Restaurant Yayoiken

Yokosuaka restaurant Yayoiken is located on Blue Street close to the base. Just about everyone will recognize it because if you leave base (not everyone does) you have all walked by it.

It's liked by Japanese and Americans alike due to the good food at a good price.


Yayoiken's menu revolves around teishoku (定食)　or set meals. Most meals can be viewed outside in the display case. But they do offer seasonal choices throughout the year.  Seasonal choices are usually posted somewhere outside.

Reviewing their website, they are a chain restaurant (over 190) that has recently expanded to Singapore and Thailand.  They pride themselves on quality ingredients and in house food preparation.  I couldn't find any background on their name, but Yayoi was a period of Japanese history from about 300 B.C. to 300 A.D. Discoveries of remains and a certain type of pottery were found by archeologist in the Tokyo neighborhood of Yayoi (just west of Ueno Station) and hence gave the name to that period of time. Their first restaurant opened about 125 years ago. It served Western food and was called Yayoiken. So it's been around a while. Some of their food is served in a kind of old fashioned clay bowl or dish, so perhaps that is the connection to the Yayoi period.

Fried chicken set meal with miso soup, potato salad, tofu, shrimp (already eaten, with tartar sauce).

Ticket machine

 At Yayoiken you'll order from their electronic ticket machine. It's quite easy to navigate despite the lack of English. Since it's all picture menus just touch the different tabs on top until you find the meal that looks good.
Before you can select you'll need to insert your money though.

It may require enlarging the picture, but buttons 1, 2 and 3 along the top are all set menu items. The second one has a little fish kanji and "grilled" in katakana. The third (yellow) button is for limited time offerings or the seasonal menu. 4th one is for items served on top of rice in a bowl （丼）and udon noodles.  See my Key Food Kanji page to learn more about these easy to pick out symbols.

The blue button says breakfast, and the last button is for small plates, beer, and soft drinks.

chicken and shrimp

Grilled chicken with shrimp, potato salad, salad, tofu, miso soup. Tsukemono or Japanese pickles are available in a jar on each table.  The food is very tasty and service was quick being delivered in about 5 minutes.




Yayoiken is good for lunch, dinner or breakfast.

Unlimited steamed rice and green tea

Only one note on the tea dispenser that is all in Kanji. The big middle button is to dispense the tea. If it doesn't come out, press the yellow button next to it once to unlock it, then go back to the big button. Don't start hitting random buttons or you'll turn it off, set the timer, change the temperature, self destruct, etc. and you'll never have any idea. (Actually I had an idea I messed it up, but was able to get it back to normal, as far as I could tell).

sample menu

One note, if you're feeling pressured at the ticket machine with a line going out the door, just take a seat at a table or counter and look at the hardcopy menu. You can even tell the waitress what you would like and they will gladly help you out at the ticket machine.

The company's website says their goal is customer satisfaction and they have a "customer first" attitude.  This is evident at each table where they have customer comment cards.

Their website has a great online menu here. If you are allergic to anything, they show allergy info for each menu item.
The allergy info Kanji is as follows:　 
卵　egg
小麦　wheat
乳　milk
そば　soba or buckwheat noodles. Note: Pure soba or buckwheat noodles are not made of wheat. Unfortunately, most "soba" noodles sold are made with wheat or contain wheat products. So you'll need to look at the label. The Kanji for buckwheat is 蕎麦 (shout out to Phil for allowing me to learn this one). Buckwheat is safe for celiacs, I've been told. 
えび shrimp (ebi)