割烹 田季野

This time I went to Fukushima and had the locally famous "Washo-don" (a type of layered rice dish), and ordered the original Washo-don set. It included soba noodles served with green onions as chopsticks, a small side dish (the black part is horse meat), and finally the main dish, the Washo-don.

We arrived at the restaurant around 5 PM (with a reservation made in advance) and there were already some people inside, but the environment was super quiet, basically you could say there was absolutely no sound, and I couldn't hear any other guests, which made the overall dining experience a bit oppressive. For the side dishes, there was kimchi, shredded radish, and horse meat, which weren't particularly impressive; the kimchi felt a bit raw. Regarding the main dish, I thought the soba noodles with green onions were the best part; aside from the taste, just using green onions as chopsticks was quite interesting. In terms of flavor, the broth for the soba was rich in bonito flavor, which paired deliciously with the sweetness of the green onions. Unfortunately, towards the end, the tail part of the green onion became spicy, which overshadowed the sweetness of both the bonito and the green onion itself. As for the main Washo-don dish, there were salmon slices with relatively little fat, which I personally thought were quite tasty; although it lacked the richness of salmon fat, the flavor complemented the rice well. There was also some snow crab meat, tamagoyaki (Japanese omelette), and an abundance of mushrooms. If you don't like mushrooms (like me 🥹), I recommend not ordering it, as the mushrooms made up a large portion of the overall ingredients, and the rice had a strong mushroom flavor as well.

Restaurant environment: 4.5/5
Food - Green onion soba: 4/5
Food - Washo-don: 3.5/5