Okamotoya Baiten 岡本屋売店 (Beppu, JAPAN) ★★★☆☆

We are spending a lazy afternoon in Beppu and Yufuin, and first up was an early lunch at Okamotoya Baiten / Restaurant (岡本屋売店), a canteen style restaurant serving Japanese udon noodles, soupy curry and more.

So, this is where they make their onsen eggs, steamed by a natural hot spring.

The seatings are all first-come-first-serve.

Luckily, we managed to find a table by the window with a pretty nice view.

The food menu is a fairly simple one here. A few udon noodle dishes, Japanese curry rice (both served with onsen egg) and their signature Jigokomushi pudding.

Ontama udon (605 yen) – The chewy udon was topped by onsen tamago and served with seaweed and green onion. A pretty decent home style dish.

Mentama udon (715 yen) – Pretty similar to the Ontama udon but this came with an additional mentalko ball for some extra flavors and spicy kick.

Curry and rice with tamago (660 yen) – Jelloman had her favorite curry rice and some shredded meat and green onion. This was fairly tasty although the onsen egg did very little to enhance the flavors of the curry.

Jigokomushi pudding (330 yen) – Of course, this was the highlight of the meal for me as I was never a fan of udon noodles. Not surprisingly, the pudding was creamy and silky smooth. It wasn’t as eggy as I first hoped but the caramel sauce did enough to tie everything together.

While the food here wasn’t something to write home about, Okamotoya Baiten provided a nice retreat from the hustle and bustle of city life and it was a pretty good change of pace for those of us living in a metropolitan city.

Food Rating: 5/10

Price: ￥￥

Address: 明礬３組, Beppu, Oita, 874-0843 Japan

Tel: +81 (0)977-66-6115

Website: www.jigoku-prin.com/sp/shop.htm

Opening Hours: 8:30am - 5:30pm daily