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Izakaya

About En Izakaya In Kichijoji

The En chain of izakaya can be found all over greater Tokyo as far as Yokohama and Chiba.

It's long been a favourite of ours, but the Kichijoji location is the one that really stands out for us.

Over the years the service, atmosphere, food and drink have remained consistently good. Whether you want a cozy night out for two or a group dinner party, En is a great location.

Add to that it's only a three or four minute walk from the station's North exit so it's also easy to find.

A Night Out At En

We decided to have an evening out at En on a busy Saturday night in Kichijoji. We arrived, without a reservation, at 6:15pm.

We told the master of the house that a friend would be joining us at 7pm and he assured us there would be no time limit on our visit as we were early. We put our shoes in the lockers and then followed the waiter past the lower floor dining area with its open kitchen and counter and up the two flights of broad wooden stairs to our table.

This upper level of En izakaya has several private rooms and a large "party" table off to the right. It's separated by a gleaming corridor of polished wood and a small Japanese garden from the spacious 27 tatami mat room where we spent the evening.

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Starters and Drinks

We settled down on our cushions at our table. On the left hand side of the room there's a glass wall which looks out over a small Japanese garden of rocks, pebbles, foliage and a bamboo fountain. Very peaceful.

The tables themselves have leg room cut into the floor so although you're sitting on cushions instead of chairs, you don't end up with pins and needles. It's like sitting on a chair except that the leg room area is cut out under the table.

We ordered our drinks, a Yebisu beer and a lime sour, and took a look at the menu. The Japanese menu shows monthly and seasonal specials a well as a dish of the day. There is also an English menu available if you can't read the Japanese.

The menu has a good selection of fish, meat, poultry, vegetable and tofu dishes on offer, as well as a wide variety of drinks ranging from beer, wine and cocktails to shochu and sake. Our drinks arrived with a simple starter of kinu-dofu, a simple appetizer of cold tofu in a soy sauce and dashi (stock) sauce topped with shredded bonito flakes.

We didn't want to order our main dishes until our friend arrived, so in the meantime we ordered some assorted Japanese pickles (oshinko moriawase) to nibble on. We chose pickled gobo (burdock), nasu (aubergine), kyuri (cucumber), and cabbage.

After the pickles we had some kinpira celery, a warm dish of slightly spicy celery fried in sesame oil and soy sauce with sliced red chilli peppers and topped with sesame seeds.

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Our Main Meal - And Sake Of Course!

By 7pm the izakaya was packed, with waiters and waitresses bustling about with trays laden with food and drink and the conversation and sounds of laughter increasing. As is often the case at En, it seemed that most of the diners were also intending to make a long evening of it.

Our friend arrived so it was time to order the main dishes for our dinner.

We usually go for the En salad which is excellent, but this time we chose another favorite, the cabbage and miso salad. This deceptively simple arrangement of half a raw cabbage on a huge bed of ice surrounded by six little cups filled with a variety of miso pastes is truly delicious! Each cup of miso has a thin wooden name badge on it so if you can read Japanese, you know what it is you're tasting.

Next on our izakaya order was some sashimi. We chose santen moriawase, an assortment of three different fish, hirame (sole), awabi (abalone) and aji (jack). The slices of fish themselves were served upon a large bed of ice piled high with a hermit crab shell, shredded daikon and shiso (perilla) leaves. To the edge of the arrangement two small heaps of wasabi and grated ginger nestled beside a piece of fresh wasabi resting upon a delicate little wasabi grater. Yellow kiku (chrysanthemum) petals added colour. The California roll at En is also well worth trying.

By now it was definitely time for some sake. We started with Bunraku, a cheap, drinkable sake from Saitama prefecture which according to the menu is good hot or cold.

En’s sake, if ordered in the basic ichi-go size, always comes served in a dainty little glass tokuri with equally dainty glass choko (sake cups). Bunraku may not have the most outstanding flavour, but at almost half the price of some of the better sake on the menu, it's not a bad idea for those with a thirst!

Our next dish was a sawawa guratan - gratin of fish and erengi mushrooms in white sauce - served in a small iron skillet. For us it was a slightly bland dish and the fish was a little boney.

This was followed by some danshaku imo (baron potatoes) fried in big chunky wedges that even a British pub would be proud of! They were lightly sprinkled with salt and herbs and there was a pile of seven spices to dip them in. Delicious.

More sake was ordered, this time the Kaiun from Shizuoka prefecture. It was fruity, sweet tasting and markedly better than the Bunraku. As a result it didn't last long! Then we opted for Hakkaisan shochu. We were intrigued by the name because Hakkaisan is usually associated with sake, not shochu. In fact the taste of this shochu did remind us of the sake and it was extremely drinkable, especially when served on "on the rocks."

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The End Of The Meal

By 9pm most people in the izakaya had eaten their fill and the sound of post-dinner conversations and a constant stream of drinks being ordered all around resulted in a lovely relaxing atmosphere.

We ordered one last dish, some pork, the yamato buta no miso kasu yaki. This is a simple dish of slices of succulent pork fried in miso topped with moist grated daikon and hot yellow mustard. Perfect.

Suitably full, we then spent the rest of the evening indulging in several glasses of strong tasting Okinawan Kokuto shochu made from brown sugar. It's a potent drink and we found it best mixed with a little water (mizu-wari) and ice.

All in all En has excellent service, tasteful surroundings, a wonderfully relaxed atmosphere, good food and plenty of interesting drinks to choose from and all at a reasonable price. En has this lovely way of always seeming to cost less than you think it will.

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Why The Kichijoji Location?

We've tried the Shinjuku, Shibuya and Marunouchi versions of En and they're undoubtedly good, still we always find ourselves returning to the Kichijoji branch.

There's something about the atmosphere of the place that makes it stand out from the rest.

As you enter there's the understated street level doorway and stairs up to the genkan (entrance) of polished wood and shoe lockers. Add to that the friendly welcomes and two levels of cozy, low-lit, shadowy tatami-floored dining areas and you're off to a great start.

Next, check out the beautiful dark wooden lattices, shoji screens, sliding fusuma doors and private koshitsu rooms. Everything about En's decoration creates an ambience that's distinctively Japanese in style.

There are many izakaya that attempt to create this look but few are able to manage it so successfully. En fuses traditional and contemporary Japanese style without feeling either pretentious or like a Disney Land attraction.

Thanks to all the above En in Kichijoji is extremely popular.

Busy almost every night, turning up without a reservation after 7:30pm usually results in a long wait or being turned away. Booking in advance, especially on Friday and Saturday nights, results in a two-hour limitation being imposed placed on your stay.

Arrive early though and you're usually able to secure a table and then settle in for a long and leisurely meal.

Just follow the link to visit the En izakaya chain website. It is only in Japanese unfortunately but if you need more help your hotel front desk or accommodation owners should be able to help you if you show them the site.

To get there you need to take the Inokashira line from Shibuya to Kichijoji station at the end of the line. If you can, take an express as it's a lot faster. Once you're there, you need to look for the North exit and En is about a four minute walk away. This page shows you the map and address for reference.

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