Namara Umaissyo! Kannai — Restaurant in Yokohama

Deep within me resides a passionate and possibly unhealthy obsession with my favourite Japanese dish (and a top 5 dish in general) SUTADON aka Stamina-don, is a Japanese rice bowl dish featuring pork marinated in a garlic-soy based sauce, stir-fried, and served over rice, often topped with a raw egg yolk. In the heart of Yokohama’s Old Town district, just before the [in]famlus Nogé drinking areas, are many winding streets featuring local hero spots that settled and made Yokohama into the Pan-Japan melting pot where many real locals would recommend going out for some proper eats.

Namara Umaissyo! is a chain of SUTADon restaurants, that specialises in a liter flame grilled version of the dish. Pork loin or belly is sliced before your eyes in the Chef’s cooking cafe, marinated, blowtorched for a charred aesthetic and caramelised flavour before being finished on a wire grill. “Umai” translates to an exclamation of “Good!” – a proclamation of how much you’re enjoying something and particularly to taste or appetite satisfaction. The SD at US is deeply satisfying—a combination of Yakiniku and fast donburi, it’s luxurious convenience at a very reasonable price of $11-20 AUD ish (av. 1500 yen). That price is including tradition sides such as ginger pickle, a smear of mustard and miso soup, though you can scale up or down the meat and rice to preference. For Japan’s health-conscious efforts in most places, it’s pretty much adapting to diet fads by hacking the meal up rather than substituting anything entirely… because they generally eat well as is (the buzzword “whole foods” which is to say, food as food)

When in Kannai, or wherever in Japan this chain exists I can’t recommend it enough. It also goes without saying to add an Onsen (par-boiled, 63 degree Celsius) egg. Here in arguably Yokohama City’s local capital, it’s right next to the stadium so suggestion of a late night feed after watching the Baystars...

Delicious grilled meat, and very accommodating staff (English menu available). We ordered a loin don, and also a meat platter. The staff took the initiative to remind us that the platter was without rice, which we knew but were grateful for the reminder.

The meat was flavourful but never overdone or excessively oily. Condiments and side dishes...

Delicious chargrilled pork belly rice. Small/medium/large/extra large portions available. They also serve pork loin if you prefer that. The soup is really tasty too (I had the vegetable miso, which also contained some bonus pork slices). The almond Tofu is great, especially if you're a fan...