Oishii House Korean おいしいハウス横須賀

Oishii House Korean really surprised me. The atmosphere maybe leaves something to be desired - but Oishii House is an example of what should come to mind when we talk about "a hole in the wall" restaurant. Located right next to Garlic House, it should be an easy find.

Kimchi sampler

Oishii House is one of those places one thinks twice about entering because of its many unknowns.
All we had to go by was a little lit sign out front. Not even an overhead sign or window sign. The food on the sign certainly looked good, and we all know food looks just like it does in pictures. But the restaurant was up a set of stairs, and who knows what was beyond that? Is it good? Do they have English? It is full of a bunch of smoking salarymen imbibing on soju? But the stairs were lined with photos of people that have eaten there, photos of the restaurant interior, and a few English words! "Roast Meat, Korean Home Cooking." Hey I can like that! A smart restaurant (at least one that wants our business), especially those located on upper floors, will leave clues like that.

Steps to the restaurant

Notice there are two doors at the top. The hand points to the left though.

You can find Oishii House on the blog map. It's located about 3 blocks from Yokosuka Chuo Station, to give you a point of reference. Closed on Tuesdays. There is little written about it on the Japanese restaurant review sites Tabelog and gnavi, however two TripAdvisor reviews gave it 5 stars. A search for their phone number (046-824-1877) will show these sites.

5 pm to 5 am

おいしいハウス= Oishii House and Oishii means delicious.

So what was so good about Oishii House? I think it truly did live up to its sign - home cooking. Although we only visited one time so far, and ordered a few dishes, we could tell it was some good home cookin'. The meat, as shown below, was alright (you can see the nice marbling) - but it came out nearly frozen. That was the only negative we encountered. I wish we could have tried more, but we ate our fill. They have many traditional dishes like Samgyetang and Korean pancakes to name a few.

The interior is basic. Kind of like someone's house converted to a restaurant. There are the fluorescent lights overhead, the Korean pop star's photos on the wall, and of course a Korean drama or music video on the wall TV. And there are the soju and makioli bottles as well. Ginseng in bottles - although no pressure to buy any! You might be chancing it with people smoking, but we didn't encounter any problems. The service was friendly.

I think this was sirloin

This was either the soybean paste stew or the kimchi stew. Can't recall.

Korean Gimbap

Look at that sushi you say! Well this is Korean Gimbap which differs from the Japanese maki rolls in several important aspects. The rice is seasoned with sesame oil, and the flavors mostly come from what is inside. Almost all will come with yellow pickled radish, which you can see clearly in the photo below. It's typically eaten without anything else (soy sauce, wasabi). There was no raw fish. These particular rolls just have their ends put together making a teardrop shape. Korean Gimbap have the same sentimental value as onigiri do in Japan. The Koreans grew up with it. And the Koreans claim to have been eating seaweed even before the Japanese!

Gimbap closeup

Perhaps a warning is due here. Anything that is labeled on the menu as "spicy" will be exactly that! Speaking of spicy, they do have a particular dish with a very interesting English explanation. On the fifth menu page below, last dish, you'll see $#%& mother$#%&*$# spicy chicken. Safe best it's pretty "darn" spicy.

But the English menu is quite nice and surprising for a little hole in the wall like this. Another cute entry is "pig trotters" for pig's feet. LA beef ribs are not from LA. They are "lateral axis" beef kalbi ribs.

Also on the fourth menu page, top entry - we see Scallion Pancake. The description, well, I'm not going to comment on it - just read it.

Oishii house is just like those little back alley places in Korea. I didn't talk to the chef/owner but pretty sure he was Korean and knew exactly what he was doing in the kitchen.If you're familiar with Korean food, you'll find all your favorites on the extensive menu below.

a few "free" side dishes that come with the meal

Noodles with sauteed vegetables - my mouth waters just looking at this

When I first arrived in Yokosuka, I looked for Korean restaurants and was disappointed because I couldn't find any. I'm a tiny bit more restaurant savvy now, and I'm up to six or seven Korean places on the blog with 3-4 of them being pretty authentic. They are here, just took a while to find them.

The tables in this section had spots under them for your legs.

I'd like to revisit this place and try some bulgogi and some more stews. Safe bet it will be very good.

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