The sign outside.

Hinone Mizunone is a mouthful to say.  I’m Japanese and I still have a hard time saying this name.  Hinone Misunone is roughly translated: (Hinone) sound of fire and (Misunone) sound of water.  When my dad was younger, his mom would cook rice in a huge iron pot over a fire.  The sounds that pot made is called hinone misunone.  Sure enough, right outside the restaurant is an old school rice pot.

This is the inside of the restaurant. And that's my dad drinking his tea.

The restaurant looked clean and homey.  The whole place had hardwood floors and wooden tables & chairs.  Behind my dad is the open kitchen/cashier/bar.  They didn’t have a full service bar, but had some beers on tap and bottled.

Each table had a plate of condiments (like soy sauce, Tonkatsu sauce, Japanese chili pepper, tabasco, etc), ice cold pitcher of water, hot tea, and comment/rate cards.  I love the pitcher of water.  I hate having to ask someone for more water.  I wish more restaurants offered a pitcher of water.

My dad got the Hamburger Steak with Demi Glazed Sauce teishoku.  Teishoku is a meal set.  It came with three side pickles, miso soup, and a huge pot of rice.  Cost: $12

The burger was so tender and mixed with the sunny side egg is the perfect mix with rice.  The demi glazed sauce was not to thick nor thin, besides being a little tangy, there was a hint of wine in the background.  All in all, a good glaze.  I could’ve licked the sauce off the plate.  I like to keep it classy, so I didn’t, but I thought about it.

I got their famous Chicken Katsu teishoku.  It came with the same sides as my dad’s meal.  What makes their chicken katsu better than everyone else is the sauce.  The sauce is a sweet and savory combination that brings out the flavor of the chicken.  The flavor of the sauce is very complex, but taste simplistic.  I can find any sauce that taste just like it, not even close.  On this day (Wednesday), Chicken Katsu was on special.  Instead of paying $12, I paid $10.50.

Chicken Katsu is a thin chicken cutlet that is breaded and deep fried to a golden brown.  It doesn’t taste like deep fried chicken, it’s less oily and not as tender.

I love how the rice comes in their own bowl.  Most time, rice is scooped out with an ice cream scooper.  My dad noted the glossiness of the rice, which is good.  He said the rice was washed clean and they probably used filtered water.  And that the rice was not sitting out too long.

All in all, a great place.

Pro:

• Great customer service. Not one specific person was in charge of our table.  They all worked together, which is very common in a typical Japanese restaurant.
• Tasty food.
• Reasonably prices food.
• Big portions
• Menu is easy to read
• Clean eating area
• Not too quiet and not too loud
• Major Credit card accepted