Aficionado Intelligence Report - 16

Garlic House - Like a desert oasis mirage, it was too good to be true. It gave us comfort and great food for a short time, until the winds shifted the sand and it is no more. The sign - gone. Ueda-san - gone. Music I could relate to - gone...Or maybe just moved. We should be happy we got a full year here in Yokosuka though. Now the good news... In another month, you can once again enjoy Garlic House, only at a more distant, but not unreachable location. Garlic House is moving to a place near Sakuragicho Station, which is near Yokohama Landmark tower. I've relocated it on the blog map so you can find it. He says he expects to be open in May, but an exact date was not provided. You'll probably reach it easiest by getting off at Hinodecho Station, instead of Sakuragicho. It'll require one transfer at one of several stations along the way from Yokosuka-Chuo. Put it into Hyperdia and it'll give you the options. Maybe one of our field reporters can report back once they are open.

In other news...
Tori Gin has moved from its first floor location to the second floor. Also gone is the English menu. The second floor is pretty nice. They did a good job with the decorating and lighting. The menu items are very close to what they had before, so even if you use the English menu from the blog post, you'll have a 95% chance of picking something they have.  Now the bad news...The counter seats are also available upstairs, but they raised the height of the ledge such that it is now impossible to see the cooks cooking your food. But the white wall in front of you is interesting to look at while you wait. The fish restaurant that was downstairs has now moved into the old Tori Gin location on the first floor. Just so you are aware, Tori Gin has another location here.  A few photos below.

The tofu salad is improved. It now comes with some shredded deep fried gobo root

Looking over the "wall" to see the chefs

Nicely done interior

Lastly, Ikinari Steak recently opened on Blue Street. If you haven't seen it yet, you might consider getting out more. Perhaps a future blog post is in order. If it looks eerily similar to Pepper Lunch, it may have something to do with the fact that they are both part of a large conglomerate of restaurants.  Here is a nice video how-to.

Ikinari Steak - This is the Very Steak

* Aficionado Intelligence Reporting (AIR) was conceived of grey bearded men, through brilliant thought, in a small Izakaya on the backstreets of Yokosuka. AIR reports on little known but exceptional (or maybe just really good) dining spots or interesting food developments and relies on highly untrained observers making random observations and developing conclusions through sometimes single data point regression statistical analysis.

Any conclusions from its reporting are final.