On a cool day or when you may want something a tad healthier, Okame in Tokyo’s Yoyogi Uehara area may be the answer. Okame serves Oden, which is different types of tofu, vegetables and fish balls simmered in a broth and eaten with just a touch of mustard. This is great especially when you need something less oily, perhaps to balance out all the grilled A5 wagyu beef and tonkatsu. But Okame also has excellent broiled fish. So if you’re not exactly a tofu fan, there are a few fish choices. Incidentally, it goes well with nice cold beer.

Okame is not the oden that you see in pubs that drinkers may hover around. This is a proper sit-down restaurant, albeit rustic and still very reasonable. The fish and the tofu are all made fresh. You can see the chefs add more skewers periodically as they are made in the centre of the restaurant. There is also a wider variety of oden with seasonal items. Since I was here in winter, there was some nice fresh bamboo that had just come into season.

Okame doesn’t take reservations so it can get busy at times but I’ve been here early when it first opens at around 5pm so there was no wait. And I’ve also been here at around 6pm and the wait was pretty short. The trick I guess to time the visits by the hour as I suspect most people don’t linger much longer than an hour so the turnaround in guests is pretty quick. Also most people sit around the counter and the cooking is done in the middle of the room, but the restaurant does have a few table seats. What’s also nice is that they do have an english menu. So although the staff don’t speak english, ordering was very easy (just point at the item in the menu).

Okame doesn’t have a website but there is a short description and contact info from Time Out . This is a pretty traditional and typical eatery, so if I recall, smoking is allowed and the restaurant doesn’t take credit cards. However, it’s pretty reasonable at around JPY4,000 per person including beer.