Primavera

This is one of those places that I have been to a few times, but didn't have my camera with me. I know....shocking!

Today I was prepared though. Go me! AND I even remembered to take a picture of the outside of the restaurant. I know. I even surprise myself sometimes.

Primavera is a restaurant that is not too far from the base. It's not a very large restaurant, but I like the atmosphere and I have yet to be disappointed with the food.

I do have to mention that they do not have an English menu, but they do have some pictures. Gosh, if nothing else, go in just for a cappuccino. You'll see why in a little bit.

The item on the upper left is the hamburger set that I got. I'm very curious about the "Pork Ginger" that is right next to it.....I may have to order that next time!

The last time I went, my friend ordered the hamburger steak with Japanese sauce and it looked and smelled amazing! So, I had already decided before I got there that I was going to order the hamburger steak today. With the Japanes sauce ("Wafu sauce").
Then we opened up the menus and they have this wonderful lunch special where you get to choose your pasta and you get garlic bread and a little salad and some dessert. I started to lean a little. One of the pasta choices was a chicken and lotus root pasta. Yep, you know it. My eyes brightened at the sight of "renkon" (lotus root) on the menu. Oh, but I really had my heart set on the hamburger steak. Good thing I went with a group of ladies! Two of them ordered the chicken and renkon pasta! Yay! Two of them ordered a vegetable, garlic pasta. And then one of them ordered a lunch plate. Of course I took pictures of everything!!


Small salad that came with my hamburger steak lunch-

The little salad and soup and ....hmmm..I forgot to ask what that third item was..but this came with the pasta lunch sets -

I also got a little bowl (cute bowls!!) of soup with my lunch -

Then my hamburger steak came out! Yummy!! It had lots of grated daikon (like a radish) mixed into the Japanese sauce on top. There are two other choices for sauce. One is tomato and the other is demi glace. I really like the wafu sauce though! -

Chicken and Lotus Root pasta in Arabiata Sauce. I tried the lotus root and ...Mmmm..tasty! -

Vegetable, garlic pasta. Oh my goodness! LOTS of garlic! I LOVE garlic though so I thought it was pretty fantastic! -

Lunch plate. Sampling of a few different things. Looks yummy!!! -

Then, we got out cappuccinos. OH. MY. GOSH. Could they be any cuter?!

None of us wanted to drink them! But we did, and they make some really good cappuccinos at Primavera!

The ladies who ordered the pasta lunch also got this really cute dessert!

LOVE the presentation!!!! And the ladies said it tasted pretty good too!

To get to this lovely restaurant, go out Main Gate and turn right at the very first light. Follow that road over the bridge and past Mike's TexMex. Go through the intersection and keep going straight. After the next light, you should see a break in the road that allows you to make a right turn. Turn right and you should see a playground/park straight ahead. At the stop sign, turn left and then turn right. The park should be on your right now. Primavera is on the right, right after you pass the park. They have parking. I do recommend that you make reservations. They were completely booked when we went for lunch today. Their number is (0827)22-0566. They also have an ad in the Preview magazine that shows what their hours are.

Trattoria-Pizzeria Polipo

I have been a horrible foodie lately. Not because I haven't been going out to eat. I have. BUT I haven't been blogging about it. I have an excuse. I've been cheating. With another blog. And a camera. I know! It's awful. I thought I could handle both blogs, but it's so hard to split my time up evenly between the two. I'm so enamored with my new camera right now that all I want to do is go out and play with it. I'm realizing that my foodie blog needs some attention too so I'm trying to be better about dividing my attention. Makes me wonder about those people who date more than one person, or those who cheat on their spouses. When and how do they ever find the time?!?! Okay....now I'm getting a little sidetracked.

This post is supposed to be about this wonderful little Italian restaurant that Jason and I went to on Saturday night. It's a little bit of a drive to get to, but it was SO worth it! I heard about this amazing place from Kristen a little while ago and had been wanting to try it out.

It took us about 45 minutes to get to the restaurant. The traffic was kind of horrible for most of the drive so keep that in mind if you decide to check this place out. They do have parking in front, but it's only enough for 3 or 4 cars. Luckily, we were able to get a spot.

We were running a little bit late and I was worried they would give our table away so I forgot to get a picture of the front of the restaurant (sorry!!). I didn't take any of the inside either, but not because I forgot. Because it was super packed and it's not a very big place so I didn't feel comfortable shooting while people were eating. Maybe when we go back it won't be so packed.

Unfortunately, they do not have an English menu. They also do not have pictures in the menu. And to top it all off, they don't have anyone on staff who can speak English. That's what makes it so adventurous though! Right?? Lucky for us, I speak Japanese and I can read a little.

After perusing through the menu and kind of sort of checking out what the people around us were eating, we noticed that everyone had what looked like a platter of different little appetizers. So, I looked and saw that they offered an "Antipasto Mist" on the menu. I ordered one of those. I have to apologize about the picture. Um, we were really hungry. Like, stomach talking (and not saying very nice things) hungry when we arrived at the restaurant. It took us a little while to place our order and then a little while for them to bring out the Antipasto platter. AND (this is where it really fell apart for me) everything looked and smelled so amazing when they placed it in the middle of our table. I don't really remember much for about 10 minutes after that. I think there were some noises coming from us. Something like, "Mmmm.....oh my goodness. Did you try any of THAT yet? Ohhh...wow...." You get the idea. Then I kind of sat there in horror, looking at what was left on the platter. I completely forgot to take a picture! So, I grabbed my camera and got this shot of what was left. The mozzarella balls were amazing. The thing to the right is eggplant with something in it (YUMMY!). There were a lot of fish items on the platter so if you don't like fish, this is not for you.

"Antipasto Mist"

We also ordered a pizza. They will let you do half and half so we ordered half Pizza Margherita and half Pizza Capricciosa Bianca. The pizza was thin and sooooo good. I did remember to take a picture before we demolished it.

"1/2 Margherita and 1/2 Capricciosa Bianca Pizza"

We debated on whether we should order a pasta to share or not, but in the end we decided not to. We were afraid it would be too much since the antipasto platter was pretty big and the pizza was pretty big. It was a good decision. We were both comfortably full afterwards. I did see some delicious looking pasta coming out though so we are definitely going to go back!

I did decide I wanted a little dessert though. So we shared a couple of scoops of Espresso Chocolate Gelato. It was quite tasty and a wonderful way to top of our amazing dinner.

Jason and I also enjoyed a glass of the house wine which was very good. Our bill for the evening came out to less than 5,000yen. I think that's pretty good for great food and great atmosphere. We will definitely be going back!

If you decide to check Polipo out, check their website out at www.polipo-net.com
It is all in Japanese though so you will have to find a nice Japanese person to translate it for you.

Polipo is located near the Miyajima Ferry port. If you are coming off the ferry and you walk to the left, and walk along the seawall, you should see a wooden waterwheel on your right. Keep walking straight and you'll see Polipo straight ahead of you. I strongly recommend making reservations. The place was completely full when we went on Saturday night, and they were turning people away. Of course, if you are in the area you should definitely stop by and see if you can get in. It's all about timing sometimes. I just know the good places usually get booked up on the weekends around here.

Here is their phone number - (0829)56-5308
They are open for lunch from 1130-1500, and then for dinner from 1730-2200.