Matsu-no-ki(Kawasaki, Szechuan cuisine)

Szechuan cuisine, one genre of Chinese food famous for it`s spicy taste. Several times I went to the Szechuan restaurant in China Town in Yokohama, but I was disappointed because they had no difference compare to other Chinese restaurants there. I don`t like to eat at China Town Yokohama because the tastes are too much Japanized for instance, not using zanthoxylum, not using cumin and using Japanese soy-source. This is a restaurant which is always top ranked at Kawasaki`s Chinese restaurant ranking page. It`s 15 minute walk from Kawasaki station. I expected a bit dirty restaurant but inside was quite neat and beautiful despite of my expectation. Perhaps for the first time in my life I ate real Szechuan cuisine. Every dished I ordered were delicious and spicy. For my surprise, the owner and the chef are Japanese however spices used for the foods were authentic Chinese one. I highly recommend Ma-po Dou-fu and soup-less tan-tan-noodle, if you are good at spicy taste. Although I am afraid to say the helping of each dish is bit small.

***restaurant information***

My rate of recommendation : 3.5
Name : Matsu-no-ki
Nearest station : JR kawasaki station(10 min walk)
Address : 9-2 higashida-cho, kawasaki ku, kawasaki city
Tel : 044-221-9939
Price : 3000yen-4000yen
Holiday : New year day
English : No use
Booking : Appreciated
Toilet : Japanese style

Inti raimi(Kawasaki, Peruvian restaurant)

In my childhood, all my knowledge about Peru was from a book titled "The world top 100 mysterious place". I can still remember how I was excited when I imaged enigmatic Incan civilization and Machu Picchu fortress. Therefore my stereotypical images of Peru are the Andes, condors, the ancient culture, the heart offering etc etc. What I wanted say I had completely no idea about Peru cooking before I had come to this place. According to this restaurant`s HP, Inti raimi means one of the biggest festivals of the Incas. Inside the restaurant was neat and exotic atmosphere, most of the customer looked like Peruvian native. When I looked at the menu I realized Peruvian cooking is quite similar to Japanese one because there were curry rice, Yakitori like skewer and wide variety of Chinese foods. I ordered a stir-fried potato and beef dish and a bottle of wine, and wifie ordered a marinated moule dish and a beef stomach curry rice. Each dish had large helpings and quite tasty so if you want to enjoy many dishes, you should go with your friends.
***restaurant information***

My rate of recommendation : 4.0
Name : Inti raimi
Nearest station : JR kawasaki station, 5 minute walk
Address : 15 oomiya-cho, saiwai-ku, kawasaki city
Tel : 044-511-4225
Price : 3000yen-4000yen
Holiday : Tuesday
English : ???(Spanish and Japanese are OK)
Toilet : Western style

RYU-EN(Kwasaki, YAKINIKU : beef barbecue)

Do you like to line up for your meal? Basically I hate to line up in front of a restaurant. But this YAKINIKU restaurant is an exception. The restaurant is quite famous among Kawasaki residents, sometimes it`s called "The legend of YAKINIKU". The meat is completely different from other YAKINIKU restaurants, I dare say it`s addictive. One of my friends eats at this restaurant once every 3 days. There is always a queue waiting to get inside the restaurant despite the location where is 10 minutes ride of taxi from the nearest station. Sometimes we have to wait over 30min (especially on wkend) but it`s worth waiting! You should think you were in Disney Land or something. Please eat JYO-KARUBI(marbled beef), GYU-Tang(ox-tongue), and TOFU-CHIGE(Korean soup)! Everything on the menu is delicious so don`t be shy to order the unknown foods! You can get there by taxi from Kawasaki station. Say the driver "Please go to SHIDEN-DORI(Shiden street) on WATARIDA-KOSATEN(intersection of WATARIDA)". When you get off the taxi, you can see a yellow sign and a small restaurant(it`s in not sophisticated building). I wish you a good luck!

***restaurant information***

My rate of recommendation : 4.5
Name : Ryu-En
Nearest station : JR-Kawasaki station(10 minutes by taxi)
How to get there : I recommend to use a cabby from Kawasaki station
Address : 4-6-9 Watarida,kawasaki ku,kawasaki city
Tel : 044-355-9768
Price : 4000yen-5000yen(inexpensive for YAKINIKU)
Holiday : Monday
English : No use(and no English menu)
Booking : No use
Toilet : Western style

Himalaya(Kawasaki , Indian-Nepali cuisine)

Curry... want to eat spicy currrrryyyyyy... Sometimes I get a strong desire for eating spicy curry. If you get such a desire, I recommend you to go Himalaya in Kawasaki. The restaurant is run by an Indian owner (may be Indian I can`t tell Indian and Nepali) and all staffs are Indian. I ate here a couple of times, every time the foods are delicious and there are still tons of cuisine I haven`t tried. Especially I recommend MOMO which looks like a Chinese dumpling but it is garlic flavored Nepali food. Another menu I recommend is a Garlic Nann Bread. Try out the Garlic Nann and various tastes curry, that is wonderful! The restaurant is located a bit far from Kawasaki station however the restaurants near by the station are not good in my opinion. I heard that around lunch time this restaurant is quite busy because of company workers and civil servants whereas diner time is not so busy. You can eat without booking.

***restaurant information***

My rate of recommendation : 4.0
Name : Himalaya
Nearest station : JR-Kawasaki station(10 minutes walk)
Address : 1st floor of parale, 8 higashida-cho,kawasaki ku,kawasaki city
Tel : 044-246-7673
Price : 3000yen-3500yen
Holiday : New year day
English : Available
Toilet : Western style

HATTAN(Kawasaki, GYU-TONGUE:oxtongue)

Eating oxtongue is bizarre? No no! You should be liberal about food. As for me GYU-TONGUE was a bit challenging at first but now it is my one of favorite Japanese food. Don`t imagine the original shape, focus on only the taste. Then the GYU-TONGUE gives you a happy happy moment :-)
HATTAN is a tiny restaurant located on a alleyway near by Keikyu-Kawasaki station. That area is the entrance of the red light district of Kawasaki city called HORINOUCHI famous for the girls in show windows. The restaurant is always crowded with salarymans working for local government or company in Kawasaki.
Basically GYU-TONGUE is a local food in SENDAI city which is in northern part of HONSYU island, it`s got widespread in Japan since 20 years ago if my memory serves me right.
In this restaurant the GYU-TONGUE is served with OSHINKO(pickled celery cabbage and cucumber). Please eat GYU-TONGUE and OSHINKO taking turns, it`s the style. Other food I recommend is ox tail soup and tomato salad, especially the tomato salad is unique, served on sliced cabbage and onion source (yummy)!. The menu is quite limited so let`s order GYU-TONGUE(1300-1600 yen), ox-tale soup(650 yen) and tomato salad(650 yen).

***restaurant information***

My rate of recommendation : 4.0
Name : HATTAN
Nearest station : Keikyu-Kawasaki station(3 minutes walk)
Address : 1-8-28 hon-cho,kawasaki ku,kawasaki city
Tel : 044-244-9247
Price : 3000yen-3500yen
Holiday : Sunday and national holiday
English : No
Toilet : Japanese style

PICCOLINO(Kawasaki , Northern Italian)

I love love love this place! To tell the truth, I don`t want to introduce this restaurant in public because I don`t want the restaurant being crowded too much! Piccolino is an Italian restaurant run by mom and pop located near by LA CHITTADELLA, five minutes walk from Kawasaki station. The chef studied Italian cuisine in Rome and he is crazy about motor bikes (we can see his big DUCATI bike in the hall in spite of tiny restaurant space). The chef has two young kids(a son and a daughter) and sometime they come down to the hall running around. According to the chef, this restaurant serves northern Italian cuisine which is bit different from southern Italian one, that is why there is no pizza on the menu. Everything is delicious and each dish has plenty amount so that the total bill would be super cheap in the end. Please eat sea food spaghetti with linguine pasta! It`s beautiful! I usually order a litter carafe of house wine(red) which is easy to drink and cheap indeed. I believe that Piccolino is the champ of Italian restaurant in Kawasaki!!

***restaurant information***

My rate of recommendation : 5.0
Name : PICCOLINO
Nearest station : Kawasaki station(5 minutes walk)
Address : 24-31 ogawa machi,kawasaki ku,kawasaki city
Tel : 044-221-3367
Price : 2000yen-2500yen
Holiday : Wednesday
English : ???(Japanese and Italian?)
Toilet : Japanese style

KARYUH SANKAN(Yokohama : Daoxiaomian)

At last! I maid it to the enigmatic Chinese restaurant which is quite a popular among the food bloggers who live in and around Yokohama city. I sometimes go to China Town but I don`t like the Chinese food there frankly speaking. Because Most of their tastes are modified to Japanese food. However real Chinese foods are way too different because Chinese use their particular seasonings and herbs.
Daoxiaomian is a sort of Chinese noodle and that means shaved noodle by a knife. Each noodle is about 5cm long and 1cm wide but not symmetric. That shape creates various texture. We can see the Chinese cook shave a dough into the noodles in the kitchen. But I heard making this noodle requires quite high skills.
I ordered Dan Dan Daoxiaomian and it was yummmmy!!! I tried Daoxiaomian couple of times but never met such a delicious one. First I thought the soup was a bit wishy-washy compared to the noodle but I was wrong, because the shape of noodle scooped plenty of soup at one stroke. We can enjoy the soup to the last scoop!
Another food I tried was Ya She Huang which means spicy fried duck`s tongue. It looked grotesque but after the one bite the scary object turned into a yum-yum stick. The duck`s tongue was fried with a lots of ingredients and all their flavour were sucked into the tongue. There are other Chinese dishes I`ve never tasted so I shall return!

***restaurant information***

My rate of recommendation : 4.5
Name : KARYUH SANKAN
Nearlest station1 : Kan-nai station(Keihin tohoku line)
Nearlest station2 : Hinode-cho station(Keihin kyu-ko line)
Address : 5-71-1,choujamachi, naka-ku, yokohama city
Tel : 045-261-6079
Price : 2000yen-2500yen
English : unavailable(Chinese,Japanese)
Toilet : western style

Hidekatsu (Kawasaki :KUSHIAGE)

KUSHIAGE is a Japanese cuisine which is fried something on a skewer. Various foods can be a ingredient for example pork, eggplant, beef, mushroom etc... There are vats filled with worcester sauce on the table to dip the KUSHIAGE in, but it has a strict local rule. No one is allowed to dip the KUSHIAGE twice so that we don`t dip our saliva in it.
The restaurant looks traditional Japanese IZAKAYA and it is located near by Kawasaki city hall. All seats are a counter and bar stools style. I usually go to this restaurant before my pay day because the price is quite inexpensive. Each skewer costs only 100yen to 150yen and a draft beer costs 450yen. So if I stayed the restaurant from opening to closing and drank as much as I can, the price would be 3000yen or 4000yen.
I recommend you to try the pork, camembert cheese, and lotus root.
There is no English menu so I translated the menu for some help.
*Menu*
KUSHIAGE 1(100yen each but you have to order more than 2 skewer)
Kushikatsu(pork), Asupara(asparagus), Nin-niku(garlic), Shi-i-take(mushroom),Shishito(green pepper), Kabocha(pumpkin), Negi(japanese leek), Nasu(eggplant), Jaga-imo(potato), Tamanegi(onion), Waka-dori(chicken), Satsuma-age(minced fish),Win-ner(sausage), Ika(caramali), Shiratama(small egg), Chickenball, Liver
KUSHIAGE 2(150yen each but you have to order more than 2 skewer)
Sasami(young chicken), Ushi(beef), Renkon(lotus root), Aji(white fish), Hotate(common scallop), Ebi(shrimp), Kisu(small fish), Kaki(oyster), Kamam-belu(camembert cheese)

***restaurant information***

My rate of recommendation : 3.5
Name : Hidekatsu
Nearest station : Kawasaki station
Address : 5-5 higashida cho,kawasaki ku,kawasaki city
Tel : 044-221-8223
Price : 2000yen-3000yen
English : unavailable(Japanese only)
Toilet : western style