Shiori Banzai - Okinawan style 汐入 萬菜 横須賀

Banzai II is the little brother of the Banzai Honten flagship restaurant in Yokosuka. Its proper name is Shiori Banzai. Located on the other side of Shiori Station it is a bit hidden.  However, it's quite close to the Chu-Hi stand, which may give you a landmark.  I really like the Banzai family of restaurants here in Yokosuka. Of the three we've been to, all are winners.

Same sign as the other Banzai

From the outside, you can see Banzai Shiori is two stories, with an old style facade. The building has to be quite old and looks like something you might see in the Edo museum. The entrance-way presents a clear view to the first floor counter seating area and the kitchen is located right behind the glass window.

Shiori Banzai the sign says...

It took some courage to step inside since the menu posted outside was all in Japanese and we weren't too sure of the seating situation upstairs - knowing we did not want to sit at the counter and didn't want to sit cross legged on the floor.  Once inside, we were still a bit hesitant (also due to the unknown smoking situation) and feeling the place out while I asked for an English menu. But some other customers encouraged us, and in the little English they knew told us the food here was good. We were assured there was table seating with real chairs upstairs so we headed up. The menu was in all Japanese, but had some similarities to Banzai Honten and was manageable, albeit mostly difficult. I've provided the translated menu below.  The menus from both stores are clearly written by the same person based on Kanji and katakana handwriting analysis.

Banzai Shiori repeats the rustic feel of Banzai Honten with a cozy, warm, wooden interior.  As you enter the restaurant, you'll pass the kitchen on the right, and see the L-shaped counter ahead. The stairs leading upstairs will be to your left. Leave your shoes below. The very small staircase twisted its way up and led to a small hallway off of which were three rooms.

If you had a bell curve of places American's ate off base, places like Banzai would be on the fringes of the curve. Get off the beaten track and try some of these little places  - you'll be rewarded with an excellent experience that you are sure to remember.  Many times as I'm out with my family at these places, I have to remind myself where we are - a half world away, in a small neighborhood Izakaya, barely able to communicate with the staff, but enjoying a great meal in a great atmosphere.  It's a bit surreal when you stop to think about it.  There are few places like this in the U.S. 

One room upstairs was fairly large and had floor seating at low tables. It seems to be for group functions. Another room had a round table where your feet sit in the trough below the table. The last room had two tables with chairs. All rooms had doors for privacy. The room was nicely appointed.  Additional photos can be seen on the gnavi site. Ordering was a bit rough but we got some standard fare that we knew were safe, while many other items on the menu remained a mystery.

It was only later that I realized exactly how difficult of a menu this was, with some native Japanese stumped on some dishes. The problem is because many of the dishes are named in the Okinawan lexicon. After a good bit of research and consultation with a (mostly) trusted agent :-), I ended up with a fairly good translation of the main menu which is provided below.  (Hey - "Sea grapes" is enough to go on isn't it??)

The focus of Banzai II's cuisine is Okinawan style dishes. But even if you know nothing about Okinawan dishes and have no specific "yearrrrrning" for it, they still have enough other dishes to choose from for a good meal. If you're into bizarre foods, you may be able to satisfy your wayward ways here as well (can you say "salted tuna guts"?). 

So from the pictures below you can see we played it mostly safe. These were the easy dishes to order as we had no translated menu to use.  The first dish below is a an eggplant dish. I don't even see eggplant on the menu and I don't remember how we ordered it. Perhaps it was "this evening's salad." Eggplant by the way is nasu or なすor 茄子. It shows up on quite a few menus and is a good word to add to your food vocabulary.

Find Shiori Banzai on the blog map or the location link below.

nasu

 Next up is the classic appetizer - edamame. Boiled beans w/salt.  Most Izakaya serve it so just look smart and order it if you cannot read the menu. If they don't have it then act surprised.

Edamame

 Another classic - potato fry. They don't call them French Fries here in Japan. They are simply ポテトフライ potato fry. If you're an astute observer you'll notice that to the left of this entry on the menu it says "spicy" or スパイシ. They were well spiced but not spicy in the sense of "hot" spicy.

Potato fry

 I don't remember what this was. This also could have been this evening's salad, and we did in fact eat this salad, that evening.  It was quite good. Think potato salad.

Family: Salad, Genus: unknown

Green Papaya and ham salad

 If you're going out to a Japanese restaurant, you need to know chicken karaage (ka ra ah gay). Especially if you have a child that is not as adventurous as you.

Chicken Karaage

 Soba was another easy one to pick out on the menu. Most soba on menus is listed using Hiragana そば as it is below.

Okinawan Soba

 It's coming back to me now bit by bit. There was a special menu that I forgot to take a picture of. Below is a local wagyu beef.

Our nicely appointed room - all to ourselves

A large room is hidden behind the screens

Our helpful assistant 　ありがとございます

Counter

 Thanks to the above customer for being nice and encouraging us to enter.  He's a swimmer I see...

Menus:

its name...

Goya Chanpuru is said to be one of the most famous Okinawan dishes. We didn't order it, but I did come across a plastic food example of it elsewhere and took the photo below.