Location: Okinawa City, off the 75; if heading north on the 330/75, turn right at A+W and Daikon-no-hana just after passing the 224. The restaurant is on the right after a short distance (see Okinawahai for more explicit directions)Hours: 1700- daily English menu, waitstaff with rudimentary English
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=140&article=41806
http://www.okinawahai.com/my_weblog/2008/12/tonneau---the-barrel-restaurant.html http://www.okinawakuukan.com/index/shop/food/okinawac/tonneau/index.html (phone number on this site)
This is a popular gaijin hang out, on a Saturday night to place was 80% non-Japanese. Reservations are advisable on weekend nights, especially for big groups. The draw for most
seems to be the craziness of the building. They have maintained the barrel shape and feeling inside the restaurant as well. Shoes come off at the entrance and seating is on two levels including bar areas and large sunken tables. Many tables are designed for groups of 8, with tons of room in the center of the table for the food and drink (which means you are far away from your friends sitting across from you). Kids can hang out around these large tables without any difficulty. You summon your waitstaff with a phone, and otherwise they leave you alone.We went in a big group for a birthday. There is a cover charge (reportedly 700Y), for which they
bring you an appetizer. We dislike cover charges in restaurants. The beers are cheap, but not as much as one might expect given the cover charge - 420Y for a large Kirin, 500Y+ for Yebisu and Sapporo brands. They have Yebisu black, for those who like dark beer. The group ordered a huge amount of food - too much really. The portion sizes here are larger than the average izakaya, so be conservative in ordering. Prices are 400-900Y per item generally. Things we tried:Spicy garlic potatoes - these were neither spicy nor garlicky. They were home-style french fries, and not particularly nice ones
Tuna rolls - Quite unpleasant - the outside was covered in bonito flakes, which overwhelmed the flavor of the salmon and tuna inside the roll. Would have benefited instead from a bit of avocado or roe to tie the flavors together
Fried whole white fish (guruken) - a bit overcooked, not a fantastic batter, but presented attractively
Yakitori - the beef was tasty, as was the mushroom and bacon (cured ham, really), but the eggplant yakitori was disgusting and inedible. We have no idea how one might destroy a perfectly good eggplant, but they managed it
Salad of the season - this looked nice, but was a disappointment. Too much cabbage, mealy tomatoes, only a couple chunks of cucumber, a minimal amount of shredded daikon, and a mayonnaisey dressing which was not very good
Charcoal roasted squid - this was pretty good, not overcooked, and came with mayonnaise. The tentacle to body ratio was a little low, ie not enough tasty tentacles.
Korean beef - this was OK, but not spicy and the thinly sliced beef felt coated with something
Yakisoba - lots of noodle, not very much vegetable, and too oily
So, the food was hit or miss, mostly miss. Other people seem to love this restaurant, so maybe there are some stand-out items on the menu that we didn't order. But we left with the feeling we should have had dinner beforehand and just had the mandatory appetizer, edamame, and beer.
On an up note, the place is so cavernous no one noticed or cared that we brought a little birthday cake from a local patisserie, lit a candle, and sang happy birthday.
