Seafood in Ito City 伊東

Fresh seafood is plentiful in Ito 伊東

Part II of my Ito 伊東, shizuoka trip. The food part. Being such a greedy gal, first thing on my mind when I reached a destination after checking in was to look for food. How do we know which restaurant serves good food?

By our sense of smell, long queues snaking round corners, luck or we will ask the hotel/hostel/ryokan's staff for their recommendations. Don't be shy.

We were famished after we checked in at K's House Ito Onsen. The four onigiris, japanese rice balls I ate earlier for breakfast at the train station just wasn't satisfying for me. I was hungry after the 2+ hours train journey from Tokyo. Yup, I ate four...that's a lot for a girl.

Gomiya is a family restaurant in Ito 伊東 that came highly recommended by the hostel's staff. We walked past the restaurant on the way to the hostel from JR Ito station. The grilled fish aroma wafting out of the restaurant was really enticing. The aroma, coupled with the people queuing in the cold stopped me in my tracks then.

Here we were again.

R 's queuing. If there's a queue, we will queue.

Menu. Appetizers, sashimi, various kinds of
seafood set meals, donburi and alcohol.
Don't worry, they have a picture menu
if you can't read this menu

Thank God they provided blankets for the group of us queuing outside. We queued for a good 30mins in the cold. There was another short queue inside the shop too! That's a lot of queueing for a meal. Don't the Japanese love queues? We almost gave up.

As there were too many items in the menu,
we ordered the grilled squid sashimi set (top left)
and the braised fish sashimi set (bottom right).

After a long cold and hungry wait, we were seated at the counter. Ordered the grilled squid sashimi set and the braised fish sashimi set and waited...

While waiting... took photos and amused ourselves for a while. We were seated at the counter and had a great view of what others were eating. Every dish that came out of the kitchen looked very good. There was hardly any talking or chatting among the customers. Everyone was just silently eating.

Autographs of famous people who had
patronised this restaurant.

Seems to be very popular with celebrities.

The communal table and the two poor things
queueing in the right corner. Ha!

Was seated facing bottles of alcohol and some local drinks.
Japanese Cola's on the left of Coca cola.

Ta-da! Hurray! His squid set arrived.

Grilled squid, 6 kinds of sashimi, appetizers,
miso soup. All these food for one person.

The sashimi, no wait staff around to ask
what kind of fish they were. I think they were
salmon, maguro (tuna), tai (sea bream),
aji (horse mackeral), ika (squid),
nama ebi (prawn), shime something
(fish had been marinated with vinegar), buri (yellowtail)?

He ate while I waited. I stared at the clock, cola bottles and the alcohol in front of me again. And I don't even drink much. Finally it arrived. It was totally worth the wait.

My braised fish sashimi set!

This was extremely fresh, tender and sweet.

The miso soup had large chunks of fish in it!

The aftermath

We took a long time to finish the food. The portions were huge. Food was delicious, extremely fresh and great value for money. To be honest, I kind of fell asleep while eating. I closed my eyes for a few moments while chewing. R nudged me awake and gave me a disapproving look. He couldn't believe I half dozed off while eating.

Check. It's impossible to have food of
this quality and price in Tokyo.

The street where the restaurant is.
Right next to a tofu shop.

Gomiya 五味屋 is located along ekimaeicho dori.
Along the way to K's House Ito Onsen

Closed on thursday and every 3rd
wednesday of the month

You've got to eat there if you are in Ito especially if you are not staying at a meals-included ryokan. Also, eat kinme 金目鯛fish (alfonsino) if you can. It's the speciality of the region. Many restaurants near JR Ito station were selling it. Steamed, braised, grilled, sashimi...it's simply delicious. Love Ito for the scenery and the food.

Braised alfonsino 金目鯛

My Kinme alfonsino 金目鯛 set cost 1850 yen.

Ito 伊東 is an onsen seaside town located on the Izu peninsula in Shizuoka Prefecture, a short 2+ hours train ride from Shinjuku, Tokyo. It is easily accessible via JR east Superview Odoriko (direct train) and a few other local lines.