Gohan-ya Isshin Daikanyama

When I wrote a blog post about Gohan-ya Isshin Kyoto, I learned that there is another Gohan-ya Isshin in Daikanyama and that lunch is very popular there. Actually, I had tai chazuke (rice with sea bream and broth poured over it) in Kyoto, but I really wanted to try Buta no Kakuni (stewed pork cubes)…” So I asked myself, “Why not have Kakuni in Daikanyama? And in September 2023, when I had a chance to visit Tokyo, I went to Gohan-ya Isshin Daikanyama. I sometimes think to myself, “How simple and stupid I am…,” but that aside….

As the rumor goes, there was a huge line even before the restaurant opened… Points to keep in mind when waiting in line at Gohan-ya Isshin Daikanyama

I visited Gohan-ya Isshin Daikanyama at around 10:30 on a Sunday. It was exactly one hour before the opening time, but I got the pole position just in time! It was a situation like this. The restaurant is located on the basement floor of the building, and I was waiting in front of the entrance, but the staff asked me to go up to the first floor to clean the storefront…

First, I had to wait here for the store to open. This is the head of the line, so to speak, and if you arrive at the store early, you should know that you can start lining up here.

While I was killing time by reading books, 15 minutes before the opening time, the clerk took me to the lower floor. At this point, I could not visually check how long the line was. The line was probably not more than 20 to 30 people. In fact, by the time I finished my meal and left the restaurant, there was a line of…

The line was as long as this position. I counted 75 people from the front of the line! According to the official information, the restaurant has 76 seats (including counter seats and private rooms), which means that nearly 150 people had gathered at Gohan-ya Isshin Daikanyama for lunch at this point. The previous visit to Gohan-ya Isshin Kyoto was quite a long queue, and I suspect it was even longer than that at Daikanyama this time. So, if you are late, you will probably have to wait a long time. Please be careful…

Slowly braised pork stew with half-boiled egg: Gohan-ya Isshin Daikanyama’s standard lunch menu, how was it?

Let me introduce one of the regular lunch dishes I ordered at Gohan-ya Isshin Daikanyama: Slowly braised pork belly with half-boiled egg. After about 10 minutes of waiting after ordering, the set meal of slow-stewed pork cubes was brought in front of me…

The main dish of simmered pork with rice cooked in a rice cooker, miso soup, pickled vegetables, and two small bowls of cooked food is priced at 2,000 yen (tax included). Like the Tai chazuke I had at Gohan-ya Isshin Kyoto before, this set meal comes with free refills of rice, but this time there was no refillable bowl. I thought to myself, “What?” I thought, but there was a table just to the left of the counter like this…

There are three kettles in a row, and if you ask the waiter, he will add more rice from here, so there is no problem.

Let’s start with the pork stew… It is so big that you can eat it in one bite if you open a large mouthful, and the meat is so tender that you can easily bite through it, and the fat has been stewed until it is melt-in-your-mouth tender. On the other hand, the braising liquid was, contrary to my expectation, smooth and I got the impression that it was not boiled down too much. The sweetness of the pork was well blended into the broth, though, and it had a nice flavor. I wanted to eat this braising liquid over rice, but it was too shabby to pour over the rice properly… I had no choice but to give up.

Now, the white rice, which is the real signature of Gohan-ya Isshin, is cooked a little hard, and the grains are crisp and firm. On the other hand, if you chew it, it is soft and fluffy, and its texture is similar to Hachidaime Gihey’s “outer hardness and inner softness”. No, no, no. With this rice, as long as there is space in your stomach, you will want to have another serving as many times as you like. However, I would have preferred to have the rice served in a ladle, as it would have been quite embarrassing to ask the waiter for more….

Other regular lunch menu items at Gohan-ya Isshin Daikanyama (prices include tax)

• Makitate Dashimaki Tamago (freshly rolled egg) 1,500 yen
• Fried Chicken Tatsuta-age (1,500 yen)
• Crab cream croquette 1,500 yen
• Yuzu-an Grilled Mackerel 1500 yen
• Tempura 2000 yen
• Sashimi 2200 yen
• Sashimi and seasonal tempura 2,500 yen

Also open in Kyoto, Umeda, Osaka, and Sannomiya, Kobe. But…Gohan-ya Isshin Daikanyama is only a 3-minute walk from the nearest station, Daikanyama Station on the Tokyu Toyoko Line.3分

In addition to the Daikanyama location introduced here, Gohan-ya Isshin is also open in Kyoto City, Umeda, Osaka, and Sannomiya, Kobe. All of these restaurants offer a special Japanese lunch, so if you happen to be in the neighborhood, be sure to stop by and take advantage of them. In fact, although these four restaurants carry the same trade name, they are not a chain, but rather independent from each other. This means that the pork stew we had this time tasted different at each restaurant…doesn’t that make you look forward to visiting other Gohan-ya Isshin?

Now, here are the details of the restaurant. Check here for store data..

It is a 12-minute walk from Ebisu Station on the JR Yamanote Line.

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