NiceNature03
On a typical Monday afternoon, driving from Inagi City to Tama City and Hino City. Where should I have lunch? Oh, this family restaurant has caught my eye for a while. The appearance of this store looks familiar. I think I've seen it before on Tamagawa-dori on the way to Futakotamagawa. Wasn't it Sunday Sun from Yamaguchi Prefecture? I remember being given a gift from there for work. When I looked up Sunday Sun, it turns out it's Jolly Pasta! Coco's? Big Boy? Oh, it's part of the Zensho Group. Olive Hill, I've never heard of that. Reading other reviews, it seems like a cost-effective family restaurant that could rival Saizeriya. They have a lunch menu with a drink bar, and my next meeting is at 1:30 pm, so it's perfect for adjusting the time. Let's see what this restaurant is all about, let's go in.
Upon entering, there's a reception area. It's a reception machine. I'm dining alone, so I can sit anywhere. A receipt comes out, and it says to go to seat number 3. Oh, it's a counter seat. The tablet for ordering is on the table. They have pasta lunch and hamburger lunch options. I'll go for the Demi-Tama Hamburger Set with extra rice. It says 790 yen, which seems cheap, but it's actually 869 yen including tax. (Extra rice is complimentary) While waiting, I'll have some soup and a drink. I'll have oolong tea and soup from the drink bar. The soup seems to be tomato soup today. It tastes better than the soup I had at Coco's yesterday. I'm having two consecutive meals at Zensho's family restaurants. Here it comes! The small iron plate is quite surprising. It doesn't sizzle much. When I touched the iron plate, it was just slightly hot. It seems more for keeping warm than grilling. The hamburger is the type that you can tell the taste by looking at it. It reminds me of Ishii's hamburger. It's moist, tender, and juicy. There's plenty of sauce. It's delicious. The side dishes are mashed potatoes, spinach, and a fried egg. I dip them in the hamburger sauce, and they're all delicious. If I were having this for dinner with someone, it might be mediocre, but for lunch, it's totally okay. (Well, it's a lunch menu after all) I'll have another bowl of soup and another drink. Good, that was a satisfying meal.
~Corner of reminiscing about my nostalgic family restaurants!~
Yesterday, I also thought that Coco's, the family restaurant I went to, felt nostalgic. Coco's seems to be still around, but it's not so common in the city center, so it had been a while since I last visited. And this time, Sunday Sun (not really) that used to be on Tamagawa-dori a long time ago. I probably went there with my part-time job friends, but I don't remember much except for the distinctive roof shape. There was a family restaurant called Ai Hop in my hometown, with a high ceiling and an open atmosphere, and I used to love their pancakes. And there was Joy O'Wada in Kichijoji that I often went to during my prep school days. I liked it. It was on an arcade street. It was so cheap, which was really helpful. The hamburger I had today would probably have cost me 500 yen with change. Spaghetti and gratin were in the 300 yen range. It seems like Joy Time took over, but it's probably gone now. There was also a Joy Time in Shibuya, but it's gone too. Cheap family restaurants today would be like Gusto, Saizeriya, or Bamiyan, right? Gusto during its founding period had prices that reminded me of Joy O'Wada. I used to go to the Gusto in front of Chitose Funabashi Station quite often. It was a good place to go between pachinko sessions. CASA, which was part of the Seibu group, didn't leave much of an impression on me, but it was a national chain, right? And then CASA became Coco's? Sunday Sun also became Coco's.