Miyajima Shokudou — Restaurant in Hatsukaichi

While visiting Miyajima for the for the first time today my wife, daughter and I were tempted by many enticing restaurants on the main shopping strip. Everything seemed wonderful, if money were no object I eat at everyone of them! This restaurant seems unassuming from outside with a limited menu, and who I assume is one of the owner/server/bartender grilling oysters on the outdoor grill. After a long day of train and tram and hiking this place was extremely satisfying. This was one of my first proper restaurants I have ate at in Japan, and I was not disappointed! My daughter is only 6 and they were able to serve her quick enough to save us from her unease.

The restaurant is situated to only seat a few with only 5 barstools, 2 booth tables, as well as 3 tatami tables. This place really hit the spot after a long day of exploring this beautiful island of Miyajima. It appeared that only 3 people were working this place, they had a symbiotic relationship that made this place very warm and inviting to everyone who came in! The prices are reasonable at around $50 (USD) for the three of us to have full set dinners and ice cream dessert, I would not pass this place up if I have the opportunity to eat here again. It would seem like the come and go of tourism would not hold some places to a standard of great service ( I live in San Diego, CA so am very familiar with tourism restaurant standards) but this place is either on its way to greatness with what I witnessed tonight despite the past years review! The proprietors of this place work hard...

I had never written a bad review before, but we were so disappointed. We were a party of 5 and ordered curry with fried oyster, anago teishoku, miyajima teishoku, fried oyster teishoku, single order of anago with sauce, salad, and beer. My dad's beer and mom's curry came first. When my mom ate a half of the curry, miyajima teishoku came. When my mom finished her curry and my son ate the half of the teishoku, anago teishoku came. When my mom and two sons finished their meal, salad came. My dad was still waiting for his single order of anago because he wanted eat it while he was drinking beer. We asked a server about the anago and my fried oyster teishoku, she told us they were almost ready. After 15 mins she said that, my oyster teishoku finally came. Poor dad, he was drinking beer with no food. He told them to cancel the order, but some reason they didn't want to do that. Anyway, it took almost one hour to be served. I don't know why they weren't able to make all anago dish at the same time and all oyster dish at the same time. Anago and oyster are their thing right? By the way no apology for the wait. Another bad thing was, other customers who came after us were served before us. Fried oyster was good, but anago wasn't good. Taste like frozen anago. Also I saw them heating up rice in a microwave... it was pretty expensive. If they want to charge that much, everyone should be freshly made. I hope they organize their time and manage better in the future. FYI, they fully charged us even though they made us wait for...

Nothing special and food was good but not excellent. Four star because the street counter was open after other shops were closed and offered 5 piece deep fried oysters for 400 yen!

I was walking along this street on my way back to the ferry station hoping to have a few bites along the way. was looking for a store-fromt counter that does a take out. There are many during a day but mostly closed at 5. Or offers at twice higher price. This place was open, reasonable, fresh made (I did wait for five min and that is reasonable to deep fry after order) and it tastes good. Like I said not excellent taste: not like they used special oyster nor this restaurant is michellim star. But they were convenient and delivered...