Ginzo Thanks Minoo Branch

Every year on the day of the Ox of Doyou, the eels at Ginzo are very reasonably priced… To verify such a rumor, we decided to “eat Unaju at Ginzo on the day of the Ox of Doyou in 2023! I had decided to eat unaju at Ginzo on the day of the Ox in 2023. Fortunately, the day of the Ox in 2023 was Sunday, July 30. If I could not go on that day, it would be next to impossible to go eat eels on the day of the Ox in the future.

Therefore, I woke up early in the morning, took the train, and came to Ginzo Thanks Minoh Branch near Minoh Station at around 10:00 a.m. I actually had lunch with my family later that day. I had actually left early to get a seat because I was planning to meet my family for lunch later that day…

Ginzo Thanks Minoh Branch was once closed but reopened as a new restaurant…this is what Ginzo Sunkus Mino-shop is all about!

Ginzo Thanks Minoh Branch restaurant was open for reservations during lunch time. I was approached by what appeared to be the manager grilling broiled eel at the store and asked, “Do you have a reservation?” I was in a hurry, thinking “Oh no, I might not be able to eat…” However, I managed to secure a seat for my family if we could get together just around 11:00 a.m. Ginzo Sunkusumi restaurant seemed to take reservations for both in-restaurant and takeout up to two or three days before the day of the Ox, so if you are planning to visit next year, I recommend you to make a reservation to be sure.

Aside from that, this Ginzo Thanks Minoh Branch once closed in December 2019 due to “manager’s training”. But a few months later, in 2020, the owner of the building approached me and reopened the restaurant in the same location as a new restaurant, which is a bit of an unusual history. It must have been a short period of training, a few months, but the building owner must have liked me very much to have approached me. At any rate, it’s a good thing that no other tenants have moved into the same location.

The restaurant has a total of 27 seats. The restaurant has the atmosphere of a typical town diner, so it is safe for customers ranging from those on their own to families with small children. Around the store’s cash register, fish and bottled products imported from the Osaka Central Wholesale Market are sold. You may want to shop here after your meal and take some home.

Marumaru Ichibi Kokusan Unaju: The top-quality eel menu at Ginzo Thanks Minoh Branch, which is rumored to have excellent cost performance, and I actually tried it…

What I ordered this time at Ginzo Thanks Minoh Branch was the top-end eel menu, “Marumaru Ichibi Kokusan Unaju (priced at 3,200 yen + tax). In addition to this, there were two and a half eel bowls (priced at 1780 yen + tax) and an eel bowl W (priced at 1980 yen + tax), but I guessed from the menu description that these were probably made in foreign countries. I do not mean to imply that foreign products are inferior in taste, but as a Japanese, I would like to support Japanese fishermen’s products.

But that aside, after about 20 minutes of waiting after ordering, the unaju of Japanese eel was brought in front of us….

The price of 3200 yen plus tax for the unaju, a large bowl of miso soup, a small bowl of cooked food, and oshinko (Japanese pickles)…to be honest, after seeing Unagi Kazutomo‘s unaju Fuku in Tokyo, I do not feel the impact of the volume. However, the price of unaju has gone up dramatically compared to the past, so it is just an anomaly for Kazutomo Unagi, and I am very thankful that the price of unaju with domestic eel is this low.

Let’s try the domestic eel… Ginzo’s domestic eel is so firm that you can pick it up firmly with chopsticks like this. However, the meat is not hard at all. You can hold it with chopsticks, and it is soft and fluffy.

What is also worth mentioning is the aroma of the skin. When you bite into it, the skin is crispy and the flavor of the sweet sauce spreads on your tongue, and the aroma of the charred skin wafts into your nose. But that’s not the end of the story; you can enjoy it the same way from the second half of the meal to the end. This was a surprise. The meat tasted relatively light, perhaps because the fat had been burned off by the charcoal fire. In that sense, I had the impression that the way of grilling was similar to that of the eel at Doi Katsuman, an eel specialty restaurant in Kyoto.

Perhaps, in terms of the volume of eel, the Unadon W was larger than this Unaju. In retrospect, I think that the rumor of “very reasonable price…” probably refers to the Unadon W. In that sense, the result of my expectation this time was not so bad. In that sense, I was fully satisfied with this domestic unaju, although it did not meet my expectations this time. If I lived in Minoh, I would buy unagi at Ginzo every year on the day of the Ox….

Example of lunch menu of the day at Ginzo Thanks Minoh Branch (prices do not include tax)

• 5 kinds of sashimi set meal: 1680 yen
• Kaisendon (bowl of rice topped with seafood) 1680 yen
• Ginzo well balanced set meal: 1780 yen
• Natural ‼︎ Live Hamo set meal: 1780 yen
• Summer selfish set meal
• Summer stamina set meal: 1980 yen
• Oyako-don with fresh salmon and salmon roe 1980 yen

A la carte menu is also available…

Of course, everyday seafood lunch is also very inexpensive…access to Ginzo Thanks Minoh Branch is a 5-minute walk from the nearest station, Minoh Station on the Hankyu Minoh Line.

At Ginzo Thanks Minoh Branch, seafood lunch is also very inexpensive. The regular lunch menu looks like this…

For exactly the same price as our affiliated restaurant, Seafood Restaurant Ginzo Onohara Head Shop, you can enjoy a lunch featuring fresh seafood directly shipped from the Osaka Central Wholesale Market. It is really rare to find a restaurant in Hokusetsu where you can enjoy fresh seafood at such a reasonable price. Please try it for a protein supplement when you go sightseeing in Minoh Park.

Here are the details of the restaurant. Restaurant data is here…

P.S. If you are looking for delicious Japanese food in Osaka, please stop by this article…