Hey, everyone!
Today I’m going to be introducing Sometaro, a restaurant in Asakusa that you should definitely visit when you come to Japan, in order to experience some shitamachi soul food such as okonomiyaki and yakisoba!
As well as being delicious, the shop is also a wonderfully atmospheric and has been used as a location for TV dramas!
What’s more, you can even make your own food while eating it!
Come on, let’s go!
Founded in 1937, Sometaro still continues to offer the same great taste that it always has.
The restaurant has been visited by a number of literary greats, and the walls are decorated with autograph cards!
With tatami mats and teppan tables (tables with iron cooking plates on them), there’s a real Showa-era atmosphere in the place.
Sipping on a ramune soda, I order some of the shitamachi gourmet dishes that I’ve come here to try!
Everything on the menu looks so delicious, it’s hard to choose!
First of all I decide to go for two of the restaurant’s specialties.
Shown in the photo is the Osomeyaki okonomiyaki!
The cabbage, sakura shrimp, yakisoba, egg, and so forth are placed on top of a base of thin dough and fried up.
Once the piping hot Osomeyaki is ready, I pour on some of the homemade sauce and green laver, and tuck in—and it’s delicious!
On the right of the photo is a unique house dish: shumai-ten.
It’s an indescribable mix, somewhere between omochi (rice cakes) and shumai (Chinese pork dumplings), and is deliciously addictive!
These two dishes require a special cooking method, so I had the waiter fry them up for me, but I decided to try the next one myself.
After thoroughly mixing together the okonomiyaki ingredients in a bowl, I place them on the teppan.
Then I wait, occasionally using the spatula to check how they’re doing!
We all tuck into my okonomiyaki!
There’s something really fun about the whole thing!
The gomoku yakisoba, with its aromatic, appetite-arousing sauce, is also a must-try!
To cleanse your palette between dishes, try some moro-kyu (cucumber with moromi miso).
Information
Furyu Okonomiyaki Sometaro
2-2-2Nishi-Asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo
Opening hours: 12:00 noon – 10:30 pm (Doors close 9:45 pm/Last orders 10:00 pm)
Closed on irregular days
On weekday afternoons, monjayaki is also available.
It’s a tatami room, so you take your shoes off. Water is self-service.
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