The "family restaurant" in Japan

[torakris]

According to this informal survey

http://www.japan-guide.com/topic/0109.html

Family restaurants top the list for most frequently visited restaurants.

The results come as no surprise to me as these kind of restaurants have something for everybody at a reasonable price.

At Denny's, Royal Host, Skylark, etc you can choose from menus featuring western, Japanese, or other Asian style dishes. Other family restaurants are mosre focused dealing with one type of cuisine, noodles, Chines, yakiniku, etc.

What are some of your favorite family restaurant chains and do you have any favorite dishes?

[torakris]

One restaurant that my whole family really likes is Bamiyan.

This is a Chinese chain that has great prices and decent food.

For the longest time they had a sweet and sour pork dish that was served with bamboo shoots and shiitake in a basalmic sauce and I was addicted to it, but it seems to have disappeared.....

Bamiyan menu (Japanese only but click on any of teh lines on the left to see pictures of the food, then click on the picture to see it enlarged)

http://www.skylark.co.jp/cgi-bin/menu.cgi?gyoutai=BM

My other favorite is a Japanese style restaurant by the same group (Skylark) called Aiya, it is sort of like a mini kaiseki but with incredible prices and surprisingly good food.

Aiya menu (same as above , click on the lines at the left)

http://www.skylark.co.jp/cgi-bin/topmenu/m....cgi?gyoutai=AY

[torakris]

One of the biggest disappoints of a family restaurant chain was Big Boy, not even one hamburger on the menu!

http://www.bigboyjapan.co.jp/bigboy/index.shtml

[helenjp]

Hmmm...I used to have a cat called Big Boy...so that's where he got to!!

[smallworld]

Hmmm...I used to have a cat called Big Boy...so that's where he got to!!

Eeew!

I actually don't really like family restaurants and try to stay away from them. Although I can't avoid them completely- they're often the only choice when I need something to eat in the wee hours, or when I need to kill time with a bottomless cup of coffee, or when a large group of friends can't decide on a place to go.

It's not that so much the food, which is usally decent and can even, occasionally, be pretty good (although it can also be pretty bad). There are things like Japanese-style hamburgers or tonkatsu that even minimum-wage earning kitchen staff can't screw up (I think a lot of everyday Japanese food is like that- a little bit of training and strict adherence to the rules are enough to produce good results, and real skill and creativity is only needed for highly advanced foods like sushi or kaiseki). And although the menu is varied, they always seem to have EVERYTHING except what I really want. Like the last time I visited Dennys, thinking for sure they'll be able to cure my pancake craving. Pancakes are only on the breakfast menu and kid's menu, neither of which can be ordered by an adult at 7pm.

More than the food, though, I dislike the bright lights, bad service, smokey air and incredible noise. Family restaruants are so noisy! When someone goes in or out the door, a high-pitched electronic bell rings. Not just back in the kitchen, but in the whole restaurant. Then when you're ready to order, you press a button at your table and another bell rings. Again, not just back in the kitchen, but throughout the whole restaurant. It's horrible! Most Japanese people seem to be immune to this (all too common) noise pollution, but it drives me insane! This noise is on top of the regular noise produced by a restaurant packed full of people- chatting old ladies, unruly juvenile delinquents and screaming kids.

And even more than the noise, I really don't like how family restaurants are taking over. I've never been anti-chain restaurant, but in the last two years several independently owned restaurants in our area have closed, with two family restaurants, two chain izakaya, and several chain restaurants have opened up. (The two family restaurants are on a large plot of land that used to be a famous Chinese restaurant, housed in an old tradional Japanese house with a huge Japanese garden. All gone now, with the rest of the space taken up by an ugly parking lot and yet another convenience store.)

Now there are very few places we can go that aren't chains, but worse than the personal inconvenience is the horror of these unstoppable huge corporations that will wipe out all or most family-run businesses and turn my neighborhood into a generic cookie-cutter neighborhood indistinguishable from every other neighborhood in Japan.

I've seen it happen in Canada and it really makes me sad to see it starting here too.

So until we become an actual family (maybe then family restaurants will have more appeal), I'll continue to shun family restaurants.

[torakris]

My new favorite in the family restaurant kind of place is Bikkuri Donkey, this is a restaurant that serves just hamubaagu, a hamburger without the bun, and very cheaply.

I can feed my family of 5 for 2500 yen (under $25) and feel very full.

You can choose between a set with rice and salad that all comes on one big dish or the meal on a hot iron plate that sizzles in front of you. You can also chose the size of the hamubaagu from 100g up to 400g as well as the topping. My favorites are the Japanese style with shiso and grated daikon and the one with pineapple and teriyaki sauce.

their menu

click on menu pick up and then click on any of the menu choices to view the selection

they don't show prices, but they range from 500 yen to 1000yen (for the 400g).

[Norio]

My new favorite in the family restaurant kind of place is Bikkuri Donkey, this is a restaurant that serves just hamubaagu, a hamburger without the bun, and very cheaply.

I can feed my family of 5 for 2500 yen (under $25) and feel very full.

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I remember seeing these on my last trip to Japan. The food looks good, but I'm not sure about the name. It reminds me of when I found out what was in those cans of "new corned beef."

[torakris]

My new favorite in the family restaurant kind of place is Bikkuri Donkey, this is a restaurant that serves just hamubaagu, a hamburger without the bun, and very cheaply.

I can feed my family of 5 for 2500 yen (under $25) and feel very full.

←

I remember seeing these on my last trip to Japan. The food looks good, but I'm not sure about the name. It reminds me of when I found out what was in those cans of "new corned beef."

←

I know what you mean about the name, I never would have gone to the place if my in-laws hadn't taken me the first time...

For those who don't know much Japanese bikkuri means surprise, so I always joked to my husband that it was Surprise! Donkey Meat!

After the first time we ate there my 4 year old commented in the car that he wanted to go to bikkuri-shita donkey again, it doesn't sound as funny in English but by adding that shita in there the name of the store becomes 'The Surprised Donkey' and it just conjured up a very funny image.

[Chris Amirault]

Bumping this up as my family (including two girls, 12 & 5) will be staying a few doors down from a Royal Host in the Nakano section of Tokyo. Does anyone have any more to say about this place? If you have a sense of dependable fare, Japanese or otherwise, please share.

[Hiroyuki]

Are you talking about the one near JR Nakano Station?

The site linked to above has only two reviews. According to them, the buidling itself is very old, the interior hasn't changed for decades, but the atmosphere is wonderful.