What's What in Japanese Restaurants: A Guide to Ordering, Eating, and Enjoying (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Visitors to Japan are often surprised that there are so many different styles of Japanese cooking..." (more)
Key Phrases: fugu restaurants, pounded rice cakes, restaurant customs, Recognizing Specialty Restaurants, Robatayaki Menu, Japanese Food Vocabulary (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Okay, you can walk into your favorite sushi bar and order the tuna roll in Japanese; that's a good start. But there's more to life than teriyaki, tempura, and sushi. With descriptions of grilled chicken skewers (yakitori), hearty plates of pork cutlets (tonkatsu), barbecue (robatayaki), and steaming rice bowls topped with grilled eel (unagi donburi), Robb Satterwhite lets you in on a world of Japanese cuisine that's little known east of Tokyo, but well worth learning.

Review

"This extremely helpful guide ... offers a comprehensive approach to the language of Japanese dining." -- Washington Post

"Wonderfully handy ... Plenty of pictures, how-to's, food vocabulary, and much more." -- WCBS Radio, New York

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Product Details

• Paperback: 180 pages
• Publisher: Kodansha International (September 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 4770020864
• ISBN-13: 978-4770020864
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #150,047 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #50 in	Books > Travel > Asia > Japan
  #58 in	Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Regional & International > Asian > Japanese

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As indispensable as any map or guide book, June 6, 2002

By	Zack Davisson "All Good Things" (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

If you are going on a trip to Japan, take "What's What in Japanese Restaurants" with you. It is a handy, pocket-sized reference book that will save you many a stomach-ache and hopefully let you discover many a good taste. Not all strange Japanese food is to be feared!

The guide outlines many of the main Japanese foods, a few ways to eat them and some simple restaurant etiquette. The food are named in both English and Japanese, with the Japanese written in Katakana and Hiragana. This is important, as most Japanese menus will not contain an English translation.

The books small size is most convenient, as luggage space can be at a premium. In the end, you will be glad you brought this book along.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extend you Culinary horizons!, July 5, 1999

By A Customer

Great book. I know some Japanese, but the restaurants have proven daunting at best, and it's especially difficult since many of the best ones are specialty restaurants -- and when you walk in and sit down, you can't even guess how to order since you're not sure what they serve! A little time spent with this book helped me immensely, and I was able to pick up some of the kanji along the way. Even if I can't make out an entire menu item, I can usually tell "this is a chicken dish, this is a beef dish, this is some sort of fried vegetable dish", etc. A couple nights with this book and I was suddenly much less intimidated by all that great food available out there!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Useful and accurate., November 12, 1999

By	Pat Rund ([e-mail]) (Romney, Indiana) - See all my reviews

I used this book during a business trip to Japan and found it very useful and accurate, both in and outside of Tokyo. The descriptions of the types of food were helpful, as were the prices (even though the exchange rate has deteriorated). I would recommend this book to anyone who has questions about Japanese food.