Bistro Ichigen | Sagami-Ono

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At Daniel's Wine Club we only write about places we genuinely love. Good food and an interesting wine list matter, of course, but what matters more to us is the warmth of the people behind them.

Ichigen, in Sagami-Ono, is one of those places. I am not recommending it because it is popular. I am recommending it because I keep going back, and because I find myself telling people about it. The food, the wine and the room are all honest, and behind all three there is the owner-chef, NAKATA Sho, whose company I enjoy as much as his cooking.

A restaurant built around rice and meat

A creative bistro on a quiet street in Sagami-Ono

The full name is お米とお肉のお店 一源, the rice and meat restaurant, and the name is the menu. It opened in 2021 in Sagami-Ono, in the south of Sagamihara, and has been carried since by local regulars rather than by hype.

Lunch or dinner, one quick drink after work or a birthday, the room adjusts to whatever you came for. Restaurants that manage that are rarer than they sound.

Cooking that starts with the ingredient

Terroir rice, and a clay pot

Ichigen begins from one idea: serve food that anyone can eat with confidence. Sourcing and method are both handled by Nakata san himself.

That starts with the rice. The terroir rice he uses is grown in Ibaraki by his own relatives and has won the Minister of Agriculture's award. Seasonal rice cooked with the ingredients of the moment is a fixture on the menu, and it comes out of a clay pot with the grains standing separate and a real sweetness to it. Against the meat dishes it is close to perfect. Some people come for the salmon and ikura version alone.

The eggs come from Ogawa Phoenix, also local to Sagamihara. Knowing where the ingredients come from sounds like a small thing until you taste the result.

The house roast beef is the signature. Selected rump, marinated in his own spice mix and cooked slowly at low temperature, so it comes out concentrated in flavour and still tender. You can buy it to take away too.

Beyond that: grilled lamb chops, lean and high in protein; an omelette rice with real depth of egg; slow cooked eggs with a molten centre. Nakata san trained in Italian kitchens, and it shows in the pasta. The daily pasta is different every time you go.

Wine from around the world, and from the east of it

Where you can drink our bottles

The drinks list is a pleasure in itself. Beer, sours and highballs, of course, plus sake and shochu he has chosen himself, and umeshu. The wine covers red, white and rosé from across the world.

And then the part that matters most to us. Ichigen's list carries East European wine, mostly Romanian. The wines we import at Daniel's Wine Club are on the menu here in Sagami-Ono. Producers you will struggle to find anywhere else in Japan, being opened on a quiet street in Kanagawa. That is a good day at the office for us.

A Romanian red with earth in it against the clay pot rice or the roast beef; a clean, acid driven white with the pasta or the omelette rice. Which bottles are open changes over time, so if something catches your eye, our Romanian wine collection is a good place to look afterwards.

There are non alcoholic cocktails as well, so drinkers and non drinkers can have an equally good evening at the same table. Ichigen has thought about that properly.

Partitions, a terrace, and the people

A room you can settle into

Every seat, counter and table alike, is partitioned into a half private booth. Alone or in a group, nobody is looking at you. It works for a quiet dinner and equally for the kind of conversation you would rather not have overheard.

Outside there is a dog and cat friendly terrace with enough space between tables that a bit of barking is nobody's problem.

What holds it all together is the service. Your glass never sits empty for long. Families with small children, dates, and company parties of fifty all get the same welcome, and they will put together a birthday plate if you ask. It is an easy place to stay longer than you planned.

Getting there and booking

Ichigen is about a seven minute walk from the north exit of Sagami-Ono station on the Odakyu line. Close to the station, but on a quiet street, which is exactly the right combination.

• Address: 6-13-8 1F Sagami-Ono, Minami-ku, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 252-0303
• Hours: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 11:30 to 14:00 and 16:30 to 23:00; Saturday 11:30 to 23:00; Sunday 11:30 to 22:00
• Closed: Thursdays
• Seats: 41, with private and half private rooms from two people, and full buyout for up to 50
• Payment: cash, credit cards (VISA and Master), PayPay, Rakuten Pay and other QR payments
• Bookings: 042-745-5439
• Website: the official Ichigen website
• Instagram: @ichigen_sagamiono

Opening hours and closing days can change. Check the official website or Instagram before you visit.

In short

What Ichigen has is traceable ingredients, rice cooked in a clay pot, meat given the time it needs, and East European wine you will not find easily in Japan. Behind all of it is Nakata san.

If you are anywhere near Sagami-Ono, go. Tell him Daniel sent you, and you will get the best smile in Kanagawa.

Written by BERES Daniel, Daniel's Wine Club