Yokosuka Food Corner - Blue Street and Beyond: *Maido

Maido Kushiyaki and Wine is located in Kanazawa Bunko. In Japanese, it is まいど金沢文庫, which is Maido, Kanazawa Bunko. This place is good. Plain and simple. Check this place out. Yes, it is just food on a skewer after all, but this chef-owner knows his stuff, and will not let you down.

Note: Maido has moved. They are now out west exit of Kanazawa Bunko station. You should be able to locate it pretty easy once you are out on the street. It's just down one of the side streets.

English menu: Yes
Parking: Pay parking nearby
Vegetarian options? Yes
Non-smoking? no, but the place is well ventilated.
Directions on how to get here? See below and the blog map

The original Maido - Kanazawa Bunko

First things first. You must learn the basic Hiragana for yakitori - やきとり - that's it. You'll see it on restaurant signs and menus. Most Yakitori restaurants typically also have those red lit lanterns hanging out front with the word やきとり written on them. Maido doesn't follow that custom though. The "tori" in yakitori refers to chicken, and they serve much more than chicken on skewers here. His website refers to themselves as "Kushiyaki and Wine" - so kushiyaki is a more accurate term that captures anything cooked on a skewer.

Maido means "Thank you for your continued patronage" - and I think that is fitting, because if you come here once, you'll probably want to come back.

This is the second restaurant that gets a star on my blog of no rankings. Master yakitori Chef Takashi Suzuki has been at this since 1984, and needless to say has refined his craft. Is it worth the train ride up there? Darn right it is. Should I be sharing this place with the world? Probably not, but hey, we can't hog the place all to ourselves.

The Master at work

They have a great English menu with Japanese, English, and pictures. Sure would like to know who made that nice picture menu.

まいど金沢文庫 is a short 12-15 minute ride from Yokosuka Chuo train station. All trains stop there on the Keikyu Line. Kanazawa Hakkei is just before it if you're headed toward Tokyo.
If you care to seek out some of the best yakitori around, you'll be well rewarded for your short trek up to Kanazawa Bunko. They have moved to new location out the west exit of Kanazawa Bunko station.

As you exit the turnstiles at Kanazawa Bunko train station, turn left, walk towards the Baskin-Robbins, and walk out the east exit. Interestingly, the kanji for this exit　昇　means rising (sun) exit. Once down the stairs you go to your right and in a few steps you'll come to a really cool neighborhood street (no cars allowed). You're going to take another right and walk all the way down this street. You'll then pass under the road overpass. Cross the small road and turn left down that road. You'll walk until you come to another road (there is a hair salon on the corner), turn right and Maido will be on your left about 50 feet up the road. See the blog google map for clear directions.

If you're driving you can park at a pay lot right along Hwy 16 close to the restaurant. I believe there is a spot in a small lot right across from the restaurant entrance as well, but I cannot confirm that since I've never looked closely or asked. Parking locations are pointed out on the ~~Google restaurant map~~ on the main site page. Although I've never drove there, my sources say that you can park in the pay lot and grab a receipt to take to the restaurant. The restaurant will then provide you with a token/ticket to put into the pay meter. I've explained a few of these parking lot procedures in this other post on ~~parking off base~~.

The chef is an avid blogger - posting just about every day. His blog writings are what originally caught my attention. One can tell that he takes great care in selecting quality ingredients and has some great recipes. All of them outlined on his blog. Use your browser translator and you'll be able to figure most of it out. Occasionally he gets into politics, but mostly he sticks to explaining in great detail how he makes such delicious food. I don't know why he is giving away his secrets, but when I open up my yakitori place in Wisconsin, I'll know where to start.

Homemade Umeshu - or plum wine

Chef Suzuki says he bought the place from someone and the recipes came with it. Although he is the owner as well, he spends his time at the grill. He is the master, it's his grill, and he's not letting anyone else near it. That might be an overstatement, but I've never seen him away from the grill, except the one time we asked him to come out for group picture.

He uses an electric grill. Many will tell you that a charcoal grill will give the best flavor for yakitori. Maybe true, but this guy has the flavor department all figured out. Supposedly the electric grill gives a more consistent temperature and makes cooking the different kushiyaki a simpler process. Needing to clean up the charcoal mess every night would be a lot of work and Suzuki-san would probably rather be getting home to sleep and get up and enjoy nature the next morning. From his blog you can tell he loves to get outside and take pictures.

Eggplant Tsukune and Tomato Bacon

Everyone likes bacon and he has several skewers with vegetables wrapped in bacon. Its sounds simple. But this is not your ordinary kushiyaki chef. After he gets the choice tomatoes wrapped in bacon and placed on a skewer, he smokes them in his homemade smoker with cherry wood. From the picture of the smoker (after clicking the link, scroll to the bottom) you can see there are two compartments. In the right compartment he'll add the cherry wood and burn it to make the smoke. It then transfers to the larger section. Also in the larger section on the bottom is ice to keep it all fresh and cold. He explains that he smokes the kushiyaki (he smokes a few others besides the tomato) for two hours. Now how many yakitori chefs do you know that are willing to smoke the bacon wrapped tomatoes?! How many yakitori chefs do you know? OK. Quality ingredients, freshness, excellent recipes, and experience. It's repeated again and again from his salads to desserts.

Ceasar Salad

Yaki avocado and tomato salad with an awesome
sesame-wasabi dressing

Basic Yakitori knowledge includes knowing how you want each of your yakitori flavored.
After you tell the staff what you want, you'll undoubtedly get asked (at any place that serves yakitori) "たれ　か　しお” which is tare, pronounced "ta-ray" or shio, pronounced "shee-oh." This means do you want sauce or salt? Tare is a general term for dipping sauce which usually involves a thickened and sweetened soy sauce. It could include sake and mirin. But each chef typically has their own tare sauce. I usually prefer the tare because it is salty by its nature and adds a bit more flavor than just salt. So be ready for this question and you'll look like an old pro when ordering.

Grade A5 Japanese Black Wagyu beef

Kuroge or Japanese Black Wagyu beef. Most have heard of Kobe beef. Kobe beef is a type of Wagyu beef classified by it's area of origin. The key here is that it is grade A5. A5 is the highest classification of beef there is in Japan. C1 is the lowest.

The A-C rating is based on the ratio of the weight of the meat to the weight of the carcass. The 1 through 5 rating depends on the following factors: marbling, color, firmness of the meat, and color and quality of the fat. Each of those four elements is graded from 1 to 5. Then the lowest grade of the four is what is assigned to the meat. So a 5 means that is scored the highest possible grade in each of those four categories.

Rice porridge tsukune with egg, parsley, and leek

There is a good variety of soups and recommend trying one. They are all prepared carefully and full of flavor.
Same goes for the salads, recommend the "Maido salad" or the Caesar salad. Wish I could make salads this good at home. The chef makes his own mayonnaise from scratch and most of the salad dressings for his various salads. Aside from making my own mayonnaise, I've tried to duplicate his Maido salad at home using the instructions on his blog and had very good results.

Duck tsukune with grilled leak soup

An excellent resource for yakitori information can be found on the Bento website. Use Bento to guide you to a good restaurant if you are going to Tokyo, Yokohama, or Kyoto.

Maido is also open for lunch Wednesday through Saturday. They are closed on Monday's and Japanese holidays. If going with a larger group or going on the weekend get someone to call and make a reservation. Maido is a popular place. If it's just 3 or 4 of you, you might be able to go without a reservation on weekends if you get there by 6pm to get a seat. But better be safe and get a reservation. The third Sunday of every month they usually have live entertainment. Just some light instrumentals or singing.

Shiso cheese roll wrapped in pork
and Chicken and Shitake mushroom tsukune

Make sure to try the Shiso cheese roll wrapped in pork and the Shitake mushroom tsukune. Shiso is a really tasty herb that pairs real well with pork, chicken, and sashimi.

アスパラ Asparagus wrapped in bacon

For drinks there is an extensive menu that includes beer (Japanese brands and Bass and Guinness), sochu, sake, wine, and plum wine.

He makes homemade plum wine as well - brewing it right on the counter-top.

There is an extensive wine menu. The menu is pictured below and in Japanese. Sorry, no help on that one. But you can see the year, some brands, and the price. Check out some of those prices!

Imperial chicken and leeks on the left and tsukune on the right

Chicken and cheese tsukune

Homemade kiwi sorbet

For dessert he offers a variety of homemade sorbets. The flavors are posted on the board and not on the menu, however, the staff usually knows the flavors well enough in English to tell you. On a recent night they had orange, kiwi, strawberry, and yuzu.