Delicious Nabe On A Budget

It's Friday night, and you've had a long work week. All you want to do is meet up with some friends, have a few beers, and some tasty food to go with your beers. You look around at the local izakayas and wonder which one to choose. Then you check your wallet and see that you're running low on funds. What do you do? Do you call it a night and head home? Or do you find a cheap and fun izakaya that you and your friends will enjoy. If you are not sure which izakaya to choose that will be reasonable for your lack of funds situation, let me help you out with that. There is an izakaya in Hitachinaka that has heard the cries of many a salaryman and decided to not only make some tasty food, but also have it at a low price. Today, I will be talking about Toriton.

Toriton

Toriton, meaning chicken and pork, is located in the Katsuta area of Hitachinaka. It is just a three-minute walk from Katsuta Station. The izakaya doesn't really have parking, so if you decide to drive here, please park at one of the many pay-to-park parking areas around Katsuta Station.
The Ibaraki Eats Duo went to Toriton recently to celebrate our friend's birthday. We were a party of five and were ready to have some beers. I had heard of Toriton before we went to the izakaya. The two things I heard were that they are known for nabe (hotpot) and that the izakaya was extremely cheap. It was time to put those two rumors to the test.

Inside

Walking into Toriton reminded me of the usual old-school izakayas around Japan. Wooden tables and chairs, posters of alcohol commercials everywhere, and pictures of...wait. These aren't pictures. They are paintings, and they are quite good. There was a small painting of a samurai walking around an American town, a punk rocker eating a yakisoba sandwich, and a snow woman walking around the mountains. I asked the staff who the artist was, and they told me it was the owner. The owner is from Okinawa and wanted to make a sort of Okinawan-style izakaya in Hitachinaka. If you decide to give this place a try, please check out the artwork all around the izakaya.
Our group checked out the menu even though we knew what we wanted to start with. The normal nabe is only 1000yen! Not only do you get a nabe with pork belly and vegetables, but it also comes with two drinks! One beer and the other a highball. The menu does have more expensive nabe selections that come with more options and more meat and vegetables. There are also side items like fried chicken, mini ramen, fried egg with cheese, and more!
Once you finish your nabe, there is another menu where you can add things to your nabe like noodles, cheese, more meat, more vegetables, spicy noodles, and more!
For now, we decided to get our drinks, nabe, and some fried chicken.

Karage with Tom Yum Sauce

Before our nabe came to our table, we decided to feast on some fried chicken, but not just any old fried chicken; we wanted our fried chicken to be spicy. That is why we ordered the karage with tom yum sauce. For those of you who may not know what tom yum is, it is a spicy Thai soup. It is usually made with a special chile jam. I love that soup, and so does Mrs. Ibaraki Eats. More so than I. When she saw that on the menu, that was the first thing she ordered. There was enough karage to go around, so I grabbed my piece. After giving it a try, I have to recommend that if you come to Toriton, give the karage a chance. Especially, the karage with tom yum sauce. The sauce does have a small kick to it, which was nice, but it also has so many amazing flavors to it. It had a bit of garlic and sweetness with a big hit of spice. It was fantastic. The karage was crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. That is how all karage should be. This was an amazing appetizer to start with.

1000 yen Nabe

Our nabe finally arrived, and it looked good. It brought pork belly, vegetables, these circle bread-looking things, and some seaweed-like noodles. The soup was a salty chicken base soup. As far as the bread-looking things go, I apologize. I don't remember their name, and I have no idea what they are. My wife told me their name, and when I asked her to explain what they were, she couldn't. I was with three other Japanese friends and none of them could explain what it was. What I can tell you is that when I tried it, it was tasty. It had a bread-like texture, but it tasted more like seafood, if that makes sense. Anyway, we warmed up our nabe and enjoyed our drinks. We had finished our beers and moved on to sanpincha highball. Sanpin tea is a special tea from Okinawa.
Once our nabe was ready, we dug in. Everyone was loving the nabe, especially the pork. As for me, the soup by itself was OK. I thought it needed a bit more flavor. That is when my wife poured some ponzo sauce into my nabe. That ponzo gave it the exact delicious flavor it needed. This was a delicious nabe, and for the price, it is a price you cannot beat.

Let's make this nabe spicy!

After we finished most of our meat and vegetables, we decided to add a bit more to our nabe. We ordered some gyoza and spicy Korean noodles. The Korean noodles are instant, as you can see from the picture, but they were 300yen, so what do you expect? The gyoza wasn't your typical gyoza. It had a more round shape and the outer shell was a bit chewier than regular gyoza. Adding in our spicy Korean noodles and our gyoza was a great choice. I loved the Korean noodles, and they went so well with our beer. The gyoza was equally amazing. The gyoza soaked up all the spicy nabe soup and made it into this meaty spicy gyoza that was fantastic.
We did end up ordering a few more drinks and a few more side items with our meal. Between all that and the nabe, I think everyone paid 3000 yen each, and we ordered a lot of food and drinks. Not a bad night and birthday celebration if I do say so. The food was excellent for the price. The drinks, though...the beer was pretty small and the highballs barely had alcohol in them. But then again, most of the drinks did not go over 500yen, so I wasn't surprised by the taste of the drinks.

Toriton, thank you for a great time, and thank you for making our friend's birthday such a great event. If I find myself roaming the streets of Hitachinaka in need of some reasonably priced tasty nabe, you can bet that I will be back.

So if you and your friends are around the Katsuta Station area and are looking for a cheap and delicious place to grab a bite to eat, why not give Toriton a chance? Who knows? You might see us there. Enjoying the nabe while I ordered more of that amazing karage with tom yum sauce.
Enjoy!

For more information on Toriton, check out their Instagram page:
https://www.instagram.com/triton_hitachinaka/