Eel by the name of small hapiness

Near the Yushima Tenjin Shrine (湯島天神) and along the Shinobazu Street(不忍通り), there is a eel restaurant named "Kofuku(小福)" whose meaning is small happiness. The entrance is small. As we cannot see the inside, it looks difficult for first-time customers to enter. But once I opened the door with courage, cheerful madam and waiters welcomed us!

Entrance of Kofuku

Second floor of Kofuku

Carps swimming in the table center aquarium 

Eel bowl with soup and pickles 

Kofuku has four floors and the design of each floor is different. We ate on the second floor, which has a large long table with an aquarium of carps in its center. This kind of design might have been introduced around 1980s, bubble economy time, but it is maintained well without smell. We enjoyed seeing carps swimming well in front of us.

It takes time (around 30-40 minutes) to cook eels. And eel bowl finally coming was tasty.  Eel was very soft. The quality of eel is high. The way of grilling seemed sophisticated though I prefer more a bit more burnt eel. Its sauce was not so strong but very adequate (I don't personally like strong eel's sauce that harms the fresh taste of eel). 

Soup and pickles are also delicious. Moreover, I liked the service. Same as a manner of good Japanese restaurant, they served different Japanese teas at prior, during and after eating, for matching each occasion. The eel bowl set we ate at lunch costs JPY3,780. Not cheap for lunch, but considering the quality of eel, we need to pay more than JPY3,000 in Tokyo in general. My rating is 3.6 out of 5. Gochiso-samadeshita!

Kofuku(小福) http://r.gnavi.co.jp/g125300/