The best value-for-money home-style restaurant: Takara Shokudo
👋 Haisai! This is CULT.
Today, let’s talk about a great place to eat in Okinawa, specifically a spot with excellent value for money called Takara Shokudo. While you’re in Japan, it’s nice to enjoy Japanese home-style meals, but since you’re in Okinawa, you should try something a bit more Okinawan, don’t you think?
📌 Location and Appearance of the Restaurant
The restaurant is located between Fukushu-en in Naha city and the Naminoue Shrine. It’s in a great spot where you can visit both attractions and enjoy a meal at the same time. The restaurant is closed every Thursday, and ⏰ opening hours are from 10 AM to 7:45 PM. [Google Map]
This is the view in front of the restaurant. There is parking available for about six cars, but since it’s a popular spot during lunchtime, you might need to park elsewhere. There are many coin-operated parking lots nearby, so you could park there, enjoy your meal, and then perhaps visit Naminoue Shrine or explore Fukushuen.
This is what the inside of the restaurant looks like.
It’s quite similar to the interior of a typical family-style restaurant that serves home-cooked meals. However, for travellers from Western countries, it might offer a slightly unique atmosphere.
The ordering process involves purchasing a meal ticket from a vending machine and handing it to the staff. Japanese readers might wonder why such a simple thing needs explaining, but since this article is also for Western readers, I’ll go into a bit more detail.
For foreigners, excluding Japanese, who can’t understand what’s written on the meal ticket vending machine, looking at the pictures on the right side of the machine is a good way to order. You could use Google Lens, but the fact that they’ve put up pictures suggests these are popular menu items, right?
Insert cash, press the button for your desired menu item, and a meal ticket will be dispensed. Hand this ticket to the staff and take a seat.
This is just an example, but this is what the meal ticket looks like.
It’s a very common system in Japan, but during my 11 years living in Europe, I’ve never seen this system in use there. Ordering at a kiosk in McDonald’s is somewhat similar, but since kiosks don’t accept cash, it feels different.
And they also provide refreshing water.
Although I am Korean, as I mentioned earlier, I lived in Prague, Czech Republic for 11 years. So, I still find it a bit unusual to be given water for free. Yes, those of you from the West, feel free to enjoy the refreshing ice water.
🍱 Okinawa Eateries: The Dishes of Takara Shokudo
The first time I visited Takara Shokudo, I tried the Lunch Menu B. It was priced at 950 yen, and about 10 minutes after ordering, I received my meal. It included Okinawa soba, karaage, tonkatsu, and a fried egg—everything I love was there, so even before I started eating, I was already in a good mood.
Okinawa soba has a slightly undercooked noodle texture that some older Koreans might not prefer.
It seems unavoidable. The older and more local the restaurant, the more pronounced this becomes. In fact, unless the chef is very young and the restaurant is a chic place in the city centre, the noodles here aren’t particularly soft! If you’re a foreigner and part of the younger generation, it’s a style you can enjoy without hesitation.
Plus, with options like salads and small portions of tonkatsu, there are plenty of choices to keep your meal interesting.
I feel grateful to be able to eat so heartily at this price. Where else can you find a restaurant like this? (Well, there are actually more.)
The next time I visited, I ordered the Mini Donburi Soba Set (ミニ丼そばセット). I’ve tried various dishes, and I highly recommend this one. The price is 1,100 yen.
We’ve already talked about Okinawa soba, so let’s skip that. The food is delicious, and you can also enjoy a wide variety of dishes like shrimp tempura, eel, and sashimi rice bowls. It’s wonderful that you can feel so full for just 1,100 yen; I think it’s a truly satisfying meal.
As expected, here’s a photo proof of a very satisfying meal.
The following is tuna rice bowl (まぐろ丼).
This dish requires a bit of attention. You need to carefully drizzle the soy sauce and mix the rice and tuna well, as the eating method is quite complex. Koreans might just pour the soy sauce and mix it all together out of convenience, but Japanese people might find that odd, and Westerners would likely eat the tuna and rice separately. Therefore, I recommend this dish only to those who can enjoy the harmony of soy sauce, tuna, and rice.
So, I just recommend enjoying the second mini donburi soba set instead.
We’ve already covered Okinawa soba at the beginning, so let’s skip that. As for the tuna rice bowl… it’s really quite a large portion. It’s a dish you should have when you’re very hungry, and as I mentioned earlier, the way to eat it can be a bit tricky. I don’t think it’s much of a challenge for Japanese people. In fact, I’ve only ever seen Japanese people eat it properly.
What do you think? Takara Shokudo offers a very satisfying meal at an affordable price. While it’s suitable for Koreans, in my experience, I think it might be more popular with Westerners. It’s not very well-known among them, though. Now that you know, why not give it a try? I really like this restaurant!
I’ll wrap it up for today and return tomorrow with more news from my Okinawa travels. Matayasai 👋
