Sam's Anchor Inn - on the 58 in Ginowan, south of Makishi intersection
Pizza House (the fancy one) - on the 58 in Urasoe, at gate 3 of Kinser / Gusukuma intersection
Both of these restaurants were the location of work functions, not places we would normally frequent. Both provide a bizarre time capsule.
Yellowing business cards serve as the wallpaper for the entryway and bar of Sam's Anchor Inn. The restaurant is dimly light and windowless, and historical trinkets and money from around the world also decorate the bar - a real boys supper club/cigar lounge feel. While waiting for the group to arrive, we sat in vinyl upholstered chairs and ordered a drink (most 500-700Y). The Awamori margarita was not advisable - no lime flavor, not enough awamori. The mai tai was stiffer and better. The staff ring a gong as you enter the dining room, which is disconcerting. You choose the meat / seafood combination to have teppanyaki-style at your table. Just like in old-school US restaurants, you get soup/salad/main dish; the prices are in the 2000 - 4000Y range. The food preparation is interesting, and our chef did a nice juggling act. But most of the table was too engrossed in conversation to pay attention to her antics. The chefs have to wear those ridiculously tall white hats favored in these types of establishments. A huge amount of garlic is used in the stir fry, and everything is cut up in bite size pieces. A nice surprise was the quantity of vegetables prepared and served. The food is not amazing, but is tasty. The clientele included lots of US military types, and a surprising number of Japanese people.
Pizza House has a sign out front that proclaims "Steak and Lobster." Insider, it is classier than Sam's Anchor Inn, and has a 1960s country club feel. The cashier's desk has trinkets of the US occupation of Okinawa, and there are a couple of signed portraits of generals on the walls of the foyer. The dining room has lots of booths (red vinyl), red velvet curtains, dim lighting, no windows. The bar is the kind of place that men in suits smoke and drink brandy (more red booths). The waitstaff wear formal black and white uniforms and are quite professional - they have perfectly memorized how to navigate a customer through their menu selection in English. You must decide if you want your steak or seafood "flaming" in front of you, or served normally. The flambe chefs also wear those crazy white hats. The fancy steak/lobster combos are 4000Y, steak alone is more like 3000Y. Simpler preparations of beef and seafood are around 2000Y. Meals include soup and salad, main, dessert, and coffee. Main meals are in the meat, starch, and veg tradition - you choose your starch, get a couple little pieces of broccoli and carrot, and a hunk of meat with sauce (sometimes on the side, sometimes smothered). Similar to Sam's, the food was fine, but not fantastic. The dressing on the "ethnic set" salad was strangely mucoid, and we could not discern the ethnic tradition that inspired the meal. The dessert was an unfortunate orange sherbet. Alcohol is extra and not cheap - house wine is 450Y/glass, Orion is 630Y (yikes). Again, many Japanese patrons dine here.
Another strange similarity - both places have really slippery floors. Be careful if wearing heels.
Living in San Francisco or New York, you might forget that a lot of the US still eats this way - the 15.95$ steak dinner special with choice of pilaf or potato, and 6 different salad dressings to put on your iceberg lettuce. It makes perfect sense that this tradition would carry on in Okinawa, and these types of establishments would be frequented by both US and Japanese citizens. It's just not our style.