Maru wins

[Originally a party finale meal, Yanagawa Bibimbap has now become a staple]

At the entrance to the restaurant, a gorilla mascot was sitting holding disinfectant. I disinfected both hands before entering the restaurant. The owner trained at a famous restaurant in Fukuoka. At the age of 28, he returned to his hometown of Yanagawa and took over his mother’s coffee shop by turning it into a restaurant. Although he wanted to serve his own unique cuisine, he was so busy that his dream never came true. However, his dream unexpectedly came true. One day, he was making and serving a course meal for a banquet for many customers. He usually made and served sushi as the final dish of the banquet, but he said, “I’m the only chef. If I make sushi for everyone, I won’t have enough time.” As a last resort, he served “Yanagawa Bibimbap,” a bibimbap-style steamed eel dish. This was a big hit and became the restaurant’s specialty. Since it was originally a final dish for the banquet, the bowl was small, but he made it into a large stone pot used for Korean cuisine and debuted it as a single dish.

The one-of-a-kind “Yanagawa Bibimbap” is made by dropping a raw egg into steamed Japanese eel and mixing it in. At first, have it as is. Next, top with rice crackers, nori seaweed, and wasabi, and pour hot tea with dashi over it. The “Special Yanagawa Bibimbap” also comes with soft, homemade tofu solidified with milk, soy milk, kuzuko, and gelatin, as well as salad and soup.

During the COVID-19 self-restraint period, they are also working on developing new menu items. The “Unagi Shumai” currently being prototyped is a dish of unagi (grilled eel) topped with chopped broccoli. The owner, who continues to take on new menu items, explained with a kind smile that the shop name is a combination of the character for “round the circle” (〇), which means “everything fits together” and the name of the shop owner.