Arguably the oldest Japanese restaurant in Champaign-Urbana, Kamakura has been around for a long time. About fifteen years ago it was a small stand-alone hole-in-wall place over on Philo Road where CVS is now located. Back then the rule of thumb about sushi was never to order any of the discount sushi from Monday to Wednesday because the fish wasn’t fresh.
Almost twenty years later things have changed with the advent of flash frozen fish filets and other fresh seafoods ready for our consumption. Since then Kamakura has moved from their original location to the new one on Neil in Champaign.
What makes Kamakura unique among all the Japanese restaurants in C-U are Japanese ownership (versus the predominantly Korean owned places around town) and a teppan grill, a la Benihana.
The last time we were at Kamakura, my #1 dining partner had a rather bad reaction to the naruto he had with his udon, which was at least two years ago. This time there was no such thing as we went there for our annual pre-Christmas meal.
Shrimp and scallop tempura at Kamakura Japanese Restaurant
The tempura were acceptable, although the shrimp were quite small.
Ramen at Kamakura Japanese Restaurant
#1DP ate his ramen, although his only complaint was that it smelt like pee. No comment from me.
Tonkatsu dinner bento box at Kamakura Japanese Restaurant
My meal was the tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet) dinner bento (meal in a box). There were a lot of food – soup to start, a salad, tempura, steamed veggies, the cutlet itself, rice, and sushi (see below). A few down sides were an over peppered fried rice, no sauce for the tempura or tonkatsu, and the salad not being well covered by dressing.
Inigiri from Kamakura Japanese Restaurant
One of the things I don’t like about Kamakura (or any other place with teppan in general) is the poor ventilation. Diners may come out of the place smelling a bit like the grill. For all we had the price was rather affordable. If we can’t make it to Yellowfin, Kamakura is a good second choice.
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