Rojiura Syokudou Tondeji Korean 路地裏 食堂 横須賀

A back-alley Korean restaurant appropriately named Rojiura Syokudo Tondeji. Not far from the base at all but quite well hidden. It's an easy place to reach for lunch.

Rojiura Syokudou is a typically small and comfortable place on a back alley serving up Korean dishes. After three years of keeping an eye out for Korean restaurants I only recently found it and I was surprised that it was so close to base.

Besides all the normal dishes that represent Korean cooking, they have a few extra like deep fried gobo chips, french fries, clams in sauce, and ramen (perhaps with a Korean angle though). 

If you've ever been to Korea you know that they have eateries all over, including on the streets in makeshift tents. Seating is many times makeshift as well with simple stools or benches to sit on. Rojiura Syokudo seems to be mimicking that feel with what resembles 5 gallon paint buckets with a tiny cushion on top. They're survivable for the duration of your meal but I wouldn't call them comfortable. They are also great space savers for a small restaurant. A tip would be to sit along the wall nearest the kitchen door. This will get you a regular bench seat.

On the walls you'll find posters of Korean pop groups. On the TV a Korean soap opera or pop group singing perhaps.

The Japanese menu is typed such that if you understand some basics of the Japanese language you can figure out what the item is. They do have an English menu though so please do ask for it. They provided us one with a little hesitation though, explaining that it didn't have pictures and that it is not completely up to date with the Japanese menu. But the menu was pretty good. Combined with the pictures on the Japanese menu we had no problem ordering.

The restaurant is smoking so hope that you get good neighbors sitting next to you.

Rojiura 路地裏　breaks down to roji 路地 which means "alley/alleyway" and ura 裏 which means "rear, back" or "hidden from view."

Shokudou 食堂 means "restaurant, cafeteria, or diner." They write it as "Syokudou" on their window.

I couldn't find the meaning of Tondeji though.  とんデジ is how it shows up on the review site Tabelog. Ton is written in hiragana which tells us it should be a Japanese word. One word that matches that is pork or pig. This is probably right given the picture of the pig on the storefront. The next part "deji" is written in katakana which means it's an English loan word. The translation for that comes up at digi or digital. So maybe in summary we have Digital Pig Back Alley Restaurant.

They are open for lunch (11:30) and dinner. Closed on Sundays. They are located on the little alleyway that is nearby Pepper Lunch.  See the exact location on the blog map or the location link at the bottom of the post.

Always have to order gobo chips

Give them a try at home if you'd like.

チャプチエ　Japchae

Japchae,　or using Katakana pronunciation - chapuchae -  is a Korean dish made from sweet potato noodles, stir fried in sesame oil with various vegetables, sometimes served with beef, flavored with soy sauce, and sweetened with sugar.

Thanks to someone in our party we can always show a kid friendly dish

Bulgogi

Cheese bibimbap チーズビビンパ

Japanese menus are shown below. Like I said earlier, they do have an English menu but I don't have any photos.

The alley

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