Viva family restaurant, Jonathan's!!

If you face difficulty to find places to eat especially with baby, fist option might be family restaurant such as "Jonathan's (ジョナサン)." Before, Jonathan's had a poor image with limited unattractive menus, but recently, they have dramatically changed in a good way! 

Jonathan's

Salad (JPY250)

Tagliatetelle with Homard and tomato (JPY1,119)

French fry (JPY399)

Beef steak bowl with foie gras

Udon for kids (JPY329)

Pancakes (JPY599)

As you can see the above, the price is maintained still low thanks to the efforts of the company. Taste is of course not bad. As family restaurants allow us to stay long, I tend to order additional dishes...it might be their strategy. 

This style of restaurants always prepare menu books with photos. So, if you travel to Japan, it could be helpful. Most of all, I'm sure you can find something you want to have among variety of menus!  

My favorite "famires", Royal Host

Family restaurants, namely diners are called as "famires (ファミレス)" here and loved by young and old. Many of them are opened for 24 hours and we can easily find everywhere in Japan. At any hand, convenient, reasonable and tasty! The variety of selection is quite wide. Generally, Japanese including yoshoku, Chinese, Italian and American dishes are available. One of my bests is "Royal Host (ロイヤルホスト)!!"

Royal Host 

Inside of Royal Host 

Carrot mousse 

Onion gratin soup 

Fried shrimp 

Seafood cream pilaf 

Clubhouse sandwich 

Royal Host is originated in Fukuoka (福岡), the biggest city in Kyusyu (九州) and now develops their business all over Japan. Royal Host is a bit high-ranked one among famires. Even so, price is reasonable. Main dishes are around JPY1,000 and side dishes are about JPY500. Small dream of childhood can come true here that we order anything without checking price. Taste is more than the price. Especially, yoshoku is very nice. Recommendable! 

We can stay as long as possible. People spend time freely. Some are chatting long and others are sometimes studying. It's like a public space where we can order nice meals. I can always enjoy Royal Host very much:) My rating is 4 out of 5 (actually, I am very impressed by their high performance compared to the price). Gochiso-samadeshita!

Royal Host (ロイヤルホスト) http://www.royalhost.jp/index.php

Break at Denny's

I like chain family restaurants. Reasonable, delicious, comfortable to stay. Also we ca easily find them all over Japan. Even I put very casual cloths, I don't have to hesitate to enter. Whenever I open menu books with pictures, I can be still excited as a child.  

Denny's(デニーズ) is one of my favorites. They always welcome us with big voice as "Welcome to Denny's!" Some of them are opened for 24 hours and offer newspapers free of charge. Very convenient. Food is also good in general. The caramel pancake I ate was just JPY390, and the taste was not bad. Their menu has wide variety of options. They offer not only Japanese dishes but also western dishes that many people are familiar with. As there are picture samples of all dishes, even foreigners can easily choose favorite dishes without knowing Japanese. If you come to Japan, I recommend you to use this type of family chain restaurants at least once!

Inside of Denny's

Caramel pancake

Cafe 

Denny's(デニーズ)　http://www.dennys.jp/dny/index.html

Red Lobster in Odaiba

Odaiba (お台場) is a bay area and one of the date spots in Tokyo. There are many shopping malls, amusement parks, movie theaters, hotels, restaurants, etc. which are suitable for couples. Night view from Odaiba is also beautiful. When I drove to Odaiba, the Tokyo Tower was illuminated by five colored lights for celebrating the Olympic Games.

Rainbow bridge and Tokyo Tower

In a shopping mall called "Aqua City Odaiba (アクアシティお台場)", there is a branch of "Red Lobster(レッドロブスター)", an American chain restaurant, which is famous for dishes using fresh lobsters. In front of the restaurant, lobsters are fed in aquarium. 

Inside of "Red Lobster"

Pickle and a glass of white wine

Fresh oysters

Soup of Lobster with pie

Combination plate (grilled lobster, grilled beef and gratin)

Red Lobster offers wide variety of sea food menus at the intermediate level expense. Side dishes are reasonable at around JPY1,000 and dishes using Lobsters cost more than JPY2,000. The taste is good as a chain restaurant. There is no special dish, but most plates are more than average that anybody likes. The atmosphere is good for date, but the taste is for family-use. If you luckily sit on the window seat, you can enjoy the wonderful night view of Tokyo bay. My rating is 2.5 out of 5. Gochiso-samadeshita!

Red Lobster http://www.redlobster.jp/index.html