Adam and Jeremy Say: Richmonders Hate Fast Japanese People, or At Least Their Food.

Jeremy and I used to live in a one bedroom apartment over top of a sewing shop in Lynchburg VA (Google Earth That!) The aforementioned fact is not actually all that important in reference to this story but it gives me a jump off point... because right across the street from our apartment stood our favorite restaurant the Teriyaki House! THe Teriyaki House was one of a half dozen Japanese Express restaurants in Lynchburg that served delicious Chicken Teriyaki, Vegetables, Rice, and Yum Yum Sauce for under ten dollars... it was... amazing.

(Sorry about the image, but I don't actually have a picture of the place, and its not like a restaurant located in a defunct Philly Cheese Steak place has a website.)

Fast forward three years and here I am in Richmond VA where there are plenty of Japanese Steak Houses, but no Japanese Express places! How is it that Lynchburg a city of 68,000 people and 50 square miles can have half a dozen express joints in the city limits, but Richmond a city of more than double the population (193,000) and ten more square miles does not have one? Sure I can travel to Chester or Sandston or Midlothian or even Glen Allen and find sub par Japanese express but I can't get any in my home city... this is just silly. Now my research has only be of the phone book/web variety, but in all honesty I can't find a place that can whip up Teriyaki Chicken and vegetables in less than five minutes... Maybe Richmond has some sort of Bias against Fast Japanese Food... or maybe Richmond is just behind the curve... Five years ago when I was visiting Arizona you couldn't find a burrito restaurant to save your life in Richmond... sure there was lots of Mexican, but none of the burrito places like Chipotle, Moe's, or Baja Fresh that now litter our landscape... so maybe I just need to be more patient or maybe I need to continue to complain until some enterprising immigrants set shop off of Route 1 and makes me happy.