Metroid Database.com

It's not everyday that I get a message from the site's founder, TJ, but when I do, I listen. Today I got a message from him about this awesome article from Rocketnews 24 about a small restaurant in Kyoto called Benkei Shokudo. The restaurant was frequented by the development team of the original Metroid from 1985 to 1986 - they often had to order out huge batches of food and have it shipped to Nintendo:

"[W]e couldn't carry that much food at once, so we had to deliver it in batches as we cooked, making several round trips back and forth to fill the whole order."

Incidentally, Benkei appears in the credits to the Japanese Famicom Disk System version of Metroid (the listing was removed from the overseas release to provide room for the localizer, Toru Narihiro). We spotted the entry a few years back while watching the Japanese ending - somehow it missed notice until so recently! However, I never figured it would be the name of a restaurant!

I've no idea how they found out about this restaurant though, but they said the most popular dish among the development staff was the pork cutlet bowl. Next time you're in Kyoto, be sure to check out the place! It won't show up on Google Maps, but you'll want the Tobakaido Station stop on the Keihan Main Line. It's right between the train tracks. You can't miss it!

Thanks, TJ, for pointing this out, and thanks Rocketnews 24 for the story! (BTW, here's the original Japanese article, which lists their hours.) Food travel journalism about videogames? Yum!

Until next time...
Captain Commando