Haraheta, a popular diner loved by the community

Haraheta has been in business since 1961.
The menu includes 48 different kinds of meals alone! From katsudon (pork cutlet bowl) to omelet rice, ramen noodles, and sweet-and-sour pork, Harajeeta offers a variety of Japanese, Western, and Chinese standard menus, making it a great place for a large group of people to enjoy their favorite foods.

The most popular dishes are fried noodles, fried rice, Cantonese noodles, and sweet-and-sour pork lunch. We try to use locally produced and consumed ingredients as much as possible.
For fried rice in particular, rice and eggs are grown in Kuriyama Town throughout the year, and green onions are also grown in Kuriyama Town when they can be harvested. The meat for the roast pork is from Hokkaido. This is a restaurant that has taken root in the town and continues to be loved for its cuisine, which one could eat every day and never get tired of it.

The History of Haraheta

The current manager is Hiroyuki Ota, the third generation.
Harajeeta was originally founded by Hiroyuki's grandmother, who was a housewife, and has been in business for over 60 years. Although the restaurant now receives a wide variety of customers, there were times when it was difficult.

There were days when we could only sell two bowls of ramen. There was even a time when the store was completely destroyed by fire. She suffered serious burns, but she continued to work after that. My father saw my grandma struggling in that situation and wanted to help her, so he took over as the second generation and helped her get the store going. So now, about eight years ago, I became the third generation manager."

Ohata Shokudo (the predecessor of Haraheta) at the time of its establishment.

The warm atmosphere of the restaurant has been passed down from generation to generation, and many regulars come back again and again.

After 60 years in business, the children who have been coming to eat at our restaurant since they were really little are getting older and older. We have four generations of customers, from children to the elderly, who come to eat here during the Bon Festival. I feel that we are building up our history together with everyone."

Many of the items on the menu have remained unchanged since the restaurant's founding, but they are sometimes changed to reflect the changing times. He says that he always keeps his antennae on the trends of the times and never ceases to be aware of "what is being demanded now.
What Mr. Ota is conscious of as being in demand today is "history," he says.

I think this is a brand because it is not possible for any restaurant to continue for 60 years.
For example, the fried pork in the fried rice. We don't buy it from the local market, but rather we cook the meat from Hokkaido in our own broth. We have been using this braising liquid for decades, adding and adding, so the flavor of the meat has already been absorbed. It's not something you can copy overnight.

There is no doubt that the deliciousness that only Haraheta can produce, along with its long history, is one of the reasons why it is so loved by its customers.

The secret of Haraheta's deliciousness is "sincerity for customers.

Since Hiroyuki became the third generation in charge of the restaurant, there have been major changes in the restaurant.

For example, in order to stabilize the taste, he started working on a "recipe.
In the past, many restaurants used to season their food by the bowl method, such as "about 1 tablespoon," but it is impossible to provide food of consistent quality with that method. If you don't have a recipe for one person, there is no way you can make delicious food for 10 or 100 people. With this in mind, Hiroyuki decided to create recipes for all menu items.
He also focused on "streamlining work," reviewing the layout of each dish and changing the kitchen design and human flow lines so that work could be completed with as few as one step in the kitchen. What used to take two people an hour can now be done by one in 20 minutes with the use of machines, creating an environment that facilitates staff movement within the kitchen.

In the end, I just want to serve good food to customers as quickly as possible.
I used to work as an office worker myself, so I understand the scarcity of lunch breaks. In order to respond to such feelings as much as possible, I try to balance "speed" and "quality. I am aware of this every second."

He also says that there is one thing he places great importance on when it comes to customer service. That is to "know the customer.

It is amazing that Mr. Ota has a database of hundreds of customers who come to his restaurant or order delivery, including their preferences, usual orders, likes and dislikes of ingredients, and so on. ......

It's one of the most important aspects of customer service that we can provide. I think that's one of the things we can do to serve our customers. So, even if a large chain store or a black ship comes to a rural area like this, we will never lose to them in terms of "knowing our customers. It is not an easy thing to do, and that is one of our strengths.

When I tasted Haraheta's fried rice, I thought to myself, "This is the kind of fried rice I want to eat forever, and I want to eat it every day.
I was convinced by Hiroyuki's story that the reason for this is because the food is prepared with a lot of care and sincerity. I would like everyone to try Haraheta's cuisine and experience it for themselves.

From Engineer to Kitchen Hiroyuki, the third generation to take over the restaurant after quitting his job as a salaried worker.

Hiroyuki worked as a system engineer at a major Tokyo-based company designing semiconductors before returning to Kuriyama from Tokyo in 2010.

Although he had been aware of the idea of "following in his footsteps" since he was a child, he had doubts about taking over the restaurant in an escalating fashion.

I thought that even if I took over, the store would not grow as fast as I wanted it to. I thought from a young age that I should first be released as a fry into the river like a salmon, and then go to the sea to grow up.

Hiroyuki says that he learned many things from his job as a semiconductor designer, which is a completely different type of business.

I think I learned a lot about how people think and what it means to run a large organization from the management perspective. I think I learned a lot about how people think and what it means to run a large organization from a management perspective. I was thought, "How far can a guy who has been doing something different from his field go?

The management and streamlining of operations that Haraheta has been working on are connected to what he learned when he was a system engineer.

I want to be a restaurant that men and women, young and old, can comfortably come in and be loved.

When we asked Hiroyuki, "What kind of restaurant do you want to be? he answered, "I want to continue to be a store that is loved by people of all ages. I felt the weight of his words as I asked him about the various efforts he has made to create a store that is loved by customers.

We want to continue to produce not something eccentric, but something humble but unmistakable, something that we are particular about.
We are not always satisfied with what we offer. We experiment with different heating times while keeping a notebook, and we are always in pursuit of more and more research. I am always in pursuit of new ideas, and I am always impressed when a customer says to me, "Oh, that was delicious! I think it is the best part of my job to hear a customer casually say something like that when they leave. It's a sincere comment.


Once you try their fried rice, fried noodles, and Cantonese noodles, I am sure you will want to try them again! Haraheta's menu has the power to make you want that fried rice, stir-fried noodles, or Cantonese noodles again.
I feel as if I have caught a glimpse of the reason for this in the strong desire and sincerity to meet customers' expectations, and in the never-ending quest for flavor.

We hope that you will try a meal at Haraheta.