Hentona is a <5min drive from the Okuma peninsula; it is the town immediately north of the Okuma turnoff. We have sampled 5 of the restaurants there, all of which are preferred alternatives to eating on base. The best approach in Hentona is to drive a lap around town, get oriented, and figure out what is open, then decide where to dine.
Soba shop - On the west side of the 58 just north of Okuma peninsula on the way to Hentona is a soba shop. Everything was closed or empty on a Sunday at midday except this spot which serves suki soba for 600Y. There are tables and tatami, and a tropical garden out back. No English menu.
La Cabana - open approx 11a-11p, unsure what day closed. This is a small Peruvian-Japanese joint on the main road in town (follow the fork off the 58). This is a ramshackle joint run by an Okinawan gentleman who lived for years in Peru, under the name Roberto, and then returned to Okinawa. There is an English menu, and if you speak Spanish Roberto will be delighted to converse with you. On our first visit, we had the ceviche and fried rice, both of which were tasty but not particularly Peruvian. On our second, we had the mussels with tomato and onion, fried noodle, creamy chicken and potato, and french fries stir-fried with veggies. The appeal to this place is that it is where the locals get drunk on awamori. On our last visit one of them started playing the sanshin and couldn't stop trying to tell us really important things in Japanese. Prices approx 1000Ypp for dinner, plus drinks.
Cooking Papa - just before the Hentona town turnoff, on the west side of the 58, is tiny Cooking Papa, a homestyle izakaya. There is an English menu, and Papa can communicate with you. Papa really does do the cooking, mom and daughter wait tables and manage the register. We had local sashimi (600Y), very garlicky homemade gyoza (approx 400Y), salty edamame (approx 3o0Y), and fried rice (approx 500Y). Draft Orion was approx 450Y. The food was similar to many other izakayas, but sometimes a light izakaya meal is just what you are after following a day on the beach. Unsure what day closed, but they are open on Monday, when one of the other options is closed.
House of Taste - this is the gourmet option in Hentona, and a real find. The restaurant is on the street closest to the water, south of the fishing port. There is a red lantern in front. There is no English menu, and no English is spoken here either, so you have to point and shoot. They do okonomiyaki (the first column on the upper left of the menu), yakisoba (top middle of the menu), and various other dishes (right top of menu). We tried three things - the yakisoba (approx 500Y), which was satisfyingly sweet, a pan-fried chicken breast topped in egg-mayonnaise sauce which sounds bizarre but was really tasty (approx 500Y), and an out-of-this world dish from the specials board (1200Y) - half a fresh lobster over pasta doused in a butter-lobster-juice sauce. Orion draft is approx 400Y. Other people in the restaurant were ordering dishes which looked great, but we have no idea what they were. For the adventurous eater, this is a perfect place to come in and just randomly order. Service is a bit slow, because there is just one guy in the kitchen, but why not just get another beer and enjoy it.
Fishing port soba joint - for a quick snack in the middle of the day, try some soba (approx 500Y)at this tidy wooden shack. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawa_soba You can dine at a picnic table across the street from the dock entrance, and see the workers come and go.
