能登まいもん堂 — Restaurant in Kanazawa

I had a rockfish (メバル) and the fruit vinegar soda. The fruit vinegar soda was great. For my otōshi, I got a squid based pancake, which was also really good.

The owner seemed to be quite proud of the fish, claiming that it comes from his hometown. I liked it, but I thought that the squid pancake was even better.

The owner is a really friendly guy. Despite me not speaking much Japanese, he was interested in chatting with me. He is a self-professed Anime Otaku -- his shop is filled with many anime figurines among other things (like a godzilla statue and a Mr. Spock cutout). I accidentally damaged one of his Sake bottles. (Sorry!)

There seemed to be other Japanese tourists who were also in the bar, who were also rather friendly. I had...

Wow. What a unique find. We are a family of five and we stumbled on this absolute gem of a place run by the charming Yutaka-san. He is a local ambassador for the area and like my family, is a foodie and a Kaiju fan. He cooked everything over a small charcoal grill and made us the most insane Noto beef skewers, Noto pork sausage and some gourmet dried fish options (including Fugu!). Our youngest is Godzilla obsessed and was delighted when Yutaka-san put on some old films for him. Yutaka-san has a wealth of knowledge and we enjoyed talking with him whilst we drank our beer and swooned over the beef. The place itself is very small, but an eclectic treasure trove of Kaiju, Anime and other nic nacs. Well...

The food was absolutely incredible, from the appetiser to the skewers. The atmosphere of the restaurant was calm and friendly and the experience was thoroughly enjoyable. The host/owner Yukata was kind and explained every dish to us. Throughout the meal we had quite a few conversations and even though Yukata does not speak English the language barrier was easily overcome using Google translate. The graded A5 Noto beef was very flavoursome and cooked to perfection. I came here with my daughter and the owner gave her a little gift which was very thoughtful. A great night out at a small and unique...