* Restaurant - Tori Gin 鶏ぎん横須賀

This is my first review of a restaurant in Yokosuka. The purpose of this blog is not to assign ratings or to be highly critical of any restaurants. It's mainly provide information on some of the good restaurants that my family and I enjoy going to.

Tori Gin is located about a block or two east of Yokosuka Chuo train station.
鶏ぎん横須賀
 Tori - 鶏 - Chicken
Gin - ぎん - silver

 Tori Gin is located at a place that many refer to as 12 Frogs restaurant.There are two large frogs out front with 5 little frogs on their back... There are 2 restaurants in this building. Tori Gin is located on the first floor to the left and a fish place on the bottom right. Recently, the Yakiniku (cook your own meat) place upstairs closed and Tori Gin took over the space.  See the blog map for the location. It is within walking distance from base, located a few blocks past Yokosuka Chuo station.
   

       Tori Gin specializes in a dish called Kamameshi. This is a mixture of ingredients and rice cooked and served in a small pot. They have a restaurant in Ginza and an English menu online here which looks about the same as the one in Yokosuka but not exact. The Yokosuka restaurant has an English menu but you may have to ask for it. Even one time after we asked for it the server said they didn't have it, but we pointed to the small serving station area in the middle of the restaurant where the other menus are and found it.  There are plenty of other items to choose from besides kamameshi as they serve a lot of typical izakaya type food.

One thing to note is that they also have a seasonal menus printed on the front and back of one page and laminated. You may also have to search or ask for that menu. Its only in Japanese so they may not give it to you if you look like a bunch of Americans who don't speak Japanese! But if you know some Kanji and hiragana/katakana you can figure out this menu too and its worth it.  To ask for the menu say "Osusume menu kudasai"  Even if the menu does not look exactly like the ones I've translated below, many of the dishes remain the same and you should be able to compare the menu with an older one.

 I think being able to order from the seasonal menu is important at a place like Tori-gin or else you'll miss out on a lot of good dishes. I have several of them below and I'll update them as they come along, since we go there quite often. 

Note: when ordering yakitori or kushiyaki you will normally be asked "tare" or "shio" - this means sauce or salt. We usually get the sauce and find it plenty salty. 

Parking: you can park in the 6 or so stalls right along the small side road in front of the restaurant. If those are full, there is a large lot in the back that you are allowed to park in. There is no fee.  Park in stalls 20-29.

Tofu salad. Tofu with this dressing is really good.Trust me.

One note, if you order a bowl of rice it will come with free refills. The waitress tried unsuccessfully to explain  that to us in Japanese but then gave her my iphone and she typed it into Google translate. Refill or second helping in Japanese is: okawari

Some meats grilling on the coals

Deep fried river shrimp found on the special seasonal menu

 Tori negi yakitori or chicken and Welsh onions

You can read more about negi onions here

 

Some tsukune and mushroom kushiyaki

tsukune is similar to a meatball made with ground chicken or pork, ground onions or other veggies, and spices with egg as a binder.

Tebasaki or chicken wings. Deep fried with black pepper. 

We get these every visit. They are on the special menu.

 

Ninniku or garlic kushiyaki served with a miso paste

Shrimp or Ebi kamameshi

Grilled chicken with negi onions from the special menu

Crab or Kani kamameshi

"Yokohama Jerky"

Wonderful Tomato Bacon 

Chicken with Ponzu sauce

Scallop fish cake baked in bamboo

Japanese style egg omelet

grilled broad bean

"Kamameshi row"

Tuna kama (collar) - not always listed on the menu

A simple onion grilled over charcoal. But it was so good. Maybe it had some soy sauce brushed on it but it was really really good. I didn't see it on the menu but did see one cooking on the grill, so I asked the waitress what it was and pointed to the menu. But she just said "o nee on" - OK thanks a lot I can SEE that! The Japanese word for it is tamanegi. So if ordering an "o nee on" doesn't work try tamanegi, you'll be glad you did.

Seasonal menu from late May 2013

* the one that says ranch dressing is actually Lemon Dressing - sorry.

Seasonal menu from 21 April 2013

An older seasonal menu (~October 2012) is below. You can compare to the one above and see that about 75% of it stays the same. 

 A look at the special menu. This menu is likely to be replaced

 in the spring with a new one but it seems that some of the better 

selling ones are repeated from one to the next

Some of the items:

Top section
monkfish liver
oyster something
boiled tofu
chicken nabe
cheese burudake
Yokohama jerky
tuna no nuta
Middle section 

top one - grilled chicken with negi onions as shown above

Middle section second one - tuna kamameshi

third one - tomato wrapped in bacon on a stick

fourth one - bacon/pork on a stick

Bottom section

top one - salted chicken with Ponzu sauce

liver with Ponzu sauce

chicken skin with Ponzu sauce

salted pork with Ponzu sauce

pizza tsukune

pizza cartilage (chicken)

pizza pork skewer

Top section: 

1. Deep fried peppered chicken wings (good bet)

2. Some kind of deep fried and salted chicken korean style

3. Deep fried river shrimp

4. Deep fried chicken cartilage

5. Deep fried bean curd with topping tbd

6. Fried horse mackerel (fish)

7. Deep fried bean curd

8. Deep fried eggplant

9. Homemade deep fried ?

10. Chicken tartare with peppers or onions

Middle section are kamameshi:

 Oyster

Shrimp

Crab 

Chicken

Bottom Section:

Apricot ice cream

Mascarpone ice cream

Melon ice cream

The English menu (click to enlarge): The first page is mainly Yakitori and the next two kamameshi. There is another page or two of salads and other items but not shown.