A note on the words: an izakaya is a Japanese pub, and nomihodai is the all-you-can-drink option many of them attach to a set course for a fixed time. Toban-yaki means a dish cooked at your table on a ceramic plate set over a small flame. Noshi-ika is squid that has been dried and pressed flat into a chewy sheet, so calling something noshi-ika-like is about the texture. Anago is saltwater conger eel, softer and lighter than the freshwater unagi; nodoguro, the blackthroat seaperch, is a small, very fatty white fish, and donabe rice means rice cooked with the fish in a lidded clay pot and served straight from it. Ezo abalone is the northern-water abalone. Akami is the lean red flesh of tuna, and isaki is the fish sold in English as chicken grunt. Genshiyaki is the old open-hearth style of grilling, where fish is skewered upright around a fire.
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Nihonbashi Suminoe on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Hey, this is Hangover Meshi. This time, off to Nihonbashi! There must be plenty of good places around here, but I went looking for somewhere you can walk into without standing on ceremony, somewhere you can be noisy in, and that is still clean and serves good food — and what I found was this place, “Nihonbashi Suminoe.” It’s in Coredo Muromachi, right by Mitsukoshimae. A fish izakaya, and a charcoal-grilling one at that, in the dead center of the city — I thought, and then I went, and the good smell of grilling fish came drifting out…!
Inside is fairly roomy, and toward the back there are a few box-style seats walled in on three sides — not quite private rooms, but close.
It’s busy no matter what, with groups who look like they’re on their way home from offices around here — genuinely crowded! There were people without a booking waiting in line outside as well, so if you want to be sure of getting in, a reservation may be essential.
Summer course [for first-time visitors] Suminoe special course (8 dishes with selected nomihodai): 7,000 yen
Summer course [for entertaining and formal meals] Suminoe kinki course (8 dishes with selected nomihodai): 8,500 yen
Summer course [for a treat or an anniversary] Special! Seafood indulgence course (8 dishes with selected nomihodai): 10,000 yen
This time, the ten-thousand-yen course! And for 500 yen more you can upgrade the nomihodai to a premium one that adds sake and selected shochu, so I added it without hesitating. Eight fairly lavish dishes are coming, so I’m looking forward to it.
Right, drinks first. I couldn’t really tell whether this is premium-nomihodai only, but
a barley shochu, Nakanaka, with soda! You order by scanning the QR code at your table and tapping away on your phone.
What arrived was squid on a ceramic plate ^^
There’s a solid fuel tablet under it, and you light that, let it cook for a while, and then eat.
Having it once it had cooked down nicely — yeah, well, it’s good.
The sauce with the squid liver in it is of course delicious, but the squid is cut quite thin and fine, so… how to put it. It ends up with the texture of noshi-ika, which is a shame. The miso-like sauce with the liver in it is probably made separately and tossed through, I’d guess. I think I’d prefer the squid in chunkier pieces.
Shellfish, and salmon, and spinach.
Let’s see: yellowtail, akami, sea bream, isaki, and… what was the rest again.
It comes straight from the fishing port, apparently, and all of it is juicy and really good! The sashimi is excellent.
This is probably the version where they fry the abalone in butter and then put it back in the shell.
It isn’t especially chewy — your teeth go straight through it. The butter and the liver come through in the smell, and it’s good.
It was only faintly warm, though, and I think it would taste better piping hot.
A soft batter, without much crispness to it.
Rather than tempura, it might be closer to fritto, lol The anago side had a bit more crispness, and that one was good!
And here’s the main event? The nodoguro rice cooked in a clay pot!
Clay-pot rice finished with two small nodoguro. A lovely smell of fish comes wafting up. They said they’d portion it out for us afterwards, but it did bother me a little that it came out so late, lol lol
It was pineapple!
Hmm. This might be a place where you’re better off enjoying the cheapness on one of the cheap plans. I don’t feel there was much benefit in going for an expensive course. In fact, the genshiyaki on the cheaper course looked better! So I think the way this place suits you best is as an everyday, casual 5,000 to 6,000 yen with nomihodai. Taken that way, isn’t it rather good?
Nihonbashi Suminoe (Izakaya / Mitsukoshimae Station, Shin-Nihonbashi Station, Nihonbashi 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?
