Daikichi Restaurant

Atmosphere: Daikichi is a small, intimate bar-restaurant with an abundant aroma of family cooking, where the owner, well-known among the local Japanese community, is on hand to help you fathom the restaurant’s offerings. If you’re alone, then sit by the bar at the entrance; otherwise, head downstairs to where a maximum of 25 people can be seated in booths.
There’s no special furniture or fancy decoration, but the place does have a distinctly Japanese feel. Reservation is recommended in the evening.
The chef and owner is a businessman turned restaurateur, who took advantage of Japan’s recently introduced early retirement scheme, opening the Daikichi two and a half years ago.

Whom to take: Most of the clientele are Japanese businessmen, a promising sign in itself. It serves very good lunch menus that are typical of Japanese pubs in Japan. Take friends or business acquaintances who want to get to know Japanese family cooking, or Japanese people nostalgic for the genuine cuisine of their homeland.

What we ate: People come here to try the set lunch menus, while often adding extra items that are good for sharing with your fellow diners. The set menu means a main dish with rice and miso soup.
As main dishes we tried the spicy pork in ginger (shougayaki), Japanese pork cutlet with rice (katsudon), and tuna fish (zukedon – a variation of standard sushi). There are also mixed fried meats or curried cutlet (katsu curry).
Besides a set menu, it’s good to choose one or two of a large variety of smaller dishes.
The most popular side dish is gyoza, essentially a flavorsome Chinese meat-filled roll, adapted to a Japanese style. Grilled seed buds of soya beans are also an excellent accompaniment. You can also ask for the recommendation of the day.
Daikichi is not a sushi restaurant as such, but there is sashimi – raw fish without rice. We also tried mackerel in vinegar, which came in two delicious and completely different cuts, one from the rich belly and one from the leaner back.
Wine list: The restaurant doesn’t have a large choice of drinks. It doesn’t serve sake, but has Hungarian beers and wines.

Service and value: Compared to other Japanese restaurants in town, the Daikichi represents excellent value for money. It’s a welcoming restaurant with friendly and efficient service.

From the menu Ft

Lunch menus
(main dish, rice and miso soup) 1,600–2,600

Main dishes include:
Shougayaki – spicy pork in ginger
Katsudon – Japanese pork cutlet with rice
Zukedon – tuna sushi

R la carte
Gyoza dumplings (five pieces) 1,000
Grilled seed buds of soya beans 1,200
Mackerel in vinegar 1,400

Drinks
Draft Dreher beer (0.5 l) 600
Légli Ottó királyleányka 3,000

The Reviewer
When he’s not running Tateyama Laboratory Hungary Kft, a research operation set up by Japanese holding the Tateyama Kagaku Group, Tsuneo Morita likes to engage in a different type of running.
A regular participant in foot races, he is also an avid tennis player, as well as a keen cooker of Japanese food and fish dishes.
Tateyama’s latest creation is a face detection system – a computer-based video surveillance system that detects and captures facial images from a live video source.
The solution was developed initially for the Japanese market, though in principal any firm can acquire it.
Tateyama’s solutions typically use complex software to allow low-cost cameras to monitor homes, businesses and employees via the internet or over a 3G network in Japan.
From 1988 to 1990, Morita was economic advisor to the Japanese Embassy in Budapest, and then worked as research advisor to Nomura Research Institute, covering Central and Eastern Europe and Russia while based in Budapest.
Before he came to Hungary, Morita published books and papers on the subject of transition economies.
He speaks both Hungarian and English to a conversational level. He has also translated a number of Hungarian economic books into Japanese.



District 1, Mészáros u. 64
Tel: 225-3965
Open daily, noon–3 p.m.,
6 p.m.–10 p.m.
(closed Monday)
Cash only




By Robert Smyth

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