Do you have an appetite that is never fully satisfied with all the small portions Japanese restaurants serve? Are you frustrated by how you still feel hungry after a regular size meal here in Japan? If this applies to you, then you need to head on over to Hitachi city and have a meal that will not only satisfy but will make you full for the rest of the day. The place that will serve you an ungodly amount of food is called Woody.
Woody
Woody is located in the Tagacho area of Hitachi city. It is a restaurant that has been there for many years and is loved by the locals and northern Ibarakians.
The Ibaraki Eats Duo went to have a late lunch on a Tuesday afternoon in August. We parked our car at the front of the restaurant and headed in. While we headed in, I wondered why it was called Woody.
Inside
Oh! Yeah, I get why it's called Woody. The tables, chairs, floors, ceiling, and animal statues, are all made of wood. Very clever. I liked the restaurant right away, especially the "I heart WY" signs all over the restaurant. I do wish they had better lighting though. I could barely see the menu when we were choosing our meal.
My wife and I were escorted to our wooden table and we looked over the menu using our smartphone's light.
The Menu
Woody's menu is pretty big. They have a lot of different dishes to choose from. We went during lunch time so that is the menu section we focused on. Unfortunately, no English on the menu. The menu mainly deals with pasta and curry. There is tomato sauce pasta, cream sauce pasta, and soy sauce pasta. Even though we had so many different pastas to choose from, we didn't come for that. We came for the Woody Mori plate.
When we ordered the mori plate were given the choice of what pasta to choose. We chose the shrimp cream pasta and then waited.
Weiner Coffee
Our drinks came first and I got the iced weiner coffee. The coffee came with a mountain of cream which suited me just fine. The coffee was not too bad, not strong but tasty. The cream mixed with the coffee was delicious.
Soda Float
My wife got the blue soda float. I unfortunately do not remember the exact name of this drink but we both liked it. It reminded me of those tropical blue Hawaiian sodas just with ice cream on top.
We were both enjoying our drinks and then IT came.
Woody Mori
When this plate came to our table, my heart stopped in terror. "This is a monster." I thought. Thank the gods I wasn't alone on this adventure. I had a little conversation in my head with this monster plate that went like this:
Monster Plate: Welcome and get ready to cry.
Me: Uhhh, so what's in here?
MP: Well we have some shrimp cream pasta, a Hamburg steak, and some garlic curry pilaf.
Me: Sounds nice, time to dig...
MP: Oh that's not all. Enjoy your mountain of cabbage and two huge pieces of fried shrimp.
Me: Wow, I don't know if I can fini...
MP: Oh! Here are four huge pieces of kaarage and two sausages.
Me: Please stop.
MP: And what's this!? A bowl of miso soup too!
Me: .......
MP: Good luck. *insert evil laugh*
This was going to be tough but we grabbed some tongs and what looked like a small shovel (yes, Woody gives you a small shovel for all that rice) and dug in.
Halfway
First off, I want to say everything in the Woody Mori was delicious. I was especially impressed with the Hamburg steak. I am usually not a huge fan of Hamburg but this one was very meaty and flavorful. The Hamburg was backed up by the garlic pilaf with curry and they went amazingly well together. The karaage was also fantastic. The chicken was very juicy and the outside skin had just the right amount of crispness to it. The the fried garlic shrimp was also very tasty. The shrimp cream pasta was OK. Not a strong shrimp flavor which was weird considering there was shrimp in it.
Both of us were enjoying our mori dish, then halfway in we started getting the "you're getting full feeling," but we pressed on.
We got down to the last grains of rice and last noodles of pasta and we were both beyond full. I mustered all the strength I had left and finished what was left on the plate. When the plate was empty I felt of jolt of triumph as we both had finished that monster. I was about to relax until I saw it in the corner of my eye. I had not finished my Weiner Coffee. My stomach could not handle even a drop of anything let alone half a glass of coffee at this point. I did end up drinking it and was ready to just lie down on the floor for the rest of the day. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed my meal and was very happy with both the food and coffee. But this was way too much even for two people.
Woody was a very interesting and delicious experience for us. The restaurant is fun, the drinks are huge and tasty, and the Woody Mori plate is something for the likes of people with a giant black hole in their stomach. I want to go back to Woody to try their other menu items. As far as the Woody Mori is concerned, I won't be having that again unless I am accompanied by a small army.
So if you are in Hitachi and have the appetite of twenty people, why not head on over to Woody and challenge the Woody Mori? Who knows, you might see me there, with a group of ten people trying to get through the Woody Mori again.
Enjoy!
For more information on Woody, check out their Ibanavi page:
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