

KFC in Hachinohe

I saw 2 KFC in Hachinohe one is along route 45 before Sega World (the first picture)and the other one is when you make a right turn on the intersection of Sega World and maybe few kilometers more from that intersection (2nd and 3rd picture). The latter one was the one we went to after we came from Tanesashi Seaside. There was no mashed potatoes which is my son's favorite, so he was kind of disappointed. So when you order fried chicken it's only fried chicken and the side order I think is corn or coleslaw and each order is too expensive when you compare the price from the US. And they even give you one napkin for each person. This is I notice here in Misawa or Hachinohe (and I'm not sure if it's all over Japan) they are just giving out one napkin (small one) to each person and sometimes none.....grrrrr same with ketchup grrrrrr too (what's wrong with them???). And now I have to bring my own napkins and ketchup coz my kids love ketchup. So make sure you bring yours too when you go to Japan.