Roadside Station Otsu

Full of "Karaimo" love!
Let's enjoy the love of "red cow" too!

rice covered with red beef and vegetables

Map of Roadside Station Otsu

Gourmet Information of Roadside Station Otsu

Roadside station restaurant offering generous portions of red beef raised on the company's own ranch

The Akagyu Restaurant Yoka Yoka, located at Michi no Eki Otsu, is directly operated by a butcher store that has its own ranch. The restaurant also raises its own brand of Akagyu beef, which it calls "Kosei-gyu. In recent years, the popularity of Akagyu has made it difficult to secure supplies and prices have skyrocketed, but this is the strength of having one's own ranch. In addition to being able to provide a stable supply of all parts of the cow, the company is also proud of its reasonable prices, which are made possible by the fact that it is directly managed.

The most popular dish, "Akagyu-don (red beef bowl)," is a bowl of rice topped with a bowl of rare grilled red beef and a half-boiled egg sitting in the center! and a half-boiled egg sits in the center. A closer look reveals that it is not only rare beef. The beef stewed in a drizzle of sauce and morsels of miso paste are also casually placed on top. The beef is already coated with sauce and topped with wasabi (Japanese horseradish) to taste. It brings a smile to my face. The rice covered with sauce is covered with the meat, and another bite is taken. Naturally, the shigureni and rice, or moromi miso and rice, are also a nice match! No, it is quite a fine art.

The "Akagyu hamburger steak set" is also good. It is different from a fluffy hamburger steak. The meat is packed tightly and has a sense of condensation. It has been a long time since I have had a hamburger steak with such a heavy weight of the meat itself. I am grateful that they let us eat Akagyu beef so generously!

The best local product: Karaimo (sweet potato)

Otsu Town is well suited for growing karaimo because of the volcanic ash soil of Aso. For this reason, the town boasts the largest harvest in the prefecture. The potatoes are harvested in the fall, but they are first matured in a temperature-controlled storage facility to increase their sugar content before being released into the market. When baked, Otsu's taro is sweet and chewy! The town holds the "Karaimo Festival in Otsu" on the second Sunday of November every year. Visitors can try their hand at digging for karaimo (sweet potatoes)!

Buy this Ripe Potato Potato Tart

Ripe imo" is a type of taro that has been aged for more than two months to enhance its sweetness. The crispy and light tart dough is filled with sweet bean paste and diced Karaimo potatoes. It is coated with white chocolate and topped with apples and green raisins. A set of five is priced at 1,080 yen.

Let's buy some kimchi.

The roadside station is a place that claims to be the "home of karaimo," but for those who don't like sweet things, how about kimchi? For those who don't like sweet things, kimchi is a dark horse in the roadside station's promotion of karaimo (sweet potatoes). Their original handmade kimchi is a spicy and authentic dish made with homemade yangnyom. It is also low in salt. The variety varies depending on the season, including cabbage, chives, cucumbers, Chinese cabbage, and radishes, and the price ranges from 216 to 324 yen per package.

Around Roadside Station Otsu

Showa En for things to do in the area

If you want to have fun in the area

An agricultural school was established at the end of the Meiji period (1868-1912), and the area was named "Showa-en" (Showa Garden) after the Emperor Showa made a visit in 1931. In addition to rows of cherry trees, rhododendrons, and wisteria, 40,000 azaleas of 15 varieties, including Miyama-kirishima and satsuki, which are the flowers of Otsu Town, are planted here, delighting visitors. The best time to see the azaleas is from late April to early May. The park also has a lawn, an outdoor stage, a children's plaza, and tennis courts.