平日昼酒大衆酒場！ : Sakagura Kandakko

As usual, it's a weekday afternoon drink... Opening time is 11AM. I visited this place at the opening time, which is not bad for becoming a bad adult. As expected, it is empty right after opening on a weekday. It may seem normal, but Takioka, which opens at 7AM, and Dōtō, which opens at 10AM, are already full and bustling. It's a tough time for people to go in the morning on a weekday... Sorry, but actually this is my second bar after having a drink at Takioka. First, I quench my thirst with a "Large bottle of beer (black label)" (740 yen). Well, it's the second bar in the morning, so I'm already hydrated. 740 yen for a 633ml large bottle is relatively reasonable, isn't it? This is a popular Izakaya (Japanese-style bar) that promotes seafood. As you would expect from a popular Izakaya (Japanese-style bar), they also serve other than seafood, but they promote clams, so I'll have one. The "Grilled clams" (market price) are delivered directly from Kujukurihama. You can have it steamed in sake, grilled, fried, chawanmushi, or dashi ochazuke, but if you want to have fresh fish with sake, you should grill it! So I ordered butter-grilled and soy-grilled. The current price is about 1,000 yen. It's a little extravagant for a bar in the Ameyoko area, but it's still cheap if you think about it normally. The soy-grilled one is plump and has an irresistible seaweed aroma. The butter-grilled one fills your mouth with delicious flavor. I'm satisfied. I ordered a second beer and a "Bakudan" (908 yen). It's a mix of okra, egg, yam cod roe, natto, mekabu, and negitoro, and wrapped in seaweed. It's a simple dish, but so delicious! I wish there was a little more negitoro...or maybe this balance is the golden ratio? It's delicious, but it's a bit extravagant (compared to the Ameyoko area). The aroma of the seaweed is nice. The prices are a little extravagant up to this point, but I think that's because I'm comparing them to the average prices around Ameyoko. Because it's so fresh and delicious that I don't feel dissatisfied when I eat it. So I'll have one more! I ordered the ``Three Kinds of Shellfish Sashimi Platter'' (1,900 yen) along with ``Hot Sake'' (394 yen/1 cup). The three kinds of shellfish, whelk, giant clam, and ark shell, were served in a bucket. They all smelled fresh of the seashore! The more I chewed the whelk, the more delicious it became, and there was no unpleasant smell. There was also a slight sweetness. I couldn't stop drinking. The giant clams had the same great texture and were extremely delicious. They were fresh, so they would be good as sashimi, but I think they would be even more delicious if lightly seared. I couldn't stop drinking. The ark shells had a slight astringency that was perfect for sake! They were also rich and delicious, of course. I couldn't get enough sake! In the end, we kept adding more sake, saying how delicious it was... so far (at this restaurant alone) we had two large bottles, four go of hot sake, and cold Urakasumi in mega choko... We decided that a dry sake would go well with shellfish, so we changed from hot sake to the extra dry Urakasumi. The sake at this restaurant comes in two sizes, ``Mega Choko'' and ``Gui Choko'', and the Gui Choko is more than half a go. The Mega Choko is more than one go. We had two mega chokos... and my friend also had two... It was just before noon... yeah, we were drunk (lol) I thought that was enough, but the clams, bombs, shellfish sashimi, and other seafood dishes were all light, so I started to miss something rich. However, we had only a few extravagant snacks, so we decided to save money. We ordered ``Pepero Yakisoba (stir-fried noodles)'' (564 yen) and Uji Matcha Highball, which are light and go well with the sake, as a final dish. It doesn't look delicious or anything. It's just a plain salted Yakisoba (stir-fried noodles) with no toppings and a little spring onion on top. But it has a strong garlic and salty taste, and is the ultimate drinking snack! This is a menu that will make you stop drinking. If the salt, pepper and garlic are so strong, it must be a beer! So I ordered a large bottle of Super Dry! It's a complete change from the light snacks I've had up until now, and I'm feeling strangely hungry. Maybe it's because I drank too much since morning on a weekday and my satiety center is broken. Basically, for a pub that's open from the daytime, the ingredients are fresh and carefully cooked, and it may seem expensive when you think about the prices in Ameyoko, but it's actually a very good value for money restaurant. If you get tired of the yakitori under the train tracks in Ueno, this is the place to go. It was exactly noon when I left the restaurant. The man, who was completely worked up by lunchtime on a weekday, was in a good mood and said, "Oh! It's noon! It's lunchtime!" as he went out to the third bar for lunch.