Broke Da Mouth

For our filipino food fix, and when we don’t have the time to cook, we go to Boracay Garden & Grill. My family and I have visited this place so many times, it’s like we tried everything on the menu by now. Last on Easter Sunday, we treated ourselves to fried Bangus, Oxtail Soup and Seafood Black Fried Rice. so ono!

Tonight we ventured through our nearby arcade in the Nishinari neighborhood and dined at a local family-owned restaurant called Kotobuki, suggested by our host Gandhi san. This particular place was literally a hole in the wall. I swore we we’ve walked through this arcade a million times and we couldn’t pick it out among the hundred of small convenient shops, cheap restaurants and tiny karaoke bars that all seem to look so alike. After walking up and down the mile-long covered alley, we finally found it! Thanks to Kaio’s skills at reading katakana ;) We were warmly welcomed by an old couple, ordered two set meals and thawed out over 2 cups of hot green tea. We wanted to mention to the owners that we were referred to their restaurant, but because of the language barrier, we just took our seats and smiled as we took note of all the tiny side dishes in their fridge that were filled with bright red slices of tuna, squares of tofu and huge bottles of Sake and Kirin.

Kaio ordred the curry set and I ordered the sakana (fish) set. The food came fast and we devoured it all. Overall, it’s a cute little mom n pop, fast service and cheap. Turned out to be only 1260 yen.

Nabe-yaki (hot soup with fried shrimp, fried tofu, spinach, and flat noodles) and Chicken Karage with miso soup, daikon and rice. 1400 yen