Family Restaurants

The various establishments known collectively as “Family Restaurants” are Japan’s answer to the American chain-restaurant.  Housed in large buildings, often with substantial parking lots, well lit, and sometimes even open twenty-four hours, Family Restaurants bear little resemblance to more traditional establishments.  Given that the traditional Japanese eatery has a nearly invisible storefront, no parking, and rather limited hours, this is a large part of their appeal.  

Family restaurants generally serve a mis-mash of Western, faux-Western, and Japanese cuisine, featuring both teishoku set meals and individual items (tanpin).  The quality is what you would expect for a national chain – nothing terrible, but nothing very good, either.  They tend to be a little more expensive than the smaller, independent establishments, especially considering the quality of the food.  But, given the diversity of the menus, they do make a good compromise for groups with differing tastes.  One thing on which the Family Restaurant has a near-monopoly in Japan is the drink bar – they are just about the only place in the country where you can find soda and juice served on an all-you-can-drink basis.  Family Restaurants are quite popular with high-school students.

Family Restaurants are common around train stations, and on major highways.  They are almost all owned by a few regional or national chains.  Here are some of the more common ones –

Denny’s – Japanese Denny’s is a cut above it’s American progenitor, and it’s one of the VERY few places you can find something approaching an American breakfast.  Aside from that, there is no resemblance at all.

Skylark/Gusto/Skylark-Gusto – A set of inter-related chains, all of which very closely resemble each other.  Skylark features a seasonally-varied Japanese menu, and a fairly consistent Western menu with actual steak, hamburger-steak, and a chicken item or two.  They also have the family-restaurant standards – fried potato (French Fries), kara-age (Japanese fried chicken), and various gratin-dishes.

Jonathan’s – Jonathan’s has a somewhat more extensive Japanese menu than Skylark, and a correspondingly smaller Western menu.  Otherwise, they are much the same.

Bikkuri-Donki – I have not yet discovered whether this is supposed to mean “Surprising Donkey,” “Donkey Surprise,” or something else entirely.  In any case, the menu is almost entirely made up of hamburger-steak.  Hopefully, not made from donkeys.