jinworks
I visited "Azabar Bamban Aso Store" on September 2nd. This was my first visit this year, with my last visit being on September 7, 2019, three years ago. We visited for dinner with 2 people at 8:30 PM. I made a reservation online 15 minutes before our visit, and it was amazing that we could still get a reservation for 15 minutes later. The restaurant is owned by Wonder Crew, the same company that owns the nearby Marla Parlor. They have taken over some locations from the bankrupted Charcoal Rich. The restaurant is located on a side street off the main street, so you wouldn't just stumble upon it, you have to consciously visit. When we entered, we noticed that quite a few seats were already taken. I think there were only about 2 seats at the counter and a table for 2 by the window available. We informed the female staff about our reservation and were seated at the counter. The staff, consisting of 4 members, seemed quite busy. We had reserved the 120-minute all-you-can-drink option for 990 yen (without beer) using a coupon. On the website, it was mentioned that you could add beer for an additional 300 yen, but the staff informed us that it had changed to 500 yen. Well, I don't drink beer, so it was fine, but they should inform customers properly. By the way, the condition for the all-you-can-drink option is that each person must order at least one food item, which is quite lenient. It had been a while since my last visit, and this time they had a system where you scan a QR code with your smartphone to place orders via the web. It's similar to ordering with a tablet at conveyor belt sushi restaurants or family restaurants, but in this case, you use your own device. I have experienced this ordering method at a few other places, but it seems to assume that everyone has a smartphone. I wonder if they accept verbal orders for those without smartphones? It seems like it would require a lot more staff and operations. For my first drink, I had the Barbal Lemon Sour, which is included in the all-you-can-drink menu. I tried to order all the drinks on the menu without any duplicates, but I ran out of time. For the food, we ordered: - Salmon Carpaccio (Half) for 759 yen - Beef Harami Steak with Onion Sauce for 1529 yen - Spicy Fried Burdock for 539 yen - Pickled Radish Potato Salad for 539 yen - Cucumber with Peperoncino for 319 yen - Boiled Edamame for 319 yen All the dishes were served at once, which almost didn't fit on the counter (laughs). I noticed that they had lamb chops on the menu, but unfortunately, they were sold out. The Pickled Radish Potato Salad was not what I expected, but the unique twist was excellent. I added some pepper to it, and the combination of the spices from the soup curry jelly and pickled radish was quite good. The Beef Harami Steak with Onion Sauce was a rare cut of harami, 200g. It had a unique elasticity and tenderness typical of harami. It was delicious. They could improve their operations a bit though. They brought us the wrong drink, so I informed the staff, "You brought the wrong drink, but if it's not a problem, we'll just have it." The staff replied, "Please go ahead," which was odd because they didn't think the drink was meant for another table. Eventually, 20 minutes later, the drink didn't arrive, and it turned out that it was meant for a different table... Meanwhile, two additional items we ordered hadn't been served to our table... One of them seemed like it would take a while, so we canceled it. We only ordered the Bamban Special Catalana for 539 yen. Maybe they just introduced the web order system? Thank you for the meal.