Monjayaki Chico — Restaurant in Tokyo

While searching for lunch idea near Asakusa, I keep seeing Monjayaki restaurants coming up as suggestions. So we picked one that's nearest to us and has good reviews. This was the one! It was raining when we arrived but we were told to wait outside (understandably as their place is rather small) and the monjayaki and okonomiyaki were cooked freshly right on the table so gotta be a little bit patient. There's a compulsory 350yen table charge per person (if I remember correctly) and you get a complimentary octopus & bean sprout appetizer. Also each person needs to order a drink. Prior to this, we never had monjayaki so we weren't quite sure what to expect. Also, this is not quite the right place to come to when you're hungry because it takes awhile to get the food cooked. And since we have no idea how to cook it, we were pretty much at the mercy of the waiters/cooks, who come and go alternately from table to table. We were offered a set menu but decided that it was way too much for us to finish so we opted for the alacarte menu : 1 pork monjayaki (with yuzu pepper) and 1 okonomiyaki. The verdict: octopus & bean sprout: no flavour & quite chewy (we felt a bit neglected at the beginning as no waiter really tended to us. So we took the liberty of cooking it ourselves, which obviously didn't go to well...we ended up adding abit of salt and pepper to make it more palatable) monjayaki: very interesting. It looked new but didn't taste new. I would describe it as tasting like the topping / sauce for Chinese crispy noodle. Enjoyable still as it was umami and served piping hot straight from the teppan. okonomiyaki: good old, familiar flavour and everything. It was a good end...

Great experience at this restaurant! We were looking for some Okonomiyaki, but found SO much more!

We were recommended a full set meal as it was our first time which ended up being a full 5-course meal consisting of: Sashimi (+ a small portion of grilled octopus & sprouts) Monjayaki with 8 types of seafood Onomiyaki Yakisoba Crepe for desert And we were blown away!

After having struggled for a few days to find something that my mother really likes (we are from Europe and she is really not used to asian flavours), we finally hit a jackpot here.

The store manager cooked all the food for us as we had never done anything like it before and it was very entertaining. He is very kind and did his best to explain everything to us in English. Having worked there for 6 years already he handled everything like a pro and was able to adjust portion sizes when my mom started to get full.

All around an amazing experience! And...

I had a sashimi plate, something like a fish risotto without rice and the okonomiyaki. The grill dishes were prepared for me on the grill plate in front of me by the waitress. I had some issues navigating through the Japanese menu - in case you are using Firefox, it will not translate to English. You need to open the menu with Google Chrome, then it is possible to translate the menu through a browser functionality. Alternatively you can photograph or screenshot the QR code menu and then translate it through Google translate. I wasn't sure what I was ordering or how this house plate with seafood is called, but it tasted good and the help of the waitress to cook it correctly was very much appreciated! Note that the restaurant is split into 2 sections - so 2 rooms, 1 restaurant. It has no effect on the food though. The amount of food I ordered is actually too much for a big European adult, but I just wanted to taste their house...