Hananoya French Restaurant - 花野家 横須賀

Hananoya Restaurant is a wonderful French restaurant.  As usual it's the people, combined with great food, that make it special.

The chef's name is Hanano and hence the restaurant's name.

Hanano is 花野, which is made up of the kanji for flower 花 and the kanji for plains 野, or field. Add "ya" 家, which means home, house, shop, or restaurant and now you have Field of Flowers restaurant. 

While eating lunch at the counter I asked, with the assistance of a native speaker, where he learned to cook. He said he worked at Restaurant Daniel in New York. Impressive enough - he traveled all the way to New York for culinary training. But restaurant Daniel meant nothing to me at the moment as I had never heard of it. 

Hanano-san is one of those hidden talents in Yokosuka. There are a few others in or near Yokosuka that have touched the top of the food world and if you've been following you can guess who they are.  Like that great CBS show a while back "Everyone Has a Story" - Hanano-san has a story too.

Unfortunately his story may be a bit incomplete as I was not able to write everything down while his story was being interpreted by my lunch companion. He grew up in Tokyo and wanted to see New York City, his story started.  He couldn't speak English except for a few words. For the first few days he was a bit lost in a new country unable to communicate. Eventually he met up with some Japanese who assisted him, and luckily landed a job at Restaurant Daniel. The rest is history as they say.  Opening a restaurant of his own has always been a dream of his, and he's been living it for about three years now.

So what is this Restaurant Daniel anyways? New York has over 4,000 restaurants with plenty of them named after their owner.  So I typed in Restaurant Daniel into the search engine hoping to learn more and checked out the results.
Let's see:
- Run by Chef-Owner Daniel Boulud. World renown French Chef 
- Three Michelin Stars
- Best Chef New York City
- Chef of the Year (CIA)
- One of the ten best restaurants in the world - International Herald Tribune
- Top 50 restaurants in the world - Restaurant Magazine
- 4th best NYC restaurant - Zagat
- Longest running 4-star chef in NYC
just to name a few, as the accolades go on and on.

Impressive to say the least. Our chef Hanano-san was trained by Chef Daniel Boulud and his restaurant. How cool is that? Watching from my counter seat I could see chef Hanano-san at work in the kitchen. He has a calm confidence and professionalism about him. Complete awareness of the items on the burner behind him while doing work at the prep table and talking to inquiring customers, he can master multiple orders with perfection.  When talking with him he was very kind and patient with a pleasant smile. He truly appreciates every one of his customers.

On one day we ordered the basic lunch set which came with a choice of today's fish (Sea bream) or today's chicken (Japanese young chicken). Both came in at 2100 Yen. On another visit there was again a choice of a fish or chicken dish.

All set lunches include a salad, soup, main, bread, and dessert. There are usually 3 or 4 mains to choose from.  In general there is a fish, a chicken, a pork and maybe one other dish like crab or pasta.  There is some English spoken so if you're unsure of what the offerings are try to ask the staff. They say on the Yokosuka Ichiban site that there is an English menu available. I did not ask for it, but the next time I visit I'll try to capture it and include it with the Japanese menus below that I've translated as best I can. They also say the staff will be eager to communicate with you in English. Update: they have a good english menu and I've posted it way at the bottom.

All ingredients are fresh and many are local. As you can see from the menu below there are some unusual offerings on the dinner menu, but still enough "normal" things to choose from.

One of the dishes he serves is called jibie (ji bee ay) or ジビエ which comes from the French word "gibier." It's wild game. What type of wild game he serves varies, so you should ask before ordering. Whatever it is I'm sure he'd even be willing to show it to you before cooking to let you see. A good article discussing the growing popularity of jibie/gibier in Japan is here.

One evening we came for dinner and I have to say it was probably the best meal we've had in Yokosuka. Every dish was "awesome." Everyone in the family was impressed. The photos are immediately below.

Vegetable and tuna salad

Stewed pork ribs

 The ribs were outstanding and extremely tender. Just pull off with a fork. Served on a bed of sauerkraut.

Roasted pork loin

 The pork loin was served on a bed of shimeji mushrooms. Not as tender as the stewed ribs but very good and juicy.

The winner of the night - stewed beef in red wine

 The stewed beef was pure perfection. My wife had this but we all shared it.

Crema catalana - creme broulee with mango ice cream

Chocolate cake

The lunch sets start with a salad and homemade dressing. The terrine was something new (both flavor and texture) to me but I did eat all of it.  The salad changes slightly from day to day as you can see in the photos.

Japanese vegetable potage soup

  The soup was average size but served in an extra wide rim bowl.

Seafood based soup

Unlimited fresh bread

 

Sea bream with risotto

 

"today's chicken" with risotto

Another chicken dish on another day

 The chicken had a very tasty and crusty skin with very moist meat inside. Accompanied by fresh vegetables. Many of his ingredients are on display in the kitchen or on the counter for you to see. The kitchen is extremely clean. You can clearly see both the food you are going to eat and the chef preparing your meal.

Overall the food here was excellent and the atmosphere is very nice. Definitely a step up from most of Yokosuka's restaurants. It's a great place to bring your significant other, but even if you did bring the kids I'm sure they could find something. Our daughter had the ribs and she loved them.


The restaurant is no smoking. 
Lunch 11:30 - 15:00
Dinner 17:00-21:30
Closed on Mondays
They accept VISA, JCB, and AMEX cards

I usually don't reveal the location of such great places very easily.  Your clue is this: Go to Pepper Lunch and then find a small back alley to explore.  The blog map will only show a marker nearby Pepper Lunch and not the exact location. It couldn't be much easier - once you're at Pepper Lunch you are 95% there already.

   The sauces he prepares are excellent.

Pistachio ice cream, gateau chocolate and a custard dish for dessert.

Working with some well marbled beef

A man and his craft

There is counter seating for about six and five tables downstairs, one of which is in a private room. There is a second floor (with less atmosphere - so try to get the first floor) with room for a good size party. Hananoya does offer party plans that are listed on the menus below. They are not translated but you can get a good idea of what's on it by comparing it with the key food Kanji. 

The private room can be seen in the center of the photo

The seafood for today's menu

The ingredients are all brought in fresh daily. The chef will happily show you the platter.

chicken and fresh vegetables on display

Lunch menu

A dinner menu:

Some old menus from which dishes might still be available.

boiled, not boilded...

A closer look at that fresh seafood

Second Floor

Party plan

Hananoya carefully selected course. Reserve ahead of time.