01 / ABOUT THE PLACE
About this place
In the evening, diners can match their drinks to the food at Saisai Gohan: beer with grilled wheat gluten cakes wrapped in seaweed, sake with sashimi, or shochu with fried dishes. One diner described starting with grilled wheat gluten cakes, moving on to sashimi, chicken tempura and whiting tempura, then finishing with abekawa-style wheat gluten cakes. Some of the dengaku-style cakes come with house-made miso, while yuba croquettes and tempura made with fresh yuba are among the other small plates that showcase the restaurant’s focus on yuba and wheat gluten.
For a final bite, consider house-made nukazuke—vegetables pickled in rice bran—with an onigiri rice ball. One diner singled out the pickles’ combination of sourness and sweetness and suggested enjoying them with an onigiri.
At lunchtime, set meals come with salad, obanzai side dishes, soup and rice. Chicken katsu nanban is served with house-made tartar sauce, while the fried chicken topped with plenty of spring onion comes with house-made spring onion sauce. One diner said the tartar sauce complemented the crisp coating on the chicken katsu nanban and made it especially good with rice; the meal also came with two small side dishes. Another diner liked the sweetness of the sauce on the spring-onion-topped fried chicken. When choosing a main, the decision may come down to nanban with tartar sauce or fried chicken with spring onion sauce.
Other lunch options include set meals with fried horse mackerel or fried prawns, as well as a chicken-and-egg tempura rice bowl and a whiting tempura rice bowl. The rice bowls also come with salad, obanzai and soup, and a larger serving of rice is available.
The grilled dishes include striped atka mackerel, black-pepper-grilled Shimanto chicken and rolled omelette. One diner was particularly pleased with how the atka mackerel was grilled. Alongside the yuba and wheat gluten dishes, these options make it easy to pick a plate at a time, whether settling in for a meal or drinks.
