Japanese Lesson! Nokai... traditional drinks and snacks to close out the year at Itochu Corporation! Seems all Japanese companies do this.

Its a very tame selection of drinks and food vs. my banking/hedgefund days when we took over a pub and everything was on the house.  

This is all we got... Was hoping for Pizza or nearly Shake Shack.

One of my favorite bosses at Itochu... Surfer from Osaka.  

Our boss Komatani-san that just took over the entire department... 

a mixed bag.

Spotted this bus near my office... its a Willer Restaurant Bus!  Wow... people were totally dining and drinking on the 2nd floor.  Gotta try it out!

伊藤忠商事

KANDA: Goen Shanghai Restaurant... randomly entering a Chinese restaurant in busy Kanda is bad....

Kanda station area has alot of tiny popular restaurants but trying to find a spot that doesnt have a line at 12 noon is soooo difficult. 

So after wandering around with my colleagues for 15 minutes we randomly entered this Chinese restaurant.

Lots of lunch choices pictured.

How can you go wrong with Mabo Tofu lunch set!

But what arrived was a very lumpy soup with only tofu and lots of black pepper.  Why was this so lumpy with jelly'ish goo?  It was just soooo mediocre at best.  The salad was old and slice of apple tasted sour.  Thought for sure I would have a stomach ache.

When in Kanda and not pressed for time you gotta go where the lines are!  Never in Japan do you go into a restaurant that is not busy during lunch.

Restaurant: Goen Shangai Family Style Restaurant

Tabelog Foodie: https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1310/A131002/13127270/

Address J: 東京都千代田区内神田3-8-4 長嶋ビル

Address E: Tokyo, Chiyoda-ku, Uchikanda 3-8-4
MAP: https://goo.gl/maps/BzwEq9KHpR32

呉園, ゴエン, , 中華料理、上海料理, 神田駅, Japan, Japanese, lunch, foodie, yelp, tokyobelly, cheap, china, noodles, sony rx100, tokyo station

AZABU JUBAN: Azabu Ramen... wanna try what really bad ramen is. This spot is one good indicator.

Lured in late night after drinks and I was pretty sure to be disappointed the same way as their Nishi Azabu Branch. http://tokyobelly.blogspot.com/2016/03/nishi-azabu-azabu-ramen-very-boring.html

L shaped counter seating.

For tsukemen you can get a massive 440 grams of noodles. My limit is around 200 grams.

.

Picked the top left button... shoyu ramen

Overheard the waitress and chefs talking... seems the staff here is all Chinese.

Free spicy seasoned bean sprout topping on the counter.

Here it is! Not very beautiful.

Charsiu pork was dry, the noodles were thin and had no texture... the soup bland.  Yup, I should have known and headed to the nearby Afuri. Ugh... 

If you interested in gauging what really bad ramen is vs great ramen then perhaps you can stop by and regret eating a bowl of ramen here.  Never again I promise! Oh Japanese foodies give it a lowly 3.08 points on Tabelog.

Restaurant: Azabu Ramen Azabu Juban Branch

Tabelog Foodie. https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1307/A130702/13110272/

Address J: 東京都港区麻布十番1-2-9 新一の橋ハイツ1階

Address E: Tokyo, Minato-ku. Azabu Juban 1-2-9

MAP: https://goo.gl/maps/UswpQ4zu8Ap

麻布ラーメン 麻布十番店. ラーメン, Japan, Japanese, Tokyo, tokyobelly, foodie, yelp, noodles, sony rx100, roppongi, lunch, dinner,

GINZA: Hooters! Finally made it but it really wasn't up to par this night... but ribs were yum!

Two guys on a Sunday night... yeah, We are heading to Hooters thanks to Groupon! The girls in the Hooters Groupon ad were so beautiful!  But thats where it ended...

Popped in at 6pm and mentioned my reservation... nowhere in sight.  The girl I spoke to the day prior was a bit kinda not totally there so I only assumed she didn't properly write down the reservation.

For the all you can drink menu your first order needs to be one of 3 bottles.  Corona, Heineken or Asahi bottle beer. 

Salad arrives!  Veggies with no dressing... did they forget or is there such a salad?

Draft beers were in small mugs.

2nd item on the course. In place of onion rings they gave us 4 crackers!  Ok so far this is not really a foodie spot.

Ordered a whiskey hi-ball and they gave me ginger-ale!  Lets keep this goofiness consistent.

3rd dish... tasty nachos with a salsa and spicy thai sauce dip probably for the tiny shrimp.

Now the good stuff started coming out!  The mussels with Garlic Butter were spot on yum! Only if I had some bread to dip into the garlic butter.

Need bread...

This was a laugh... just 2 pieces each of the famous Hooters wings in a very mild sauce.  I love buffalo wings but this left much to be desired.

And the ladies started dancing!  This girl was a bit on the round side...

This girl was a bit on the older side...  The didn't look like the ladies in the Groupon ad. 

Definitely don't expect too much here.

Had some great classic 80's music on the BGM!

Now the best dish of the night! Sliced steak and 2 Ribs!  The ribs were soooo super tender.

Their chocolate ice cream was yum!  Super thick and perfectly sweet.

I'd probably suggest sitting at the bar counter with clear views of the monitors and your drinks are served quicker.

Reservation board... It really was a full house this night with about 90% of the customers men in their 20-30s. 

Overall I definitely probably won't be back.  Food was lack luster, the drinks took a while to arrive, there were so many guys and it would have been nice if there were a few pretty Hooters girls.

Restaurant: Hooters Ginza Branch

Tabelog Foodie: https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1301/A130103/13141890/

Homepage: http://www.hooters.co.jp/

Address J: 東京都中央区銀座8-5 銀座ナイン1号館 2F

Address E: Tokyo, Chuo-ku, Ginza 8-5
MAP: https://goo.gl/maps/iqT9NvjRxH12

フーターズ 銀座店, バー, お酒, ダイニングバー, ハンバーガー, Japan, Japanese, Tokyo, yelp, tokyobelly, foodie, pub, sony rx100, shimbashi,