Thursday, February 14, 2008

Restaurants - Mintama

Location: Yomitan, see map at link: http://r.tabelog.com/okinawa/rstdtlmobile/47001302/ In short, if driving north on the 58 turn L onto the 6, continue past the 12, and then be on the lookout for a small sign on your right with a P and a bullseye, pointing to the left side of the street where there is a parking lot. Park there, the restaurant is across the road and just up the street.
Hours 18-2300 closed Sunday, call for reservations every night of the week 098-958-6286
Mintama comes recommended by an Okinawa Hai contributer. We went in a group of 6 + 2 kids and had a mixed experience. The place was full at 7p on a Monday night, and the staff were struggling to keep up. In contrast to the amazing and efficient service at most restaurants in Japan, we found ourselves struggling to get the attention of the waitstaff and order. We selected a bottle of wine from the list (which starts at a reasonable 2000Y) and some appetizers. We nearly finished the bottle before the appetizers arrived, but managed during that time to order the mains. A nice touch was a pink disney water cup for one of the kids.
The marinated octopus was nice (approx 600Y), but a smaller portion even than one would expect. The bruschetta (approx 500Y per order) were flavourful, but had a strong raw garlic aftertaste that persisted through the rest of the meal. Our mains came out in piecemeal fashion, which was difficult especially for the 7 year-old at the table, who received hers last. The gnocchi (approx 900Y) were light and tasty, although the blue cheese sauce was somewhat bland. The Mahi Mahi (1220Y) was lovely to look at as well as eat. The penne was reportedly good, but not spectacular. The sweet potato fries were a lot of batter and not that much sweet potato. We didn't order bread, and none came with the meal, which left us with nothing to mop up the pasta sauce. After over 2 hours at the restaurant, awaiting our food and eating it, we left still a touch hungry.
Our big mistake here was coming with a group - there were inadequate staff to deal with us, and the delays in serving meant we couldn't easily order more food to adjust for the small portions and the long wait. And when compared to the incredible value and deliciousness of some of the pasta lunches described below, dinner at Mintama just couldn't compete. Maybe that's why we are finding that the "lunch set" is the best way to trial restaurants on Okinawa.