A note on the words: an izakaya is a Japanese pub, and hiru-nomi, drinking in the daytime, is a genre of its own here rather than a confession. Soba are buckwheat noodles; zaru soba means they are served cold on a bamboo tray with a small bowl of dipping broth beside them, and inaka soba is the darker, thicker, more rustic style. Tonkatsu is a breaded, deep-fried pork cutlet, and rosu katsu is the loin cut of it. A donburi is a bowl of rice with something laid over the top, and negitoro is minced fatty tuna mixed with green onion. Wasabi is the sharp green horseradish paste eaten with raw fish. A highball, in Japan, means whisky with soda over ice.
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Mekiki no Ginji Shinagawa Takanawaguchi Ekimae on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Hello, this is Hangover Meshi. Back in Tokyo at last! The flight home from Hachijojima took what, 40 minutes? 50? We were there in no time. The ferry takes half a day, ha — by plane it was over in an instant. Anyway, having come back from Haneda, we decided to have one more drink before splitting up, so I searched for somewhere in front of Shinagawa Station where you can drink from midday. What came up was “Mekiki no Ginji.” It sits above a supermarket, so it is handy for shopping too, and there is a taxi stand right in front. Just right.
It is on the third floor of a supermarket. Nice view!
There are seafood rice bowls for lunch, and thanks to a collaboration with the tonkatsu shop Wakichi you can even order pork cutlets, ha.
We built the order around the zaru soba set, which pairs cold soba with a rice bowl, and added some small dishes and drinks alongside it.
Highball!
If they are running a tonkatsu collaboration, there is no way not to order it! So I got one plate of rosu katsu on its own, and we split it between us. Frankly, as something to drink over, tonkatsu is unbeatable, ha!
The zaru soba set! The soba is generous and there is a rice bowl too — can I even finish it, ha?
For anyone who wants a lunch that fills them right up, this may be the perfect order. It even comes with a salad and a small side dish.
The soba is dark and thickly cut. It feels like inaka soba, country-style, and it is really good.
The soba at Mekiki no Ginji is gooood!!! The dipping broth is a touch on the sweet side; a sharper one would suit me better. And I want more wasabi! Well — delicious!
Tuna donburi.
The negitoro is on the rich, fatty side, but that is exactly what makes it good, ha. Every now and then it tastes wonderful.
I like shrimp too much not to order it, so the shrimp cocktail came along as well. They have that on the menu too, it turns out.
The dip served with it was ketchup; a chili sauce might have been even better.
And that was our daytime drinking session. Big windows, a very bright room, and above all we were lucky to catch the tonkatsu fair. Seafood rice bowls and soba, tonkatsu to drink over, and highball after highball — a thoroughly happy stretch of time! And it is fairly cheap on top of that, which is great. As a spot for drinking in the daytime I thought it was pretty good. Recommended!
Mekiki no Ginji Shinagawa Takanawaguchi Ekimae (Izakaya / Shinagawa Station, Kita-shinagawa Station, Takanawadai Station)
Tabelog lunch rating ★★★☆☆ 3.4
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
