Magnificent Unagi

Hey everyone! Happy Early New Year!
I hope everyone had a great Christmas. I also hope that you were able to have an amazing Christmas dinner. New Year's is coming soon. That means soba, osechi, and mochi. All of those are great options. Another way you can celebrate is by having unagi or eel in English. Technically, unagi is a summer food because it is supposed to give you stamina to beat the summer heat. I believe any time is great for unagi. It is delicious, a bit expensive, and something to have to celebrate. Since New Year's is coming up, I would love to have unagi to celebrate the New Year. The great news about that is, I know a great unagi place close by. Today, I will be talking about Unagi Taishu.

Unagi Taishu

Unagi Taishu is a small eel restaurant located in the Nakatakatsu area of Tsuchiura City. Getting to Taisshu is a bit of a pain. You can cycle there even though it takes a while. Driving there is the easiest option, but here is the catch: Taishu has a tiny and limited parking area. Once those two spaces they have are taken up, that's it. No more parking. Even though getting to Taishu is a pain, the unagi is so good that it is well worth it in my opinion.
The Ibaraki Eats Duo visited Taishu last month. We had just finished throwing out our old couch, and to thank my wife's father for helping us, we decided to treat him to some unagi. We drove to Taishu, hung a sharp right, and found the small eel restaurant on the corner of the street. I thanked the parking gods for having one last parking space open for us. After trying to fit my father-in-law's huge car into Taishu's tiny parking space for a few minutes, we headed inside.

Inside

When we walked inside, Mrs. Ibaraki Eats was a little worried. The reason is that the restaurant looked like a snack bar. For those who are unfamiliar, Snack Bars are establishments in Japan that resemble hostess bars. You sit down, drink, and talk to the ladies who are working there.
After we sat down, her fears subsided. The building was probably a snack bar before, but now it is a full-fledged unagi restaurant. There are a lot of places to sit in Taishu. There are a few seats by the counter area, and a few tables and chairs around the restaurant. All in all, I think Taishu can fit up to 18 or 20 customers.
The staff greeted us at the door and brought us to our table. We sat down and checked out the menu.

The Menu

Unagi Tashu's menu is pretty short and all about the unagi. There are three options: Unajuu, which brings the regular size (nami), the larger size (jou), and the largest size (tokujou).
Marukotojuu, which is the full-sized unagi.
Shirakabajuu, this brings two big pieces of unagi. One with sauce and the other without sauce.
Mrs. Ibaraki Eats went for the regular-sized unagi. I wanted something bigger.

Unajuu

This was Mrs. Ibaraki Eat's order, the Unajuu, jou size. Her order brought unagi on white rice, pickles, soup, and tofu. The unagi looked incredible, and everything on my wife's plate looked like it was crafted by a well-seasoned chef. Everything was in its right place, and the unagi looked like it was cooked to perfection. My wife cut a piece of her unagi with her chopsticks, grabbed that piece with some rice, and gave it a try. She looked at me with wide eyes and gave me a nod. That was the sign that she loved her unagi. She said it was so soft and had a rich taste of BBQed unagi. She loved every bit.
I would have tried her unagi, but my order had the same items that her order did, but it was way, way longer.

Marugoto Juu

This was my order, the Marugoto Juu. My father-in-law ordered the same thing. He looked at his long unagi and said with a smile on his face that it looked wonderful. I couldn't agree more. I grabbed a piece of my unagi with some white rice and gave it a try. It was everything my wife described and more! It was such a soft and flavorful unagi. It melted in my mouth and just made me feel all warm and comfortable on the inside. Every bite of this unagi was heaven. I know I had side dishes all around my unagi, but I was so concentrated on my delicious unagi that I didn't even get around to trying them until I was halfway done with my eel. This unagi truly felt like a celebration with each bite.

After we finished our unagi, we were all pretty full and content. My father-in-law was very happy with his unagi and made sure to get takeout for my mother-in-law. We thanked the chef, who was surprisingly a young guy, and told him his unagi was fantastic. He thanked us and hoped we would come again.

Unagi Taishu, you truly make some amazing unagi. I hope when I have something to celebrate, I can have some of your excellent unagi again.
So if you have reason to celebrate or are just in the mood for unagi, why not give Unagi Taishu a try? Who knows? You might see us there. Dining on some grade A unagi and loving it.
Enjoy!

For more information on Unagi Taishu, check out their Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/unagino_taishu?igsh=aDd1ZWljdnNtb3hr

Well, that is it for Ibaraki Eats for 2025. I want to thank everyone for your continued support, feedback, and recommendations. The Ibaraki community is truly great, and I am lucky to be part of it.
I wish all of you and your loved ones a Happy New Year!

Ibaraki Eats will be on holiday for a little while. We will be back with more great places around Ibaraki toward the end of January.
See you in 2026!