Yoshida Okonomiyaki and Teppanyaki

There are a couple of restaurants in Yokosuka dedicated to Okonomiyaki. This post shows one called Yoshida and the other is at Shopper's Plaza or Daiei as many call it. I've eaten at the Daiei location but don't have plans to document it yet. They are both good.

Yoshida is a small family run place right next to Shiori train station. It's been open since 2009 and they feature both Okonomiyaki and Teppanyaki style food. You can find it on the blog map or by clicking the location link at the bottom of the post.

Open from 11:00 - 23:00
Closed Tuesdays
Kids welcome
Good English menu available
Visa and Mastercard accepted

Storefront

Mixing the ingredients

Okonomiyaki お好み焼き is basically a pancake with various ingredients thrown in as you like. The batter is made of flour, water and egg. Shredded cabbage is usually included along with other vegetables and meat or seafood. There are plenty of resources on the internet to learn about the history of Okonomiyaki, regional variations, and how to make it.
Okonomi お好み is "as you like." The kanji 好 means "to have a liking for" or "be fond of" and it also means "liking" "taste" or "choice" depending on the pronunciation. It consist of the "woman" character 女 and the "child" character 子. So to remember this kanji you say "what woman would not be fond of her own child?" Remembering the character for woman is not that hard as it kind of looks like a woman sitting down crossing her legs. The child kanji is so simple you should be able to commit that to memory.
Yaki is "grilled" or "cooked"

If you sit at the counter the chef (and owner in my case) will prepare your Okonomiyaki on the grill behind the counter. If you sit at a table you can cook it yourself, or maybe get a bit of assistance from the staff if you're unsure of the process and they'll be happy to assist. You can season it as you like or have the restaurant provide recommendations for seasoning.

He asked me about the sauce and the mayonnaise, and I told him to go light on the mayo so it didn't overpower the entire omelette. The sauce seemed to be a teriyaki based sauce.

If you'd like to see Anthony Bourdain eat okonomiyaki, just go to about minute 18 of this video.

The pancake was a decent size for lunch and if you get the set lunch it comes with some yakisoba and a drink as well. Lunch was 840 Yen.

Finished product "lite on the mayo"

Yoshida's is worth a visit to try out Okonomiyaki or Teppanyaki. The interior is very clean. A well written English menu is available and the owner was able to speak some English. Various dishes can be ordered to cook Teppanyaki style at your table. The prices seemed reasonable.

You can view some additional offerings here.

His website is here and you can see many photos, menu offerings, and other information.

Another great resource is the Yokosuka Ichiban site. At this website I discovered Yoshida's also has bacon wrapped shrimp. I just had this is Wisconsin a few weeks ago and thought, wow, why doesn't Japan have bacon wrapped shrimp? Well they do, and it's right here in Yokosuka! I plan on doing a recipe post for bacon wrapped shrimp in the future so perhaps I'll have to head back to Yoshida's for some additional inspiration.