A note on the words: oden is a stew of eggs, radish, fish cakes, tofu and other pieces simmered in a seasoned broth, with each piece ordered and eaten separately. Jinenjo is a wild Japanese mountain yam; grated raw it turns into a sticky, faintly sweet paste. Yuba is the delicate skin skimmed off simmering soy milk, and aosa is a soft green sea lettuce. Shinjo is a light dumpling of pounded fish or shellfish paste. Nori is dried laver seaweed. Karaage is Japanese fried chicken, and shumai are small steamed dumplings. Motsu is offal, and motsunabe is the Hakata hot pot built on it. Kinako is roasted soybean flour. Shochu is a distilled Japanese spirit, made from barley or sweet potato, and awamori is the Okinawan spirit distilled from rice. Nomihodai, translated here as all-you-can-drink, is a fixed-price arrangement that includes unlimited drinks for a set stretch of time.
Hakata Oden to Jinenjo Yokayokado on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Hello, this is Hangover Meshi. So, this time to “Hakata Oden to Jinenjo Yokayokado” near Shinjuku-gyoemmae. Year-end parties have been stacking up, and unless I drink with a bit of care for my health I will not last the season! I wanted a meal built around oden, which feels kind to the body, so this is what I picked. The restaurant has a second floor as well and has a stylish feel to it, but this time we took a table on the first floor. I had thought it might be semi-private, but no such luck, ha. Wide open. ^^
A strange space where a calm mood and a lively one live side by side. ^^
[With 2 hours of all-you-can-drink] Signature freshly grated jinenjo + 3 kinds of Hakata oden + 5 dishes — 6,000 yen
[With 2 hours of all-you-can-drink] Signature freshly grated jinenjo + 4 kinds of select oden + 6 dishes — 7,500 yen
[With 2 hours of all-you-can-drink] Signature freshly grated jinenjo + 4 kinds of select oden + 6 dishes — 9,000 yen
This time we went with the 7,500-yen course.
Right then, beer first!
![[With 2 hours of all-you-can-drink] Signature Freshly Grated Jinenjo + 4 kinds of Select Oden + 6 dishes (7,500 yen)](https://cimg.eat.hangover.work/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/17070830/th_DSC07936-scaled.jpg "Yokayokado, Shinjuku-Gyoen: Hakata Oden and Grated Yam 7")
The all-you-can-drink list covers beer, highballs and the various shochu highballs, and for sake there is one designated bottle each from the clean, the dry and the fruity categories, all included! On top of that there are two barley shochus, two sweet potato shochus and awamori — quite a generous spread.
The first snack was the freshly grated jinenjo! It has the character of grated yam but is noticeably firmer. The scent of the yam is very strong and the flavor is deep! This is good. Delicious.
Lotus root and shiso dressed together, plus a chicken broth.
Bite-size karaage! Fried on the bone and quite large!
That crisp exterior and the springy meat are irresistible. I want to eat a bucket of these!
Around here I switched to barley shochu with soda.
Here are the three kinds of shumai. The black one is squid, the middle one is pork, and the one on the left wrapped in shredded egg is chicken.
All of them straight out of the steamer, piping hot and fluffy. Delicious.
This counts as oden too, apparently.
Finely cut aosa seaweed and yuba in a gentle oden broth. What a gentle flavor.
This one is oden with the fragrance of nori as well. It goes so well with the squid shinjo!
Seasonal fruit — this month is that Shine Muscat, is it? Or just green grapes, I wonder. ^^ Quite a luxurious little snack! The sweet fruit and the rich mascarpone are delicious.
It reads less like oden than like the topping off a beef bowl, but the broth is properly gentle, the kuroge wagyu has a sweet fat to it, and the parsley note is restrained. Well, it is not a seri hot pot, after all, ha. Gentle and good.
Motsunabe. A complete change of direction: a firm soy-based soup with burdock root and springy motsu, and it is delicious. This is exactly the right amount. A little of many different things — that is a good way to go about it.
Goto udon, for the first time since I was out in the Goto Islands. ^^ That springy texture really is good.
So this time I went for a gentle oden-and-drinks session in Shinjuku Gyoen! Everything was gently seasoned, and the portions landed just right. A little of everything, in amounts big enough to make you think how good it is. Eleven dishes, no less! You can keep drinking straight through, treating it all as snacks. I am usually eating heavy things, so now and then it matters to give your stomach a rest like this. ^^
Hakata Oden to Jinenjo Yokayokado (Izakaya / Shinjuku-gyoemmae Station, Shinjuku-sanchome Station, Yotsuya-sanchome 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?
