Monja Kura

This place is amazing! As we were clearly foreigners they asked if we wanted an English menu and even came out and cooking it so we didn’t ruin our monja experience! Very friendly staff

- Michael Ruger -

I've never had a monja before, an Osaka dish- it is a soft, creamy and egggy version of okonomiyaki that you cook on a very hot grill. A little of the runny sauce is poured in to cook with the cabbage and only after the vegetable mixture is well cooked, you create a well in the middle of the pancake and pour the rest of the sauce in, mix it proper, simmering until it the sauce caramelises. The result is a pancake that varies in texture as it continues to cook while you eat and the caramel egg sauce becomes rich and brittle, which you keep scraping more and more to get the most of it. It is absolutely yummy!

- Mighty Brown Mouse -

First time eating Monjayaki and I came here after some Google reviews on this place. No English menu here but I managed to order 1 that sounds nice according to my companion's translation. Apparently their mixed seafood house special is recommended but we ordered their doria sauce pork monjayaki with added on cheese. Lady waitress was helpful to teach us how to cook it and how to eat. Food was good.

- kayyi wong -

Good Monja (think okonomiyaki but soupey), decent portion, good ingredients. The restaurant is super smokey, but they give you a plastic bag to put your jacket in (I still left smelling like Monja). The price was about 1400円 per bowl. Good service, but very loud restaurant.

- K R A -

Since we are at Toyosu area (@teamlab.planets ) and need to get back to Shinjuku, we decided to try out a Tokyo specialty (Monjayaki) at Tsukishima Monja Street. For those people that are unfamiliar with Monjayaki, this is a much lesser known cousin of the Okonomiyaki which originates from Osaka. Okonomiyaki has a thick batter loaded with cabbage and ingredients mixed together. Whereas Monjayaki is from Tokyo and it is a thinner, runnier batter and melt-in-your mouth texture. The ingredients need to be chopped finely as it needs to blend in with the batter. We went to this restaurant Kura which is recommended highly in Tabelog. There is no English menu and the young waitress serving us does not speak English. Youngest one to the rescue again as she conversed with her basic Japanese at least enough for us to order, to request help from the waitress to help us cook the food. So if you are trying this restaurant, come with someone that at least speaks and understands basic Japanese. There are many other monjayaki restaurants along the street so don’t worry if you need to look for alternatives. Food verdict, first time trying monjayaki and the dish is like a “failed” pancake experience. The mixture which is cooked is still runny and we were given small personal spatulas that are meant for us to scrap off bite sized portions and eat them off the spatulas. Hmmm, the texture really need some getting use to. We also ordered something familiar - yakisoba (Japanese fried noodles) and okonomiyaki. When we observed the other customers eating the monjayaki, it seems that the technique is to scrap off a small portion, then reverse the spatula and pressed the unburnt portion into the hotplate to sizzle it before popping in the the mouth. Hmmm… Will try this again.

- Yoong Hwee See -

This is a cook your own pancake place. No free eating. This is a part of the fun here. Surprisingly tasty! It's very simple - flour, starch, dashi soup, and cabbage, tenkasu, with small bits of squid, ginger, etc. They have lots of options, but the basic one is the best to enjoy the simple taste of this savory pancake. The soup stock is already salty, and they can reduce the salt in the dashi stock, because there are tons of condiments on the table, and it would be just as well to add flavors when you eat it. Don't over add seasoning until you are sure how salty it tastes. But do put tons of Aonori (dried seaweed flakes). I also enjoyed the Yakisoba, a pan fried noodle. This, too, was quite salty, so my suggestion is to cook just with the dashi stock, and wait until you taste how salty it is. Against the advice of the waiter, I suggest that you start to cook the noodle first, and 1 minute after that add the top ingredient on the side until it is cooke then mix. Ground pepper or shichimi pepper maybe just enough. If needed, add sauce tsp at a time. The smoke from each griddle made my hair and jacket so smokey, but it was all worth it! Cold beer is a perfect addition. Lunch time today (Fri) started so so busy but by 1 pm, busy stores had bunch of people lined up. If you want to avoid a jam, make s reservation, or, go there by 11:00 or 11:30. There are over dozen like restaurants - I can't tell which is better, but Kura was very good. Don't wear anything fancy.

- Mohri Hime -

If you love okonomiyaki & monjayaki, this place are the best. The food are good, with so many toppings option.

- Angeline Chiba -

Sometimes you do not feel welcome as a foreigner in traditional japanese restaurants. Not here. They have an english version of the menu. The waiter took good care of me, since this was my first time in a Monja restaurant. Very good food at reasonable prices. I can highly recommend this restaurant.

- John Doe -