Finding a place to eat at 10 p.m. on a Tuesday evening in Nagasaki isn't that easy. We almost succumbed to konbini food when we found the Dejima Asa Izakaya near Nagasaki's Chinatown. It looks quite posh on the outside which made us reluctant to go inside. We entered the establishment only to be greeted by one of the waiters. He was quite surprised when he saw us and had to ask his fellow staff members what he should do with us. They decided to send us upstairs where private seating is available. Since you have to take off your shoes and have to kneel in front of the table my mother-in-law refused to do so because of physical restraints. We told the polite and friendly waiter that this type of seating wouldn't be fitting for us. He told staff downstairs via headseat of this revelation and after a moment of silence he showed us the way down again where we were seated at the bar. There were a few local customers having something to eat as well but we were greeted heartily by staff after all. Ordering was quite fun since we didn't really know what to order in the first place. Our waiter, whose Englisch wasn't that bad actually, apologized for his lack of English skills, which we justified by explaining that our Japanese was even worse (haha). So, after ordering some draft beer, choosing dishes became easier. We ordered, I think, 10 dishes for a group of 4, sometimes unsure what exactly it is we were ordering. (The menu had an English translation but some dishes weren't self-explanatory) Amongst those dishes were, for example, the potato wedges and the rice porridge, as well as a tempura mix. They all tasted amazing. We all had a laugh, the staff included. The chefs watched every move we made and tried to read our faces after each and every bite. We responded with happy faces and delighted hearts. For us, the food wasn't that expensive after all, considering the absurd amount of dishes we ordered in the first place.

Nice staff, good food, had a laugh. 10/10 would visit again.