Omotesando Street in Narita - The Street of Unagi Restaurants

[Not to be confused with the Omotesando in Tokyo, Harajuku which is a high end fashion street.]

Omotesando Street in Narita Town is the Street of Unagi restaurants. I have also heard the term "Omotenashi", which means "Public face" (Omote), and "Nothing" (Nashi), which together means to serve with nothing hidden in one's public face.

I am sure I am mangling the translation, so take this as a rough translation.

So the Unagi restaurants on Omotesando grill, and even prepare the live eels in full view of the public. There is nothing hidden. (Coincidence or intentional to the idea of Omotenashi? I don't know.)

If you are queasy about seeing your food prepared (and by "prepared", I mean "slaughtered") before your eyes, this is not where you want to be. Unless you intend to go to an Unagi Restaurant and order chicken.



From the street, there are two or three popular restaurants openly preparing the eels.

At Surugaya (where we ate, eventually), there was a corner where two or three staff with buckets of eels all around them, were preparing the eels.

Unagi Meal at Surugaya. I ate a corner of it already

First, they sliced halfway through the "neck" where the eel's head ends and the rest of the body begins. (I would like to think that this severs the nerves or sensation between the brain and the rest of the body, but this is more wishful thinking or hoping on my part than based on any actual facts I know.)

Then with a long pin or stake, the eel's head is pinned to the cutting board.

The fish is then sliced open along the spine, gutted, and deboned.

Then the bones at the spine removed as well, and the filleted eel is cut to size for grilling.

After watching the staff prepare a few eels, we felt ready to eat.

Also it was past lunch time, and we hadn't had breakfast. (Not to imply that we were bloodthirsty folks whose appetites were whetted by gory slaughter.)

As we were standing outside Surugaya and there was no queue, we walked in and was shown to a table upstairs immediately.

No waiting! How lucky can we get?

The head waiter (I shall call him) spoke to me in Japanese and when I stared at him blankly, he apologised and said I looked Japanese. I think he meant it as a compliment. I should probably take it as such.

He asked, as we had a child with us (ours! I swear! We are not kidnappers!) would we object if we were shown to the family dining area upstairs?

Upstairs was a nice tatami room with low tables and seating cushions. We tried our best not to embarrass ourselves (sitting on the cushions), and ordered our food. My wife ordered the standard. I ordered the deluxe with three pieces of eel (which would be 1.5 eels based on what we saw downstairs).

And of course a beer to wash it down (for me. Wife is a teetotaller).

Total bill was 9666 yen.

I overate.

But... I think I prefer Unagiya Ichinoji at Robertson's Quay in Singapore. The Unagi is extra charred and has a smokey flavour. And there were other condiments and side dishes for variety.

Or I just like my Unagi charred.

Almost two weeks after eating at Surugaya, I would have lunch at Log House Wagyu Bibi Restaurant, with top quality wagyu and pork. And the bill would be about 9400 yen.

And I remember thinking... I could have had another lunch at Log House for what I paid at Surugaya... And I would be more satisfied.