Tsurukameya Shokudo — Restaurant in Aomori

A zany place with great tuna and decent ramen. The atmosphere is nice, though busy (expect a wait outside to get in). Though the experience we had with our waiter left a sour taste in my mouth.. without going on a ramble: they were short, impolite, and impatient. It really stood out among all the places I’ve dined and shopped in throughout Japan as the one place that didn’t seem to appreciate my patronage as a foreigner, even despite my partner and I together having a passable understanding of the language, when there was a little confusion regarding our order the older gentleman that waited on us simply walked away instead of spending any time helping us understand what we were confused about.

Highly recommend if: you really want to say you’ve been to have a huge tuna bowl at a semi famous establishment. you are Japanese or speak it fluently

Don’t recommend it: you don’t have conversational level Japanese knowledge. you enjoy the politeness usually associated with...

Date of enjoyment: 18/4/25 We came here on a Friday afternoon the moment they opened at 11am, there’s already people waiting. Once the clock hits 12pm the place is packed! Miss this place at your peril! The freshest honmaguro (or una) don and uni (sea urchin) don is to die for, the portion size is huge!!! The rice is local rice and the tuna is fresh from the local area, there’s no fishiness, just pure bliss and the chutoro and akami cuts plus the mashed tuna meat on top of the rice is heavenly! The tuna melts in your mouth and their light soy sauce pairs perfectly with the rice, there’s so much rice you won’t have enough tuna to finish off the rice with each bite. Their uni is fresh, no bitterness, no fishy smell and taste, it’s just creamy sea aroma and custard like texture in every bite. We enjoyed it so much we ordered raw squid as well to finish off the rice with. Each don comes with miso soup and you’ll be rolling out of here satisfied and fulfilled. A must try...

I of course, got the gigantic tuna bowl and it was incredible. Tuna at the top is a really nice cut of tuna and it really melts in your mouth and on the bottom it was more chopped and even then it was still incredible and it only been $30 is crazy because tuna can often be quite expensive in Canada so I was very surprised. The restaurant has a ton of stickers and posters up which can be a little bit disorientating, but it’s still quite charming. I would really recommend it if you’re in the area and want something that’s fresh while also being really good...