Yakiniku Viking TRY (Korean BBQ)

CONTRIBUTED BY ROBIN LESIEUR

 

This is one of my family’s favorite lunch places on Okinawa. Not only for the options of great food, but for the price, too. It’s all you can eat, buffet-style. A great place for family fun dining.  The staff has always been kind, courteous and prompt. You will find tradition Japanese seating as well as American-style benches.  Let’s take a look at the buffet options:  (Meats, soups, salads & more) you gather your food and sit down to your own grill at your table. Lunch lasts 90 minutes. You can choose different lengths of time to eat dinner for different prices.  There is also an all-you-can-drink option.

 

My husband & I have this down like clockwork – one sits at the table with the kids and one picks out the food, letting the other start cooking the meats. As you see here! 

 

You can figure out your own Plan of Action. We’ve come to realize that a community plate of cooked meat works best. Then we each grab and dip into the sauce provided on the table. 

 

Sit back and Enjoy! 

 

Open : Everyday 

Hours:  Lunch 11:30am – 16:00 Dinner 17:00- 23:00

Money: Yen & Cash only 

Phone: 098-983-7129

Directions: From KAB Gate 1 take a left, heading towards Foster on 58. The light right before the Foster Commissary Gate you will see a Ramayana and the TRY parking lot, make a U-turn at that light. It’s now going to be on your left hand side.

Marco Polo Café and Bakery

CONTRIBUTED BY LARISSA TRAQUAIR 

Combining a café and bakery isn’t a new concept, especially in Okinawa. However,  Marco Polo delivers one unique option not many restaurants can boast – breakfast, off-base, at 8a.m.!  For breakfast you have a variety of sets to choose from with your choice of soup or drinks.  Soup for breakfast might sound unusual, but it is common for a Japanese breakfast.  You’ll choose between French toast (with a salad and potato salad) and various sandwiches, including tuna and a hot egg and cheese sandwich.  Your choices will run you between Y400 – Y600.

 

We went for lunch and their menu is extensive.  We chose several of the lunch sets and were not disappointed.  You can enjoy the pasta with meat sauce, by itself, for Y650.  Or with your choice of tea or coffee, Y700, or enjoy the entire set for Y1,100.  Your set includes soup, salad, dessert and choice of tea or coffee.   

 

I was told the soup of the day was potato and though it didn’t taste like any American potato soup I have ever had, it was FABULOUS!!!!  The dressing on my salad was incredible and hard to describe.  The pasta was good, though perhaps not the best I have had on island.  

 

The daily special was a white meat fish piccata in tomato sauce.  For Y680 there is a choice of rice or bread and a drink.  Since Marco Polo has a bakery inside their café, their bread was really good.  

 

They do serve 35cm pizzas for Y1,500, though their calzones seem to be the option that brings their regulars back.  Several of our ladies ordered this monstrosity and it measured in at 30cm.  This is when a picture is worth a thousand words.  The calzone takes 20 minutes to cook and will run you Y1,200. I would describe this calzone as the kitchen sink of calzones – there were all sorts of ingredients inside including cabbage.  

 

Definitely worth trying!  Our ladies were not disappointed despite not knowing the exact ingredients.

 

Once you’ve enjoyed your meal you must take a look around their extensive bakery.  There was no shortage of breads and desserts to tempt even the most disciplined eater.   And, if you like to eat outside, they have a beautiful patio area! 

 

Happy Eating!!!!

Special Note:  This café/bakery takes Yen and American Dollars.  098-921-1820.

Hours:  Open 7 days a week.  Monday – Friday they are open from 8 a.m. until 9p.m.  Breakfast is served from 8a.m. until 11:30 a.m. and they will take the last pizza order at 7p.m.  

Location:   Awase area

Directions: Go out Kadena Gate 2, go straight and cross 330.  You are on 20. You will cross 329 and start looking for the Mac House Jeans store, on the right, and then Marco Polo is right past the jeans store on the right as well.  If you get to 85 you have gone to far.  The restaurant is less than 5 kilometers from Kadena Gate 2.   There is parking directly in the front of the restaurant and they also have a huge parking lot behind the restaurant.  To get to the parking lot, pass the restaurant and take the small driveway that runs alongside the restaurant – don’t go to the signal, you’ll have gone to far.   

Charlie's Tacos

CONTRIBUTED BY HEATHER GELORMINE

The book club that I belong to here on Okinawa has been meeting for longer than I've been on-island, but when the founder and organizer PCS'd I took over.  At first I made few changes; we continued to have our members take turns choosing the books we read each month but rather than always meeting at my house we moved the location between our homes for each discussion.  And then one of us had a great idea - when discussing Honeymoon in Tehran we should try out the Persian Restaurant down near Araha Beach to get us in the spirit.  So we geared up for some authentic food, toting our books with us... only to discover that the restaurant wasn't open that night.  (It's okay, we headed a block down the street to Genki Izakaya instead.  We didn't go home hungry.)

We loved the concept of having an actual excuse to hire babysitters and go out to eat with friends so much, we thought we'd give it a go again in February.  This month's reading selection was The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and though we would have loved to travel up past Nago to the British Wine and Tea Shop, it's a bit too far to travel on a Tuesday night.  So we settled on a cuisine from the same general region of the world: Patty Macs Irish Pub right outside Kadena Gate 2.  Again, we made plans to meet with our books and our appetites... and wouldn't you know?  Although that pub is generally open on Tuesday nights it was closed on this particular one.

So we stood in front of the locked bar, stomachs rumbling and growing thirstier by the minute.  We looked left and right, and then one of us said, "Well, my kids and I like Charlie's Tacos right over there.  Wanna try that?"  And we did.

I wasn't expecting much.  They're tacos, after all.  So when my "Ladies' Set" showed up with a mildly spiced chicken taco in a homemade, freshly fried taco shell with tomatoes and shredded lettuce piled on top, along with beef taco rice, french fries, a drink and even a tiny scoop of ice cream, I was more than pleasantly surprised.

My friends mostly stuck to versions of this set, though we were given the option of beef, chicken or tuna tacos with mild or spicy seasonings, all meats which were well-received.  For 850 yen (mine was 900 yen with a slightly larger soft drink) this seemed like a great deal, especially since I walked away full.

Two of my friends opted for the three taco set, which in combination with a drink cost 780 yen, and had one of each type.  Other options on the menu were enchiladas, chili, soup, pasta, hamburgers and hotdogs, and steak sandwiches, in sets or a la carte.  And - much to the happy surprise of my friends - there's a small beer menu as well, offering Orion and Corona among others. 

It might not have been fish and chips or traditional minced meat shepherd's pie like we were expecting, but it was a delightful surprise to find a restaurant that I can bring not only my husband, but also my kids, to again sometime... probably soon.  I've been told that Charlie's can get busy at lunchtime, but on a Tuesday night at 7pm we mostly had the place to ourselves.  It seemed kid-friendly, but I didn't notice any high chairs (though that may have been because - for once - I didn't actually need to grab one!).

Operating Times:
Open from 10am to 9pm, Friday through Wednesday.  Closed Thursdays.

Charlie's Tacos accepts Yen and Dollars (but the exchange rate is currently 80 Yen to the dollar... you'll get a better exchange rate through the banks).

Directions:
Coming out Kadena Gate 2, drive straight through to the Koza Music City intersection (four corners) at 330.  Take a left onto 330 and travel for five blocks to Park Avenue (BC Street).  Take a left onto this street and travel almost all the way to the end, with a 100 Yen Plaza in front of you.  Charlie's Tacos will be on your right on the last block.

Parking isn't abundant here, so if you're traveling with a group, carpooling would be a great idea.  It's within walking distance of the USO, and I'm sure there are side streets that will take you here faster than the driving directions.  Maybe one of our readers can help with those?

Cafe and Beauty DOC

I'm a selfish eater. My husband always wants to share food. He'll say, "Hey, let's split some fries." Or worse, "Let's share an ice cream cone." Share an ice cream cone? Are you crazy? No, I get my cone and you get yours. Sadly, that's just how I feel when it comes to food. I need to focus on it single-mindedly. And when I'm hungry and for some reason can't get to it, I transform into a raving, shaking, lunatic.

When I got pregnant though, I knew that someday this would have to change. I'd watch moms out at restaurants giving all their french fries to their kids; running back and forth to the bathroom several times during a meal to heed their children's pleas to go pee; stopping between each bite of food to pick up a toy dropped from the high chair again...and again...and again. It's a wonder that moms can eat at all, and I worried about how, when I had my child, I would cope. Would I ever be able to eat out again?

My son is six months old now. Gone are the days where he would snooze peacefully in his car seat, while I lingered over a latte. Instead, he likes to bounce on my lap, lunge for cutlery, and eat paper napkins or whatever else is within his shockingly long reach. Slowly, I am coming to terms with the inevitable -- that my days of leisurely dining with will most likely be on pause for awhile. And how do I feel about it? Me, the selfish, non-sharing, non-inturruption-liking eater? Well, surprisingly, (most days)... fine. I'm finding that, like most things in life, you learn to adapt. To tuck an extra granola bar or three in your bag to stave off the hunger. Or pick the table with a ready supply of those heighly entertaining plastic wrapped napkins. Or to begin frequenting kid-friendly locales, which in my case, for now at least, means "baby friendly".

Fortunately, we live in Japan where "kid-friendly" dining does not necessarily equate to Chuck E. Cheese style mayhem. (Chuck E. Cheese was my first ever job, by the way. I wore the costume. I sang the happy birthday songs. I listened to the mechanical puppet band sing "Play Me Song Mountain Music" so many times that I can't listen to Alabama without having flashbacks. I will never ever set foot into a Chuck E. Cheese again. Well...until I do.) Kid friendly means tatami rooms where your child can roll on a blanket all over the floor and you don't have to feel guilty about keeping him confined to a carseat or high chair. Or where the staff or fellow customers will totally love on your child, bouncing and cooing with him or her long enough that you can eat your whole meal in peace while your child enjoys the doting. I've found Sora restaurant in Chatan to be the epitome of this type of friendliness, what with its bevy of baby lovin' middle-aged Japanese women clientele. Jakkepoes too, does a fine job.

Finally, kid (baby) friendly to me means having a place where you can change your child's diaper with ease and Japan is at tip-top form when it comes to this. Again, the tatami room comes in handy for this purpose, but also in many Japanese restaurants, shops, airports and hotels you will find the full-on mommy room. I love the mommy room. Not only do they have big cribs where you can change your baby (not those nasty plastic baby station things like in American bathrooms), but also a nursing station with a chair and table where you can sit down and comfortably nurse him or her. Often they have a sink with clean water to make your formula. In Jusco they have a scale to weigh your baby and a measuring stick to check his growth. Wow! (AAFES, please take note. No nursing in the changing room or hiking back to your car here!) They have a great mommy room in the Max Plus complex near Awase, in the Rabbit Store, Osaka Airport, the Beach Tower hotel in American Village, and the place I am supposed to be writing about here today.

Which brings me, finally, to the restaurant I wanted to write-up, the interestingly named, Cafe and Beauty DOC ("Dream Of Cinderella"). It's kid-friendly. Japanese style kid-friendly. While you won't find cartoon characters walking around or a five story playground, you will find a classy modern dining area with a section adapted to meet the needs of both children and their parents.

So, here you have a picture here of a cool orange and white dining room with groovy light fixtures.

This shot of the kiddies on a long wide bench attached to the wall covered with foam mats. The dining tables are right against it (sorry I didn't get that in the frame) so moms can sit and eat at the table, while their small children crawl beside them and their older ones play in the play area.

Finally, here's the children's area with foam mat floors, a little house with a slide (it's not in the picture), a small teeter-tooter, a box of toys, and a little tent filled with plastic balls.

It's child friendly AND adult friendly. Ingenious.

Right next to the kitchen there's a door with Japanese writing on it, pass through it and you enter the mommy room, where you can change and nurse your young one in private.

So, what's the food like? Well, check out this picture of the menu.

It's in Japanese, but the owner tells me he's working on an English one. Anyway, it has pictures. You can get curry, chicken cutlet, a daily special like pork-stir fry and light fare like that for less than 1000 yen. (My chicken cutlet, rice, soup, salad from the salad bar and coffee were 780 yen.) You can order a very cute bento-esque looking kids meal and even a baby meal for kids 7-15 months old.

The owner tells me that he's got big plans for Cafe DOC. In a few weeks, they will be upgrading the play area to make it bigger and include more tables. For now, he recommends stopping in or calling to make reservations if you want to sit in that area of the restaurant for reservations. Especially on the weekend or weekdays around noon to 1pm.

And below you have the exterior of the building, my friend's lunch items, and another interior shot.

Hours and Phone:

Open Daily. Lunch 11:30-15:00, Dinner 17:30-22:30
098-926-0308

Directions:

From Kadena Gate 1: Take Hwy 58 South towards American Village. Make a right at the Four Seasons steak restaurant on the corner. Make your first left. (There's a sushi go round and karaoke bar at the corner.) The restaurant will be on the left hand side of the road between a red tiled Japanese style building and the Crocodile restaurant with the big crab in front of it. The American Village/Jusco parking lot is right across the street from it, but there's plenty of parking right around the building.

Su Su Soon - Pancakes AND Sushi

CONTRIBUTED BY AVIVA!

This little gem is located off 58 near Gate 1 Kadena. I think it's relatively new as I have only seen the sign for a month or two. I recently went to lunch there with some friends so we were able to sample several menu items. You read properly - one side of the menu has pancake meals, the other - sushi meals. I can't think of a better combo!

Upon entering the small restaurant, you're greeted (Irashaimasse!) and asked to leave your shoes behind and don some comfy leather slippers. We headed to a large table in a somewhat separate room where we could sit on the floor pillows, but there are about six regular tables inside the main room. There is a bookshelf with several magazines and books, even a couple of children's books - and a couple of English books & magazines too. There are also a few toys in the larger room, and my daughter was particular to a stuffed cat and a small box that contained buildings, trees and such to make your own village. She was completely entertained until we received our food!

Ice water with lemongrass is offered, and as you can see from the menu, you may order beer, wine, sake, hot or iced coffee (it's GOOD coffee), tea, mango shake (also excellent, very thick and not too sweet), home made ginger ale, which I'm sure is refreshing, banana milk and other juices. There's also a "passion frappe" available which I might try sometime soon - it looks delicious!

At our table a couple of girls had that day's special, a tuna & avocado bowl set, one woman had the maple gorgonzola pancakes (which was topped with apple as well) and made very short work of them - and said it was incredibly delicious, my daughter had the banana caramel cream pancakes (yum!) and I had the bara-chirashi which was also on the lunch special menu. The service was great, everyone enjoyed the homey and peaceful atmosphere (Jack Johnson was playing in the background) and I was so impressed that I took my family there on Sunday for breakfast! So now we've also had the "home made bacon and egg" which comes also with a salad and it's scrumptious!

Su Su Soon is definitely kid friendly (though I apologize, I didn't look for high chairs...) and I plan to visit again for dinner as THAT menu also looks delicious (see the photo). It's about on par with the local prices for what you get. Lunch sets are a better deal than breakfasts, in my opinion. The front counter has some trinkets and even some produce for sale if you'd like to buy something. The couple who works there is very nice, and the kitchen is right there in the main room just separated by the counter.

Banana Caramel Pancakes!

Tuna Avocado Bowl!

Hours: Closed Mondays, Tuesday through Friday open 11-2:30 and 5-8 (last seating at 9, closes at 10), weekends open 9am-9pm, closed at 10. Telephone number is 098-936-0237

Directions: From 58 northbound make a LEFT at the light where the Family Mart/Pizza Inn/GI Bill Pay shopping center is (just before Gate 1). At the first light, make a LEFT, it's on your right side immediately behind a banana yellow apartment building. The driveway to the parking lot is immediately on the right after you turn - it's small though, only holds about 4-5 cars max. When I met friends they walked from the Pizza Inn lot.

Awase Fish Market

 

Thanks to my good friend Julie for showing me this great market. When you get a chance, stop by this fish market for all of your seafood needs, including fish, octopus, lobster, & clams, just to name a few. Here you'll find fresh seafood of all kinds and a friendly staff to help you along the way. As you can see from the pictures, the market also stocks food and supplies such as rice, spices, and much more. However, it is important to know what you are looking for because the packaging is not in English.

The market does have a fish chart translated in English to help you pick the right fish. Also, the instructions for buying your fish are in English as well. Basically, you take a number and decide how you want your fish (whole or fileted). They'll fix it right up for you while you wait and will call your number when it is ready.

Inside the market is a restaurant where you can order a delicious meal. Don't be afraid of all of the signs and fast paced ordering system. They have a menu in English that the cashier will show you with prices listed. Just pick what you want, pay and when your order comes up, you can enjoy it in the casual dining area (indoors and outdoors). I had the lobster set and my friend Julie had the fish. Oishii!

Also, on the outside of the restaurant to the right, you can buy brown bags of freshly fried fish to go! On the left side, you can purchase fresh fruits and vegetables as well as some baked goods.

It's a one-stop shop and the place to go for fresh food from the sea!

The market is open daily from 10:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. during the summer and closes a half an hour earlier in the winter at 5:30 p.m. The restaurant opens daily at 11:00 a.m. and closes with the market.

Directions from Kadena gate 2: Get ready for lots of Route 85's!!

Turn left at the first light outside Kadena gate 2, which is Route 85. Once on 85, go straight until you reach the Ikentou Higashi intersection, which should be the 4th light. At this light you'll turn right onto Route 85 (if you were to go straight, it would turn into 74 and lead you to Kadena gate 3). Once you're on this 85, go straight for quite a bit. You'll pass Marinos and Main City mall on the right. You'll go through Route 75. You'll pass Makeman on the left.

Finally, you'll get to the Maehara intersection. There will be a Jusco on the bottom right-hand corner of this intersection and the Birthday Store in the top left-hand corner. Turn right at this intersection onto, you guessed it, Route 85 (going left would take you onto Route 33)! Once on 85, count 4 lights while passing the Sports Depot and Nitori on the right and Nakagusuku Port on the left. Once at the 4th light, turn left. You'll see this building:

If you get to MOS burger on the left and San-A on the right, you've gone one light too far, so just U-turn.

Once you turn into the correct intersection, you'll see the boats docked at port straight ahead and the restaurant/market is on the right. You'll see a tent on the right before you find parking (see first picture below). Once you park and turn facing towards Route 85, not the sea, you'll see the building shown in the bottom picture.

 

Orange Diner: Contributed by Elaine

Thank goodness for readers like Elaine, 'cause walking by, I probably wouldn't have given this restaurant a second glance. Elaine lets us know why it's worth our while!

I live in this little part of Chatan Town called Minato. Here in Minato, we have a restaurant called Orange Diner. They have a variety of good food that fits every kind of budget - from 500 yen and up. They serve lunch and dinner with different sets of menu for each. Like most places, lunch is cheaper and dinner is a little bit more expensive. They also have a bigger selection for dinner. Both sets of menu include 500 yen dishes.

For lunch, I would recommend the Pork Bowl for 500 yen or the Chicken Bowl (comes with salad and choice of drink) for 850 yen. Drinks are also cheaper during lunch (100 – 300 yen). For dinner, I would recommend the the grilled veggies for 500 yen, the Sauteed Salmon with cream sauce (500 yen) with an order of garlic bread (500 yen) to dip in the sauce. (Note: the Sauteed Salmon is a pretty small serving, but it's very tasty which makes it worth ordering.) They also have a wide variety of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks for 500 yen. The atmosphere is very relaxed and they have a very friendly staff.

HOURS AND PHONE
098-995-7000

They're open Tuesdays to Sundays from noon until midnight and they do take outs on most of their dishes. Please note that if a Japanese holiday falls on a Monday, they will be open that Monday but will close the next day.

DIRECTIONS:

From Kadena Gate 1, turn left on Hwy 58. Turn right at the third stoplight (you'll see Toyohanten and Sega building). Go straight on this road. Make a left at the street after the second traffic light. Then, turn right on the second street (there's a clothing store and a beauty/convenience store at this intersection). Orange Diner will be on the left side (across the street from a flower shop). You've gone too far if you reach the seawall).

Arin Krin: "The Garlic Restaurant" (with a note on Big Dip)

So, a bunch of the Oki Hai gang decided to make a field trip a couple of weeks ago to Arin Krin, "the Garlic Restaurant". Folks have been searching for it on the website here, but we have yet to post a review. Well, we had to remedy that situation! And so we hopped in a couple of cars and headed south, breath mints at the ready.

As usual, the parking situation took awhile to work out. I ended up parking around the corner on the street, stalling my car in the process. There are only about four spots in front of the restaurant, so I'd recommend carpooling if you are in a big group.

I had made reservations, and we went on a weekday, so we were seated quickly. If you are in a large group and/or planning on dining there on the weekend, I'd certainly recommend calling ahead. The decor isn't remarkable -- wooden tables and dim lighting, but the scent of garlic permeating the air lends to the ambiance. There used to be a tatami section. That's been done away with and replaced by five or six tables. I personally am kind of disappointed by that development, since tatami reminds me that I'm in Japan and, now that I have a baby, I appreciate having tatami for him to roll around on...but oh well.

We were seated in the new section and Aviva went to work compiling a list of what we wanted to order. I don't remember what it all was, because we got a whole mess 'o food, and far be it from me to do anything professional like, say, bring a notebook. Or take home her list, for that matter. But, I'll share with you my personal Garlic House faves and a few standouts of the evening. For me, it is imperative to order the garlic pizza. If you don't, then I mean, why even go. I also get the spicy fries. They're not really that spicy, but have a kind of sweet, sticky sauce on them. Yummy. The third item is my "wild card", usually something green like the garlic spinach, but it's open.

I thought the deep fried garlic was delish, although not everyone agreed with me. I just like fried. The roasted garlic. How can you go wrong with that? The tuna avocado salad, still in the skin, very tasty. I wasn't so much into the garlic pasta, which was on the bland side to me. But, I believe, the garlic mushroom pasta was favored by some in the room.

Regarding ordering: Because the portions are more like tapas size rather than full-on meals, I recommend getting several items. If it's a big group, you can get a sampling of everything and then just split the check. If it's just two of you, I think three items is probably enough, depending on what you order. (The pizza is pretty filling - fried garlic, not so much.) They also have no problem having several separate checks at one table if you choose. They'll just take your name and that's your ticket. When you're done, take it to the cashier and pay up!

Somehow, we were able to polish off all of our food (thanks Joelle's hubby!) AND have room for desert. Some garlic ice cream, maybe? No...desert is Big Dip, the big Blue Seal ice cream shop down the street. We heaved ourselves up from the table and paid up at the cashier. (I racked up like a gazillion stamps in my Arin Karin stamp card! Yeah!), then took a walk up the road for our icecream. It's a little bit of a hike, you've got to go south on 58 and walk over the pedestrian overpass and down a bit more. After all that food though, it feels nice and refreshing. Plus, you get to catch up with the folks that were way down on the other side of the table that you didn't get to talk to. I think an ice cream trip to Big Dip is an integral part of the Arin Krin experience. (I was lucky to have a fantabulous sponsor when I arrived to Okinawa almost three years ago, Karen, who introduced me to Arin Krin when I was fresh on the island and instilled that garlic/ice cream tradition in me! Thanks Karen!)

So, fat and happy with garlic and icecream we slowly made our way back to our cars, which happily weren't towed, and bid our farewells. It's always nice to have an excuse for a weekday get-together, don't you think? And so with that, I leave you all with two questions: #1 What is your fave Arin Karin menu item? #2 So, where the heck do you park?

Thanks to Aviva for the photos provided here!

HOURS and PHONE:

Open 5pm-1am
(098) 877-3971

DIRECTIONS:

Head south on HWY 58. After Camp Foster (and before Kinser) 58 will split and the middle lanes go up into an overpass/bridge thing. Don't go up, stay to the left passing an A & W. At the first light where the overpass ends you'll see Arin Karin on the corner on your left. It's covered with crazy drawings of little garlic men. (There's a big Pachinko Parlor with a Micky D's on the right.)

PARKING:

Parking here is quite difficult as the restaurant has only about four spaces. Make sure you don't park at the building across the street. I usually park on the street around the corner (along the chainlink fence.)

Gueuleton

I don't know about you guys, but it is rare that my high heels get any action out here on the island. They sit glumly in my closet collecting dust. So do my fancy dresses. But a girl needs to play dressup every now and then. To spritz on that perfume. To use a hairdryer for goodness sake. To feel sexy. I feel like this has been written before. Ahh...I seem to be channeling Jen, from the Niche Martini Lounge post! Anyway, for any of our gentlemen readers out there reading this and wondering..."What can I do to help bring the sexy back?" allow Okinawa Hai assist. Actually, allow reader, Stephanie to assist. She's sent us a review of a ROMANTIC restaurant. The kind that might inspire a lady to get all dolled up for. The kind with five courses and artfully drizzled sauces and delicate sprigs of fresh herbs and a view! With sexy food that looks like this:

and this:

and this:

So, Stephanie, take it away!

It's called Gueuleton. It is a place where when you arrive, you don't know what you're going to be eating only because the menu is written all in Japanese. But when we usually eat there, we are never unhappy with the meal. It's a set menu and you get 5 courses. You usually get a beautiful salad that looks too good to eat. Next will be a beautiful fish dish followed by some sort of pasta dish. Then the main course which will consist of steak or pork or something main dishy. Then the grand finale...dessert! Which usually consists of homemade ice cream (coffee or vanilla or whatever the flavor of the day is), some delicate fruit and a sugar snack intricately placed on the plate. This too, is almost too pretty to eat but my mouth tells me otherwise!

It looks like someone's amazing home and has an incredible view of the city below! I definitely recommend this place for a date night. When we went, we brought our son who is about to turn 2 and they were totally fine with that. We were fortunate enough for him not to throw any tantrums that night. I recommend making reservations too just for the simple fact that they can know when they have Americans coming to visit.

HOURS and PHONE NUMBER

Lunch: 12:00~1430 (This is half the price of the dinner menu.)
Teatime: 14:30~1600
Dinner: 18:00~23:00
CLOSED SUNDAYS
Tel: (098)933-7607

DIRECTIONS

The directions are crazy, but if you know where the Mint House is you can get there pretty easily.
Ok here goes:

Go pass the Awase Golf Course and follow that road until it Y's. Stay left - take the 1st right passed the CALEB sign (the sign will be on your left). You will go uphill and you will pass the PACIFIC VIEW HOTEL. You will see the MINT HOUSE on your right and KANDAS GALLERY/BBQ on your left. Turn in there and GUEULETON is there with the trees covering almost the whole place.

Thanks Stephanie. You rock!

WAIT! There's more! Need a BABYSITTER for this lovely evening out? A friend just forwarded me this link to a babysitting service. I haven't used it yet, but I think she was happy with it. Check it out: http://babysmileokinawa.ti-da.net/

For other babysitting ideas, take a look at this Okinawa Hai post.

For other excuses to get the heels out, check out this post: http://www.okinawahai.com/my_weblog/2007/07/you-have-until-.html

Wing King

Sometimes I feel like I could do just fine as a vegetarian. Other times I eat Wing King. Something about that little plastic box 'o saucy wings brings out the animal in me and before you know it I've got nothing but a plate of meatless bones.

But who can resist, with flavors like spicy coconut, honey BBQ, lemon pepper, Hawaiian heat, and more? Plus, it's oh so easy. They've got takeout. Call your order in, pick it up (you can pay in dollars or yen), get your paper napkins, and bam - dinner on the table. They even throw in a little baggy of carrots, so you can feel healthy.

(top # is for Kadena Wing King, bottom for Foster)

I have to admit, I've never actually been the picker-upper of the Wing King. (Although I tried on Monday. And waddya know it was closed.) So the only info I can give you about its interior is what I saw as I peeped through the windows - functional, fastfood looking dining room - what you'd expect a wing joint to look like.

Below, we have a picture of the menu. As you can see, very English friendly. Also, you might notice that there are actually two Wing Kings. One near Kadena and another near Foster. I only have the directions to the Kadena one, since I didn't even know there was one near Foster previous to today. But, I guess you can figure out how to get ther from the picture (it says "Convention Center bottom left). Or just call and ask.

So, now that we are on the subject of takeout, I'm hoping that someone might drop a suggestion or two for other takeout options on the island? Uh-hum...anyone?!

DIRECTIONS (to the Kadena one, for the Foster WK, see map pictured or just call 'm and ask):

(From 58) Turn onto Rt 23. Look for an AU building on your right. Wing King is just after that on the left hand side of the road, right after "The Eagle Lodge". It's in a little strip mall thing.

HOURS AND PHONE

Kadena WK: 098-936-8986
11am-8pm (last order) CLOSED Sunday and Monday

Foster WK: 090-2855-0102
Tues-Fri: 5pm-10pm (last order), Sat-Sun: 3pm-10pm CLOSED Monday