Organic Farm to Table Tasty Lunch

Lunch around the Tsuchiura station area can be hard to find. A lot of the places around the station are either izakayas or host/hostess clubs. So when I am looking for a place to have lunch around that area, it can be rather frustrating. Luckily, a buddy of mine who makes amazing rice balls and katsuobushi (bonito flakes), let me know he had partnered with a restaurant near the station to bring a delicious and healthy solution to Tsuchiura's lacking lunch problem. That restaurant is called Dinning Moon No. 385 and they are about bringing fresh veggies and meat from the farm to your table.

Dining Moon No. 385

Dining Moon No. 385 is a farm-to-table restaurant in Tsuchiura's Kawaguchi area. It is a short eight-minute walk from the station. Just go around the city hall building (left side), and you will find the narrow bricked street that has a lot of izakayas and restaurants. Walk down that road and turn right at the pay-to-park parking area that is in the middle of the road and it will be on your left. If you are driving to 385, unfortunately, the restaurant does not have parking so you will have to park in one of the pay-to-park parking areas nearby.
My wife and I had a day off together in early December, so we decided to give this place a try for lunch.

Inside

We both walked inside to find a restaurant with a very lounge-type atmosphere. It was nice and quiet with some music playing on the overhead speakers. I did see some Mexican skeletons around the restaurant and wondered what that was about.
We took a seat at a table for two. I looked around and found that 385 is a pretty spacious restaurant. There were a lot of tables for either two or four customers. I think the restaurant could handle a bit more than twenty customers. It is a nice quiet place to have lunch.

The Menu

The menu only had two sets for lunch. "This Week's Lunch Set" and the "Tacos Plate." (Oh! That is why they have Mexican skeletons around the restaurant!) My wife looked over the lunch set and decided on fish. You have your choice of either meat or fish. The lunch set brought a salad, grilled vegetables, colorful carrots, cauliflower cummin, boiled onions, sweet potato mustard, pickles, and Japanese fried potatoes. The lunch set also comes with soup.
The tacos plate has a choice of minced meat or soy. It brings three tortillas made with corn, organic corn, and blue corn. It also brings soup and a salad.
I should also mention that the menu changes from time to time depending on what vegetables are available and in season.
I decided on the tacos plate while my wife got the lunch set.

The Lunch Set

When the lunch set came to our table, I was surprised by how many things they could fit on the plate and how nice and organized it looked. The vegetables looked great and so did the fish. I was even surprised to find a bit of hummus on the plate which is made by 385. The rice is not regular white rice, it is a kind of healthy brown rice that went really well with the fish. My wife enjoyed the grilled veggies with hummus and the Japanese fried potatoes. I got to try some of her lunch set and loved the pickles, they tasted like they were made that morning and they were not too salty which is a plus. The fish was great. Barely any bones which shocked me, and it didn't have that overly fishy taste while still tasting like it was caught that very same day. I wouldn't be surprised if it was caught that day. When my wife finished the lunch set, she was beyond full. She told me that she could barely move but as we were walking to our car she felt lighter and not overly full. She said that this set will fill you up but not want to make you lie down afterward. This lunch set was incredible and I am planning to have it on my own when I am walking around Tsuchiura looking for a lunch option.

Tacos Plate

Let me say this one thing, if you are expecting Mexican-style tacos with the tacos plate, you are not going to get that. Yes, I know it is called a "Tacos Plate" and it does have a lot of elements of Mexican tacos, but there are a lot of differences. For one, this tacos plate is way healthier than regular tacos. Two, there are a few Japanese-style elements in this plate that change the Mexican-style tacos completely like Japanese-style pickles. Finally, the minced meat is not that spicy taco-flavored minced meat that we all come to know and love. That being said, I am in no way saying that this Tacos Plate is bad, in fact, I quite liked it. It is just different in a good way. I grabbed some meat, salsa, coriander, and guacamole, and made my taco. The tortilla was outstanding. It tasted like a real tortilla without any added flour or anything else. The guacamole was also superb. 385 guacamole can rival guacamole from regular Mexican restaurants. I will say that the meat and salsa were not bad but they needed a bit more. The salsa was very fresh which I liked but with no kick. I think a little added spice to it is necessary. The minced meat was tasty but again lacked that spice which brings out that amazing flavor that taco meat has. They both tasted very Japanese. If that is what you are going for 385, mission accomplished. Otherwise, you might want to rethink the ingredients that go into your salsa and meat. My wife tried one of my tacos and said "It is good! Different, but good!" I completely agree with her assessment of 385's tacos. By the way, for those of you who are not big coriander fans, you can ask the staff to remove it from the plate.

Dining Room No. 385, thank you for having an awesome lunch option in a town that does not have many. I should mention that 385 is also open for dinner but I have yet to visit 385 for dinner. When I do, I will report back to all of you on how it went. I should also thank my buddy Mutou Kezuribushi for helping this fresh farm to table concept come alive at 385. Mutou is famous here in Tsuchiura for making bonito flakes and their family-run business has been doing it for more than 80 years! They also make amazing rice balls which they sell at events and the Village Market Tsukuba.

So if you are walking around Tsuchiura and have no idea where to go for lunch, may I suggest Dining Moon No. 385? Who knows, you might see us there, enjoying a lunch set with some tacos on the side.
Enjoy!

For more information on Dining Moon No. 385, check out their Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/diningmoon_385/

For more information on Mutou Kezuribushi, check out their Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/mutou_kezuribushiten/