Zapp

At Zapp, part of the pleasure is choosing a few small plates before finishing with noodles or rice. The recommended white-broth oden is available as an assorted platter or by the piece, with a wide choice of ingredients including tomato and basil, fresh yuba, homemade hirousu, Kujo spring onion and daikon. One pair of diners mentioned that the oden was cut into pieces to make sharing easier, so ordering several items to split could work well.

Another appealing option is Kitayama-age tempura, with choices such as pickled red ginger, sweetcorn, natto, shiitake mushrooms and lotus root. It comes as an assortment of 3 kinds or can be ordered individually, making it easy to pick the ingredients that appeal. The tuna cheek yukhoe is made with tuna cheek seared until fragrant, served with a house sauce and an Oita paprika egg. The menu lists it at 880 yen before tax, and one diner also singled it out as a recommended dish. For seafood, consider oysters from Uramura in Toba. The menu lists raw, steamed and grilled oysters, as well as fried oysters, from 11 to 3; diners have mentioned both the raw oysters and fried oysters among the dishes that stood out. One diner felt the sauce served with the fried oysters did not overpower the flavour of the ingredients, making them a tempting choice for a meal built around seafood.

There are several ways to round off the meal. One diner remembered the hand-cut soba as especially memorable, alongside the raw oysters; another enjoyed the seiro rice ordered at the end of the meal. The menu lists seiro rice with salmon and salmon roe, sea urchin with shiso and chirimen, or ume plum with shiso and chirimen. For noodles, options include black-rice somen, Zapp ramen and Zapp curry ramen. After the small plates, noodles offer a lighter finish, while seiro rice lets you choose the toppings and linger over the meal a little longer. One diner recalled the kabosu somen as the best dish, though the listed regular menu includes black-rice somen and other options. Check with the restaurant for the choices available when you visit.

Drinks listed include beer, sake and shochu, as well as red and white wine by the glass and highballs. There are options for a meal of individually chosen dishes or a set course with a hot pot. The chef’s-choice course is listed at between 4,500 and 6,000 yen, and a course at 8,000 yen is also available. Reservations are recommended for dinner, so consider booking if you have a particular date in mind.