Dorome どろめ 熱海駅前店

This is a shop near the Atami JR Station that we stumbled upon by chance. In this area of Atami, they seem to produce a lot of silver fish, which if I'm not mistaken, is what we call "sweetfish" (koi). They can be eaten cooked or raw. This shop also features silver fish as the main selling point, and before we were seated, the staff specifically asked if we eat silver fish. I'm not sure if there are some environmental considerations involved; some people might not eat it because they think it’s unhealthy? Your push-your-dad imitation of young silver fish makes it less appealing to eat.

The boss said that if we didn't know what to order, they have king size and queen size assorted rice bowls. If you want to try various types of fish, it's recommended to order the assorted rice bowl. Since we honestly found it hard to decide, we ordered both a king and a queen size bowl. When they arrived, we were surprised by the huge portions; I even took a photo next to a coin for comparison.

The taste was actually very good. The sashimi and scallops we could see were fresh and delicious, and the vinegared rice underneath was just right. The silver fish, both raw and cooked, were arranged over the rice, but personally, I think the cooked version tasted better. However, my wife preferred the raw one. In Taiwan, I don't think anyone would eat raw silver fish rice bowls; I’ve hardly seen such a product, so this was a very special experience.

Even though the portions were large, we managed to finish everything. The boss was really surprised, as it seemed he hadn’t anticipated that we would actually finish the meal when he recommended it to us. 😆