Japan: Day 6c - dinner at Gottsui

We caught the train back into Roppongi, with a map in hand and a sense of where the restaurants were. Neither of us were terribly hungry, and neither of us were terribly fussed about what we ate. However, we didn't really want something we could readily get back home.

We reviewed the menus of a few places, googled one or two others, and then picked one in a backstreet that looked fairly lively with an interesting menu. It was only when we got home and looked up their website (helpfully printed on their t-shirts) that we realised it was part of a chain (including one in LA, USA).

It had a hipsterish vibe, without being pretentious, and they promptly seated us in front of the hotplate where we could watch the action.

After perusing the English menu, we selected a few items from various sections.

Delicious, freshly pickled cucumber, with a gorgeous dressing

Seasoned fresh cabbage with exquisitely tender morsels of beef (Sujishio)

A cheesy egg bacon-tomato-avocado omelet (ours is at the back, sans avocado) in the making

The Meccha Gottsui yaki (the flag was purely for our benefit). 

Which looks like this on the menu

And these are the guys that made it for us

In fact, it was a bit like a grown up version of the doughy egg bacon english-muffin-shaped things we had in Ueno park, which means they were some kind of Japanese pancake.

We finished up sharing two desserts (I forgot to take a picture of the first one until after we hoed in)

Imagawa-yaki with vanilla ice cream. Crisp on the outside, melty on the inside, warm against the cold ice cream

Coffee jelly with vanilla ice cream. Also very yummy, and an excellent palate cleanser

We spent around $80, of which around half was drinks (three grapefruit soda sours, five ryuuguu (brown sugar shochu)), and were gently and delightfully entertained for a couple of hours. We tried to leave a tip, but were not allowed to.

But given they were serving Tulip wine, pre-packaged Australian wine by the glass, that's probably fair.

Assuredly a greater crime than cask wine, also brought to the world by Australians.

Yes, really. Foil lid and all. 

Like most restaurants in Japan, smoking is permitted inside, but because we were sitting next to the hotplate, and therefore the exhaust fans, we didn't suffer too badly even with smokers seated right next to us.

Good fun, reasonable prices, good food, super fresh, prepared right before your eyes.