Blue Moon Café

Diner-style Blue Moon Café in Nakamachi offers a variety of Tex Mex and burgers with Japanese twists of the kind you see in restaurants where they haven’t quite figured out how to cook western styles dishes perfectly.

We went to Blue Moon Cafe at primetime on a Friday night and were lucky to get a table. We saw lots of people without reservations getting turned away, but that did not stop people from coming in and trying to get a table.

There can be no doubt about the interior theme. It is all about cars. Not the animated movie, Cars, but car cars. Every kind of automobile brand ever known to man seems to be on display. As well as retro beer signs, the walls are covered with hub caps, branded license plates, beer signs and so many small model cars that I couldn’t even begin to count them. There’s even half of a Shell gas station inside. Blue Moon has managed to create a cozy atmosphere where you can relax and hang out with friends.

My two companions don’t eat pork, so their menu choices were somewhat restricted. What began as a big menu was now down to a few items, mostly tacos. For some reason many of the chicken dishes also included pork. This we found out from our waiter, who without prompting from us, went and checked with the the chef. When the waiter realized that she was in slightly over her head, she called the manager to help us navigate the pork issue. Within a few minutes there was a clear understanding on what contained pork and what did not – it came as a big surprise that even the teriyaki chicken burger also had pork in it… at least that’s what we were told.

Sadly, here is where the good impressions stopped. Although the food came within an acceptable time frame, it didn’t arrive at the same time. My burger came out first, which I can understand because of the hang-up on the pork issue. The portions were a good size and the food was not terrible, but much of it was cold and was both lacking in flavor and texture (yes, it is hard being a trained chef and going out for dinner). On the plus side, my french Fries were crispy and hot, deep fried to perfection.

The only difference between the two chicken tacos dishes was that one came with deep fried chicken and the other ginger fried chicken.

The average price on the menu is about ¥800 to ¥900 for a taco or burger and ¥300 to ¥400 for a soft drink, so you can get away with a dinner for about ¥1400.

Opening hours: Sunday-Thursday 18:00-03:00, Friday & Saturday 18:00-05:00

Address: 1-9 Nakamachi, Naka-ku, Hiroshima-shi
Tel: 082-249-5652
URL: http://www.bluemooncafe.jp/