Rice Alley — Restaurant in Virginia

First, the "gyu don". Listed on the menu as a "bowl" it was served to us on a plate. So what you might ask. "Don" is short for "donburi", which is served in many restaurants in Japan. The principle of donburi is that you have a bowl of glutinous, traditional Japanese rice, upon which you place an assortment of food. The cutest is "oyako" donburi; "oya" means "parent" and "ko" means child. Oyako donburi, then, is chicken with an egg sunny side up. Get it? Chicken and egg. Back to "gyu", which means beef. Ours was very fatty and unremarkable; the onions were cold -- yes cold -- which is not the way it's supposed to be served. With all donburi, the idea is that the food on top soaks down into the upper layer of the rice, flavoring it for your enjoyment. The side effect is that the rice becomes "unglutinous" and harder to eat with chopsticks. On a plate, the rice soon begins hard to enjoy, whereas in a bowl it can be scooped into your mouth. That's how "authentic" Japanese eat rice out of a bowl. Secondly, the sushi. Poorly rolled, and the slices of fish were dried out. How do I know all this? I lived in Japan, traveling by car, motorcycle, foot, boat, and air to all the islands for 5 years. So....there are any number of places where you can get much better food. Skip this...

Hidden in a nondescript strip mall-esque building in a nondescript DC suburb is this gem of a mom and pop restaurant. So mom and pop, in fact, that one of the tables was reserved for the toys of a small child who was clearly growing up in the restaurant. The child was friendly and well-behaved, and probably could provide better service than a lot of servers at other places I’ve been.

Anyway, this is a no-frills kind of place, but that doesn’t matter. The food was delicious and the service (by a legal working age adult) was super friendly. The spicy yellowtail roll was excellent. My karaage chicken curry was a heaping portion of awesomeness - with a curry sauce that was tasty and light, not overpowering as some curries can be. My wife’s hibachi chicken was exactly what it should be.

The prices were very reasonable, especially for the portion sizes.

If you happen to find yourself in Gainesville, VA, make a point to stop in and try this place out. Be sure to say “hi” and “bye” to the friendly child living her best...

Based on online reviews I decided to try this restaurant and was disappointed, at least with the bento box meal. Issues with the bento box are: rice is not the sticky rice, it was difficult to eat with chopsticks and I had to finish it with a fork 😕, paid $2 upcharge for fried rice (wasn't told there was an upcharge when asked if I wanted that option while ordering) and it wasn't worth it, taste was bland and only a few pieces of egg, no veges, also no yum yum sauce with the meal (probably an upcharge for that as well). Seaweed salad was a very small portion and not very tasty. As for the service, the lady brought us our food and we didn't see her again until we had basically finished our meal, and there were only 2 other tables being occupied during our time there, so not crowded at all. I suppose the Ramen is very good, most of the reviews commeted on that, but the bento box, and most likely the hibachi (based on the rice in our box meal) is not an option that I...