A note on the words: okonomiyaki is a savoury pancake of batter, cabbage and other fillings, finished with a thick brown sauce and mayonnaise; Enshu-yaki (also called inaka-yaki) is the Hamamatsu version, made with takuan, the crunchy yellow pickled daikon radish; dashimaki tamago is a rolled omelette made with stock; otoshi is the small dish brought to every seat in a Japanese drinking shop, which carries a small cover charge; shochu is the Japanese distilled spirit, here the barley kind taken long with soda. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).
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USHIO on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Drinkers, thank you for waiting. It is Hangover Meshi time.
This time we thought we would drink in Roppongi for once, and the place we went to was “USHIO”, which does healthy okonomiyaki. It stands right beside the Roppongi crossing. I have been aware of it for ages but had never been in. Okonomiyaki made without oil, vegetables at the centre of the menu — all sorts of intriguing features, so I was looking forward to it.
Sit down at the table and there is no hotplate in front of you: the style here is that they cook in the kitchen and bring it out plated. Which means you do not go home smelling of it. Very Roppongi. Before the okonomiyaki, we picked at a few snacks.
Nothing can begin until we have a beer!
The salad slot. A generous amount of sesame dressing. The steamed chicken is said to be cooked slowly at low temperature with a house lemon salt; it is nicely torn into pieces and the dressing clings to it well. It is a substantial dish — enough that four people sharing it feel properly fed!
Dashimaki tamago with plenty of stock in it, seasoned gently and faintly sweet.
An unusual Japanese-style fresh spring roll with mountain yam and dashimaki tamago inside. Light and delicious!
A remarkably light simmered beef tendon. Apparently they spend three days on it, repeating a cycle of simmering, chilling and skimming the fat off the wagyu. That would explain why it is as clean as this.
And here is the number-one seller, the Enshu-yaki!
Since the shop opened in 1971, they have kept this “inaka-yaki” (Enshu-yaki) going for more than half a century: takuan, red pickled ginger and spring onion mixed into the batter, the soul food of Hamamatsu.
Hamamatsu — so this was Shizuoka cooking all along.
I had no idea, and I did think “pickled radish, in okonomiyaki?” — but the moment the first mouthful went in, what struck me first was how light it is.
Is this really made without oil?
Not a drop of oil, and yet the batter is fluffy and moist. How on earth is that done? The crunch of the takuan surfaces here and there, giving texture to something that can otherwise be monotonous. Takuan works! The sharp acidity of the red ginger is judged beautifully too, and every mouthful shows a different face. Never dull.
Airy and light, with plenty of vegetables. Okonomiyaki that is kind to the stomach and carries no guilt at all!
In the end, this is the sort of thing one ends up ordering.
Having eaten the healthy Enshu-yaki, I wanted a bit more punch, so I ordered the exact opposite concept: the “American-yaki”. Hamburg steak and cheese sandwiched inside that fluffy Enshu-yaki batter, with a soft-cooked fried egg on top.
So much for eating light.
It is, I think, the biggest thing on USHIO’s menu.
Cut into it and the cheese flows out and mixes with the juices of the hamburg steak. All of that is caught by an oil-free, fluffy batter, so it carries less guilt than it looks (or so it feels). Plenty of sauce and mayonnaise, and delicious. Break the yolk of the fried egg and stir it through and it turns rounder still. What is this — surely it has left the category of okonomiyaki entirely?
If you order the American, you have to have the Italian too!
Cheese, salami and fresh tomato sealed into the same Enshu-yaki batter. It looks like ordinary okonomiyaki, but this one is properly Italian. One bite and it is the acidity of the fresh tomato that stands out. Into the mellow batter and the richness of the melted cheese, the sharp tomato cuts cleanly. The salt and smoke of the salami follow behind, and before you know it you feel the satisfaction of a pizza rather than an okonomiyaki. That is it — this is a pizza with sauce and mayonnaise on it!
So: I went and ate okonomiyaki made without oil, and the very light Enshu-yaki really does seem good for you. The side dishes are vegetable-led and health-minded as well, and one ought to come somewhere like this now and then to detox, mentally as much as physically!
When the room fills up, the staff are few enough that the food and drink can back up. Go intending to take your time over it, and you will enjoy it more.
May you meet something good to eat today too.
USHIO (okonomiyaki / Roppongi Station, Roppongi-itchome Station, Nogizaka Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.5
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
