About 16 minutes by car from Naha Airport. It is a hip Chinese-style standing bar located on a back street near Miebashi Station on the Yui Rail Line. The specialty is the plump Agu yaki-sai (fried fish dumplings), which are priced at 300 yen for 3 pieces. The Chinese New Year menu is well-stocked, no reservation is required, and the prices are very reasonable.
Naha’s standing bars are divided into two types: those where tourists can enjoy drinking for as little as 1,000 yen, and those that are tucked away in the back streets a little further away from Kokusai-dori.
Even in Naha, there are new type of standing bars around Kumoji and Miebashi that are loved by local young people, and “Makishi Priest” here is of the latter type.
Makishi Priest” is of the latter type, and is said by locals to be a standing bar in the Maverick or muramasa family. It is not located in any particular shopping district, but is a standing bar with a unique character that is tucked away on a back street.
It is a standing bar that specializes in Chinese food and attracts almost no tourists.
It is located in Makishi in Naha, but the fact that they added “Priest” to the name and gave it the same name as a reggae band of yesteryear made it a very witty place.
Is it my own wish that the restaurant’s background music should be Maxi Priest?
Located on the first floor of a building, the restaurant has an inorganic concrete exterior.
It looks like the entrance to a bar or a club, but the fact that it serves Chinese food is unexpected and interesting.
Point 2: What’s on the “Makishi Priest” menu?
Makishi Priest’s best seller is the thick, plump “Agu Yaki-sai” (fried fish dumplings).
Sometimes, as shown in the photo, the restaurant adds a different twist by topping it with ume (plum) and yam kelp, but usually the “Choice of Three Kinds” (pak choi, shrimp, and jalapeno) is the most popular.
Other dishes such as fried rice filled with a variety of ingredients, fresh chinja-roe soup, mapo tofu, and yodereki chicken give the restaurant a “trendy Machu-Chuka” atmosphere! The fried rice was served on an Einstein-patterned plate, with the humor of the fried rice being served in the place of the hair.
The logo on the glass with “Maxi Priest” printed in a retro font is also unique!
The restaurant is a stand-up bar, so people who do not drink alcohol but only eat are welcome. We don’t ask for reservations.
We are happy that you can just wander in, have a bite to eat, and go home! The prices are unbelievably low, and even the most expensive dish, the “Steamed Pork Belly with Vegetables” is only 770 yen (including tax)!
Point 3: What else is on the menu at Makishi Priest?
Makishi Priest” offers a full lineup of Chinese dishes, but also offers many other izakaya (Japanese-style pub) dishes such as potato saba, mushroom and cheese snacks, Szechuan-style torikara, beef stew, and more.
We especially recommend the prosciutto mousse monaka, a bear-shaped monaka filled with prosciutto ham that has a cute visual appeal!
Makishi Priest” looks like a bar or a club, but it turns out that you don’t need a reservation to enjoy yourself here.
Above all, the people at the restaurant are very attentive to making their customers happy! I would definitely like to drop by there again.
