CONTRIBUTED BY KASSIE O’DRISCOLL
Today, Mark was able to take a day off from work to celebrate my birthday (a day early). My only “requirement” was that we ate lunch and dinner at places that we’d never been before. So, I picked up my Okinawa Cafe 2013-14 Book and found a restaurant that was only listed in Japanese. I called to make sure they were open and was happily told, “Hai!” … and we were off!
In the last few months, we have discovered that if you type the phone number of places into the map on the iPhone it’ll find the location! It’s magic! It doesn’t work all of the time, but I will say that it works more times than not. We typed it in and BOOM, it showed up! Try it … I promise that it’s super helpful.
Overall, everything was pretty tasty. I will be honest and say that I did not like my avocado bowl. It had a cream sauce and cheese within the avocado piece. For some reason, and I can’t quite put my finger on it, I didn’t enjoy it. I did love the salad, soup, and rolls that came along with it though. Trust me, I didn’t leave hungry!!
Mark (beef curry) and Kaitlyn (soup and salad) really enjoyed their lunch! I was feeling a little more adventurous and it didn’t pan out this time around. The good news is that I knew exactly what I was getting because their menus are translated.
I’m not even going to pretend that the actual lunch part of the meal is what drew me to this place. In my Okinawa Cafe Book there was a picture of that delicious-looking Oreo thing and I knew I had to try it. Turns out, it’s an Oreo cheesecake and it’s AMAZING! It’s not conventional cheesecake, more like a fluffy, slightly thick whipped cream.
The other dessert, green tea tiramisu, was interesting and if you’re a green tea fan you’ll love it!
Lastly, we checked out the entire menu and it appears that their dinner menu doubles and it all looked pretty scrumptious! I’d love to go back and try it out. The decor is minimal. very cute, and rustic – making for a great casual dinner vibe. I’d recommend this place to anyone looking to try another locally owned, cool spot.
Directions: From Foster Legion gate, proceed straight through the intersection. Pass under the expressway. Turn left at Coco (stoplight), just past Lawson’s. Cafe Natura is one block up.
Hours:
- Lunch 11:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
- Café (which I, assumes, means coffee/dessert only) 5:00 p.m.
- Dinner 6:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Phone: 098-935-1216
I ordered the special, fried chicken with tartar sauce set (1100 yen) and hubby got the green vegetable curry with chicken set (900 yen). Both meals came with rice (or bread), salad and a shot glass of sake-soaked shredded carrot (yum!). My lunch special also came with soup (miso mushroom…very tasty), a small quiche and a small pasta salad. The curry was quite palatable with a subtle spice that snuck up on us; it tasted more like Thai curry than Japanese curry (no complaints). The chicken was disappointing. It came out cold and and soggy; very likely that it was cooked earlier in the day. Which is a shame, because the breading was heavy but had a subtle ginger flavor that I would have otherwise enjoyed had it been fried to order. To make it worse, the chicken was smothered under a chunky tartar sauce which I thought would have been served on the side. Dessert made up for the mushy chicken. We had the raspberry cheesecake. It was light, very flavorful but not too sweet. Despite my underwhelming chicken, I’m willing to try this place again, maybe for dinner.
I would love to know where you got your Okinawa Cafe book.