Ezuka Shokudo in Kagoshima serves lunch sets & tavern food, including game dishes
Inside Ezuka Shokudo
It has been almost two months since Ezuka Shokudo opened in Murasakibaru, Kagoshima City.
The restaurant opened its doors on September 6, and it is the first independent business for Kazue Ota, the owner. She has been in the restaurant business for many years and was thinking of opening her own restaurant. The restaurant covers an area of 50 square meters and has four counter seats and four tables for four people. The restaurant name is a backward reading of Ota’s name, Kazue.
The lunchtime menu includes Fried Chicken, Chicken Nanban, Mixed Fries, Ginger Pork, Mapo Tofu, and others. Customers can order them as a set meal, rice bowl, a la carte dish, or takeout lunch box. The most popular items are Cutlet Rice Bowl with cheese and pork raised in Kagoshima (880 yen) and Yu Lin Chi set meal (880 yen). Ota says, “We don’t use ready-made sauce, and we are particular about the seasoning mix, so it tastes good even after it gets cold.” The restaurant uses the Ikuhikari rice produced in Kimotsuki. The rice is prepared using hydrogen water from washing to cooking as “it makes each grain of rice shine and taste better.”
At night, the restaurant transforms into an izakaya (Japanese-style bar), offering a wide selection of craft beer, whiskey, and wine, as well as shochu. For snacks, it offers dishes such as Mapo Tofu with mozzarella cheese (750 yen) and Whale Sashimi directly shipped from Fukuoka (980 yen). Since Ota’s father is a hunter, some game dishes, such as miso-flavored wild boar and pheasant (300 yen each), are also available.
Ota said: “I want to offer various items so that people will never get bored and keep the prices as low as possible. I hope to make this restaurant a place where everyone can find what they want to eat.”
“Soon, we will be adding Korean dish Sundubu to our menu,” she added.
Opening hours: 11:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. Closed on Sundays and holidays.