Leo's Japan Food Blog

Great Eating in Kanazawa, Part 4 of 4

2012-02-04T22:00:00.000-08:00

Restaurant: Yumeri / ゆめり
Neighborhood: Kanazawa behind the Rifare Building / 金沢市　リファレビルの後ろ
Style: Japanese / 和食
Website: http://www.ne.jp/asahi/ajiraku/yumeri/

My friend Yasuko had suggested two places right away to eat.Itaru was the first, but Yumeri was the second, and on my last night in KanazawaI managed to get reservations here (which are always suggested, it's quiteoften booked). Just like you would hope, my last meal in Kanazawa wasthe very best!

Yumeri was started by a chef who previously trained at Itaru, so it alsois a Japanese restaurant emphasizing seafood.Accordingly, for the third night in a row we started out with the sashimi moriawase, and it was the capper of all the great sushi I hadin Kanazawa (and once again the buri was probably the single best).We followed that up with quite a variety of other seafood, basedmostly on the chef's recommendations, and every single dish was fantastic.

The atmosphere here is generally more upscale than Itaru or Hirosaka-tei and the prices are also somewhat higher;although we didn't have much to drink it still came to over 6000 yen per person.Still, it was a great deal for a sumptuous meal.

Yumeri is very conveniently located if you're around the station area.Follow the main road heading SE away from the station, and in less thanfive minutes you'll come to a huge building called Rifare; Yumeri is on thestreet behind Rifare. There's no particular English menu or English speakershere, so be sure to have a Japanese speaker with you (especially so you canask the chef about tonight's recommendations!).

Great Eating in Kanazawa, Part 3 of 4

2012-02-04T21:43:00.000-08:00

Restaurant: Mojo Cafe / Kopi Gallery
Neighborhood: Near Kenrokuen in Kanazawa / 金沢市、兼六園に近い
Style: Western-style Coffeeshop
Website: None but there's a tabelog or the owner's blog

Quite different from the very Japanese food I was eating in the eveningwas the pleasant afternoons at Cafe Mojo. I wish there was a cafe likethis in my neighborhood in Tokyo!

Cafe Mojo is a very mellow coffeeshop. It's shockingly large for aJapanese business, with open-plan seating featuring a lot of overstuffedchairs and couches. The coffee is very good, but the clear winner hereis the scones: real homemade, crumbly scones served with clotted creamand organic jam. The Queene Anne in Victoria doesn't really do it anybetter than this!

From Kanazawa Jan 2012

The cafe also has free WiFi, which is rare in Japan, so this cafe is adefinite must-go place for the traveler. The owner (who is usually thesole employee) speaks perfect English, and the menu is largely bilingualanyway, so a lot of the local foreigner community will stop by here inthe afternoon if they can.

This cafe is an easy 5-minute walk from Kenrokuen Garden Ishikawa-mon,but it's not labelled with a big sign. If you have Google Maps here's a link; otherwise, when you come out of Ishikawa-mon, walk down thehill to the large intersection, cross the street to the police box,and walk around the left side of the police box and up the street.The cafe is just after a parking lot on the right, andfrom the outside it looks like a retail store or something.

This is a lunch + afternoon sort of place, open Wed-Sun 11am-5pm.

Great Eating in Kanazawa, Part 2 of 4

2012-02-04T21:28:00.000-08:00

Restaurant: Hirosaka-tei / ヒロサカ亭
Neighborhood: Katamachi in Kanazawa / 金沢市片町
Style: Izakaya
Website: http://www.hirosaka.com/index1.html

The second day I explored off on my own.There actually is a very nice Kanazawa page on Wikitravelwhich is a good read if you're heading there.I picked Hirosaka-tei out of the mid-range section and checked it out.

It was another great night of eating! The highlights here werethe sashimi moriawase (again) and the tempura.The place doesn't have an English menu but the owner speaksexcellent English having lived in the US for many years, soif you don't speak Japanese feel free to go here but be sure tosit at the counter where the owner can help you out himself.

I continued trying the local nihonshu here with Kagatobi / 加賀鳶, a nicemedium-dry sake with a lot of fruitiness.

Hirosaka-tei is just a touch cheaper than Itaru, at about 4000 to 4500 yen per person.The (weeknight) when I was there, it wasn't busy so I had a greattime chatting with the owner and waitress in Japanese.

Great Eating in Kanazawa, Part 1 of 4

2012-02-04T21:26:00.000-08:00

Restaurant: Itaru / いたる
Neighborhood: Kanazawa, near Kenrokuen and the 21st Century Museum / 金沢市
Style: Izakaya with emphasis on Seafood
Website: http://www.itaru.ne.jp/

Many years ago, I studied Japanese in Kanazawa. I've been there in the spring, summer, and fall, but I'd never been there in winter to see the famous Kenrokuen Gardens covered in snow. Just before my new job starts, I made a quick trip to see them (and indeed it was gorgeous).

However, the other advantage of going to the Hokuriku region in winter is getting to eat great food! Food in Kanazawa is always great, but winter is the best time for seafood and so I had three great days of eating out in Kanazawa.

My friend Yasuko suggested Itaru as the first place to try in Kanazawa.Itaru is very popular among locals, so reservations are a good idea; you'll frequently be turned away even on a weeknight without them.It's easy to get here either by walking, or by taxi (unlike Tokyo, taxis in Kanazawa are not too expensive); just tell the driver "itaru honten".

Itaru is the familiar open-kitchen, counter-oriented izakaya format,and the food has a special emphasis on seafood but encompasses the full rangeyou'd expect from a high-end izakaya.This is a Japanese restaurant, so having a Japanese speaker in the groupis essential.

Some of the highlights here the night I went were the sashimi moriawase, which of course included the Buri that hokuriku is well-known for in winter (in fact, I ate delicious buri sashimi every night I was in Kanazawa), Shirako (look it up), and grilled buri. Everything here was really good, and as with most Japaneserestaurants, it's a good bet to ask the chef what's good tonight and order that.

We had a toriaezu beer but after that moved on to Nihonshu,there was a delightful dry sake but I forgot to note the name!

A lot of food and a generous amount of sake at Itaru still only cameout to about 5000 yen per person, great food value.

Homey Cafe near Home

2011-12-26T20:39:00.000-08:00

Restaurant: Mona Records Music Cafe / モナレコード音楽カフェー
Neighborhood: Shimokitazawa / 下北沢
Style: Homey Japanese / 日本料理
Website: www.mona-records.com

Recently my friend Katie leant me a cafe book covering Shimokitazawa and Sangenjaya.These books are available for most neighborhoods in Japan and go through listingthe local (non-national-chain) businesses in a given neighborhood, with a littlebit of text and a few photos of each. When I first saw them a few years ago, they weren't that useful to me, both because they're written in Japanese only and because I didn't understandthe tropes of Japanese food culture as well.

Now, I can generally work my way through the Japanese text and I actuallyknow what a lot more of the dishes are (monjya, agemon, chanko, etc.)so I can actually get an idea from a book like this where I might want to go.Since I live in the neighborhood, I would explore a lot of these placesanyway, but the good thing about this kind of book is that they will findsome places that are so out-of-the-way you would never see them.

The book definitely prompted me to go to Mona Music Cafe and I'm glad I did! Mona is an indie record label, from what I've explored theyseem to focus on acoustic and mellow music. The second floor is thecafe and record store and the third floor is the live space whereperformers connected to the label play.

This article is about the cafe as a cafe though! And it's a great place.It's shoeless, meaning all the tables are low tables with cushions.The overall vibe fits an acoustic label, meaning it's low-key and veryhomey. There's plenty of space (rare at a Japanese restaurant)so you won't feel hemmed in. On a Monday night at 8ish it was busyenough to not be empty but not crowded.

I got one of the daily teishoku (set meals), which by the way is generallythe right thing to do in Japan. It was simple fare very well-done.The main was grilled organic chicken and vegetables, and the great thingis that they were flame-broiled, meaning that the food actually hadcarbonization and the associated taste (carcinogens, yum!).Besides a generous bowl of rice, it came with miso soup, somesesame-oil-laced noodle/tofu, and a pickled root vegetable (theexact nature of which I couldn't identify). 900yen.

It was a cold night so I started with a pot of kocha (black tea)and followed up with their housemade ginger ale. It was nice andgingery, but like a lot of housemade ginger ale here, very very sweet.Still tasty though!

This is a great place to hang out and grab a meal on a cold winter'snight. I'm sure I'll be back.

Nippon Craft Beer Festival 2011

2011-11-09T20:26:00.000-08:00

A little while ago, my friend Dylan and I were at Ushitora, the local craft beer bar here in Shimokitazawa, and saw the information for the upcoming Nippon Craft Beer Festival. I had heard about this festival before but missed it so we picked up tickets on the spot! (it's best to buy tickets for this event from one of the local craft bar beers, like Ushitora, CraftHeads, Popeye's, DevilCraft, or Taproom)

For your 3000-yen-ish ticket, you get a small beer glass and ten tickets. Each ticket gets you a pour (about 120ml, good-sized) of one of the 46 craft beers on tap at the event. Should you want to push your luck by trying all 46, extra tickets are only 250yen, which is a pretty good deal considering these beers all sell for 1000 yen or more a pint. There's also a little bit of food for sale for 1 or 2 tickets each, although most attendees had wisely brought a bento along with them.

The event was crowded, but not overly so. I've also been to the Great Japan Beer Festival and those tend to be so crowded that it's kind of not fun. Here, there was always room to move around and generally you didn't have to wait too long for any one beer.

They had live music as well -- visually the most interesting was the punk bagpiper who was playing when we arrived. One of the craft beer bars put together a band that played a selection of mostly folk music in English, which several of them looked like they were sight-reading (classically-trained musicians slumming?). Apparently they couldn't get quite enough groups since that group played twice, repeating the exact same setlist (including "Country Roads") each time. I'm inspired -- next year our Inokashira park group should sign up for a slot!

Anyway, enough of the event descriptions. Here were the beers I got to try. Keep in mind that this event was full of amazing beers, so even a beer I describe here as "OK" would probably be the best beer on tap at your local. Also, if you haven't tried beers with me, my taste in beer runs strongly to American-style IPAs (very bitter, very hoppy).

Brewery	Beer	Style	Comments
プレミアムビール鬼伝説 (Japan/日本)	赤鬼ペールルエール　カスケード・アマリロ	American Pale Ale	OK/まま
いわて蔵ビール	スモークエール	Smoked Ale	It's amazing to taste the same kind of smoke in a beer as you get in meats or cheese, but I didn't like that taste. / いや
Harvest Moon Brewery	復興 IPA	American IPA	Good but didn't stand out in this crowd / よい
August Beer / アウグスビール	Toshi's IPA	IPA	This is fantastic, but I knew that before the festival. This is the IPA from the new company established by the original founder of Yona Yona Ale. / もちろん Toshi's はすばらしいです。
多摩の恵	ベルジャンウイット	Witbier	OK/まま
OH! LA! HO! Beer	ビエール・ド・雷電　インディアペールエール	American IPA	OK/まま
ヤッホーブルーイン	Yona Yona Real Ale Cask Conditioned / よなよなリアルエール　カスクコンディション	American Pale Ale	OK (Yona Yona is probably the best widely-available craft beer in Japanese supermarkets. Don't hold back from buying it there!) /まま
城端ビール	Dragon's Taste / 竜の味	IPA	OK / まま
Brew Dog	Hard Core IPA	IPA	Omigod. This was the best beer among the tastings at the show, and was my vote for the top prize. A lot of other people apparently agreed - this took first place in the voting. It really says something about who comes to this event, because this beer is correctly named: it is an extreme version of an IPA, with overwhelming Hop flavor and strong bitterness (that's the way, uh-huh, uh-huh, I like it). / 一番のビールだと思いまして、そのショーの一番賞を受けました。
Brew Dog and Mikeller	Artisan Black	Very, very black	Brew Dog was offering 30ml samples of this as a special event at their booth. And it really was a special event, this is an amazing, strong, dark, beer; more like sipping a wine than tasting a beer. What an amazing experience!
Baird Beer	Hop Stoopid		Right towards the end of the show, Baird opened up a new keg to hand out samples of their excellent hoppy brew.

So there you go, a rundown on my experience at Nippon Craft Beer Festival 2011. Next year, I'll definitely try to plan ahead and actually volunteer; but in any case, I'll definitely go again.

One small hint for those of you who (apparently, you're reading here) stay all the way to the end: at about 5 minutes to 5, they declare all beers to be free (no tickets required): "Help us drink what's left!" Handy to know if you really want to get your money's worth out of the ticket ;-).

Do the Funky Cucina

2011-07-17T00:21:00.000-07:00

Restaurant: Funky Cucina UNO / ファンキー・クッチーナ・ウーノ
Neighborhood: Kichijoji / 吉祥寺
Style: Italian
Website: Tabelog here

My friends Dylan and Katie introduced me to their newest find in Kichijoji: Funky Cucina UNO, or as everybody calls it in English, the Funky Cucina. It immeidately shot to the top of the Tokyo price-performance leagues for antipasti-style Italian!

Funky Cucina is a small place off of Inokashira-kouen in Kichijoji; it's just outside the park entrance near the intersection of Kichijoji-dori and Inokashira-dori. We arrived about 6:30pm on a Saturday and were almost the only customers, but by 8:30 the place was filled up so based on your timeframe reservations may be appropriate.

They got started with the o-toshi which was a small cup of yummy Gazpacho, perfect for the hot summer weekend. That and the fresh-baked italian bread took us off to a good start. We were a group of six so we got to try a lot of things but there were three standouts. Counting down from #3 to the top, they were:

The tuna tartare with avocado was beautifully done, and again a perfect dish for a summer night. We got two!

We got one dish Dylan couldn't enjoy due to his vegetarian tendencies: a unbelievably tender garlic-roasted piece of steak (flank steak if I'm not mistaken)

The topper of the evening though, was one where Dylan's previous exploration served us well: an exquisite truffle risotto. If you think of truffles mostly in conjunction with chocolate, this will take you by surprise. The delicate, earthy taste of the truffles is well-matched by the risotto, and how in Japan they can afford to put that much truffle on a dish that's only 1200円 I have no idea. Go try this soon before they come to their senses and raise prices!

In general Funky Cucina UNO is a great value. The wine list at Funky Cucina reflects this: while they have a lot of expensive wines you're welcome to explore, what's amazing is how many extremely affordable and drinkable wines they have. You can upgrade to the 2500円 level after you're done exploring the 1995円 list, and no I didn't slip a 0 there.

The bottom line is that (especially in a group) you can have a great meal here very reasonably. We got a truly filling meal including a generous amount of wine for 4500円 per person (though naturally dialing up the wine list can change that). It makes a perfect capper to a pleasant day spent in Inokashira Park and has the same kind of relaxed vibe.

The master (whose name I sadly didn't catch) grew up in Canada and speaks perfect English, although the staff will prefer Japanese. Enjoy!

Better than your average Japanese Indian

2011-01-31T06:08:00.000-08:00

Name: Dhaba
Neighborhood: Marunouchi
Style: (South) Indian
Website: http://www.dhabaindia.com/

My friend Jin organized a meetup here just as she was running out the door to go snowboarding. While Dhaba isn't a revelation, it is a cut above most Indian restaurants in Japan. Curries are a little spicier than most, and even the Papadams had a bite to them. It's definitely a good option if you're in the Marunouchi area.

そば ^ max

2010-10-27T08:22:00.000-07:00

Name: 香り家 / Kaorika
Style: Soba
Neighborhood: 恵比寿 / Ebisu
Website: None, but see http://r.tabelog.com/tokyo/A1303/A130302/13001653/

My friends Naoco and Nick introduced to this awesome soba restaurant,
which is surprising considering it's right near my house and not near theirs!
I have nothing but props for this place. They have a whole variety of
interesting drinks (an awesome nihonshu whose name begins with kiku,
nigori umeshuu, and sobayu+sobashochu among others)
and a lot of good food to warm up with (the dashimaki was really good,
as was the chicken tataki). But of course it's a soba restaurant so the
highlight was the soba at the end. As advised by our guides we order the
gomadare (sesame sauce) soba, which is thicker than typical soba but
oh-so-good. And of course drinking the leftover sauce with sobayuu
afterward is equally awesome.

After this win-win experience I can't wait for the next place they've
promised to introduce me to, Spoon in Shinjuku 3chome.

The Pie that Mama Makes

2010-10-02T19:53:00.000-07:00

Restaurant: Mama Tarte Daikanyama / ママタルト代官山
Neighborhood: Daikanyama (duh) / 代官山
Style:Pie Shop
Website: http://daikanyama.st/mamatarte/ but http://www.coocle.jp/sh/21499/ has more info

Oops, I realized I never posted about this place. When you have a hankerin' for full-on American-style pie, this is the place. There are a sprinkling of pie shops all over Tokyo, but to be honest, most of them aren't all that good. This place, despite being busy, has a pretty relaxed feel and a great selection of pies. It was awhile ago when I went, so I don't remember the exact items we got, but every piece of pie was great.

They do have non-pie "real food" items as well, which were tasty but very limited in selection, so go here because you want some dessert!

American Brunch Problem -> Solved

2010-09-26T04:07:00.000-07:00

Restaurant: 57
Neighborhood: Roppongi
Style: American Brunch (on weekend mornings)
Website: http://www.fiftyseven.co.jp/

One of the few kinds of food (besides deep-dish pizza, sigh) that I actually miss in Japan is good American-style brunch: eggs, omelettes, pancakes, waffles, etc. I used to be addicted to Hobee's in the Bay Area and although Japan is full of good food there's nothing quite like that.

Fortunately, my friend Jin organized a meetup (via www.meetup.com) for brunch this morning, and although I'm always leery of going to Roppongi 57 turns out to be exactly the brunch place I've been looking for!

First of all, this restaurant is one of the most American-feeling places I've been in Japan. The ceilings are tall, the tables are widely spaced (definitely something that sets it apart from most Tokyo eateries) and there's actual open space on the floor. The staff, although mostly Japanese, reflects the Roppongi setting by being English-friendly. In another clear indication of the western-ness of the place, the chef came out after awhile and worked the room, introducing himself to everyone and inquiring after their meals.

Next up: the coffee. This place serves one of the best cups of coffee I've ever drank, period. Not particularly bitter, not particularly strong and yet not weak like so many Japanese restaurants; simply one of the best-balanced cups of coffee I've ever had the pleasure to pour down my throat. There's only one minor downside to 57's coffee: unlike a typical American brunch spot, it is not bottomless. That's probably just as well, I might have ended up overcaffeinated!

And, I wouldn't the posting about this place if it wasn't for the food. Because we were a large group, we were ordering off of a limited menu and it was still awesome. I got the French toast, which was definitely heavy and yet showed no trace of actual egg bits: the egg was fully absorbed into the bread before heating. The serving was what I would expect in Japan in terms of size (two triangles), but it more than made up for that by coming with two awesome condiments. One, as you would expect here, was real maple syrup. But actually the big winner of the whole meal was the second condiment, house-made applesauce with small chunks of apple and brimming with spices. My fellow diners reported that just being able to sit in the vicinity of the applesauce was a pleasure.

I didn't get to sample 57's brunch menu widely although the fruit smoothies were certainly tasty, so I need to go back. And, I gather they're actually primarily a dinner restaurant. But the french toast brunch was certainly a great way to start!

Heavenly Neighborhood Yakitori

2010-06-15T07:44:00.000-07:00

Restaurant: Kushi-waka-maru / 串若丸
Neighborhood: Nakameguro / 中目黒
Style: Yakitori-ya / 焼鳥屋
Website: None that I know of, but google 串若丸 or kushiwakamaru for lots of reviews

This is one of those places that makes living in Japan special. I was hanging out at another restuarant, the extremely sociable Pampa in Meguro, when another customer recommended Kushi-waka-maru to me. This fellow customer also explained the origin of the name to me: it's a complicated wordplay on a Edo-era historical figure combined with 串 / kushi, the character for the skewer in yakitori cuisine.

My friend Atsushi was up visiting from Kansai the first night we went, and so we met the most infamous part of Kushiwakamaru, the long wait for a table. We waited almost an hour, which is almost unheard of in Japan (rather than waiting, you just go somewhere else). The wait was inconsequential after we got to taste the food, though. Everything was absolutely top-of-the-charts among yakitori-style restaurants and we spent the evening chatting with the couple sitting next to us.

Tonight I grabbed late dinner there which only reinforced what an awesome place this is. The highlight of tonight's meal was the toriwasa, which is raw chicken with wasabi and shoyu. I've had chicken tataki at a number of places, but was little rolls of tataki chicken with very little in the way of added flavoring. Oh my goodness, so delicious. As a bonus, while I'm pretty sanguine about eating things in Japan even if it's raw chicken, but I don't think I'd try this in rural China, so it's a definite Japan treat.

Besides that, I had a salad (the battle in Japan is to try and get your greens), some scrumptious tsukune, anogo shiroyaki, and of course some dashimaki tamago. It's an "I feel lucky to live here" feeling. Kushiwakamaru isn't particularly expensive, even if you eat a lot your food bill will be 3000-4000円 and you can easily dial that down if you're on a budget. Beers are a normal 600円 or so.

Seriously, you can wait a long time here; come early or be ready for a good time hanging out in line.

Let's see, Cheap... Great Tempura... oh, did I mention crowded?

2010-02-18T20:56:00.001-08:00

Restaurant: Tempura Imoya / 天ぷら　いもや
Neighborhood: Jimbocho / 神保町
Style: Tempura
Website: None, but see this tabelog page

I was meeting my friends Suzuki-san and Namikoshi-san from DCAJ for lunch, and I thought about getting tempura. If you've only ever eaten tempura as it's made in America, you can't have any appreciation for the form. And, even in Japan, the tempura you get at most general-purpose restaurants is just OK. The only way to have truly great tempura is to go to a tempura-ya, a shop where they serve just tempura. I was lucky enough to have my friend Scott Frazier take me to such a place on a long-ago trip to Japan, and it totally changed my idea of what tempura is!

A little searching in Japanese found a lot of recommendations for Tempura Imoya, which is in Jimbocho not too far from my friend's work. I asked Suzuki-san about it, and he said it's famous and in fact he had tried to go there before. But, he had only gotten to the restaurant at 11:45am and so they couldn't get in for lunch! He suggested meeting there at 11:15.

If you go there, the tabelog page map will send you to the shop on Hakusan-dori, which is the Ten-don (Tempura Donburi) shop. The actual tempura shop is on the side street just south of the Ten-don shop. The two places have exactly the same name and sign, only the menu differs!

At the tempura shop, like a lot of good specialty tempura places, there's not a lot of choice in the ordering. You can either get the Tempura Teishoku (set meal) which has one each of 6 kinds of Tempura, rice (a generous amount), miso soup, and tea; or the Tempura Teishoku Ebikei, which is the same meal but all of the Tempura is ebi (shrimp). You can also ask for rice oomori (free), which means they'll heap your bowl extra-high with rice (unless you're unbelievably hungry there's no need).

And, as you'd expect from this kind of place, the tempura was awesome! The tempura you get at a specialty place like this is completely different from the greasy, heavy food that goes by that name in America. Japanese specialty tempura is very light and almost completely grease-free (they'll often put the tempura on a piece of paper, and there will only be a few small grease spots on the paper afterwards). They control the batter, the oil, and the temperature to make for a very different experience. On the day I was there, the tempura teishoku included one each of ebi (shrimp), fish, kabocha (pumpkin), a leafy green, a root vegetable, and something else that I think was seafood of some kind.

Besides the tempura, I really have to call out the miso soup. It was a red miso made with a lot of small clams, and had plenty of taste to stand up to being drank along with the tempura.

Finally, like a lot of tempura houses, Tempura Imoya is cheap! The Tempura Teishoku is 650 yen (I don't know how much extra for ebikei, none of us got it). The only downside is that, as you'd expect given the above, this place is crowded. We had no problem getting seats since Suzuki-san and I got there at 11:15, but the place was full when Namikoshi-san showed up a bit late at 11:25. By 11:35, we had finished and people were waiting, so we gave up our seats. To actually do the catching up and talking we wanted to do, we had to migrate to a Doutour around the corner. Nevertheless, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Tempura Imoya for your light, crunchy food fix!

Natural in Shibuya

2009-12-26T22:18:00.000-08:00

Name: Kahemi Cafe
Neighborhood: Shibuya
Style: Organic
Website: http://www.kahemicafe.com/

A few weeks ago my friend Gilles was in town, and since he's allergic to cigarette smoke we were hunting for a place that was mostly or entirely smoke-free. Alas, non-smoking restaurants are largely non-existant in Japan, but I figured that our best bet would be an organic restaurant, since while not technically non-smoking they don't tend to attract the heavy-partier crowd.

I found Kahemi Cafe through web search, and both the menu and pictures looked inviting so we made it our destination. It turns out to be very much as you'd guess from the pictures: a light, airy place with an open feel, despite being tucked away on the bottom floor of a building up the hill in Shibuya.

We started with an local organic beer they stocked I had never heard of before, and it was good if not enough to make me give up on Ushi-tora. The food was mostly the kinds of things you'd expect at a cafe (fried potato) supplemented with a fair range of entrees. Kahemi Cafe is organic but not especially vegetarian; meats were well-represented and most of the memorable dishes in fact came from the meat side of the menu.

It was also an easy place to hang out; we had a good conversation going and the staff was quite happy to let us jabber away (in the front table, no less). As I guessed going in, there were no smokers in the place at all the night we were there. Kahemi makes for a good option if you're looking for a nice hangout in Shibuya.

Sashimi Insanity in Yokohama

2009-12-26T00:27:00.000-08:00

Name: Hatsuyoshi-zushi はつよし寿司
Neighborhood: Yokohama (near hinodecho) / 横浜（日ノ出町駅に近い）
Style: Sushi
Website: None but see for instance http://gourmet.livedoor.com/restaurant/17614/

Sorry for the very long post, but this was just an experience that needs writing about.

Last week was SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 down in Yokohama, and in arranging the week's events, some of my friends (mostly from Pixar) mentioned that they were planning a sushi night. The initial idea had been to take a train to Tsukiji, the famous fish market.

Unfortunately, that's about an hour away, and while Tsukiji is totally worth going to at 5am to see the tuna auction or 7am to eat the proceeds of the tuna auction, in the evening you'll be eating the same fish there that you will in any other restaurant in the greater Tokyo area. So I decided to cast about for a good choice in the Yokohama area. As one does in this new century, I posted on my Facebook that I was looking for a sushi restaurant in Yokohama.

And as happens in this virtual networked world, a friend who lives in Palo Alto California piped up, "well, my friend was born and raised in Yokohama and they recommend Hatsuyoshi-zushi."

That looked like the most promising of the recommendations, and the group had grown to 9 by now, so I called to put in a reservation. Luckily, they could still take the group, and even give us a private room. But then they asked, "Will you be doing a course?" In Japan, it's very common to have a course (set) menu for any group larger than 4 or 5. "Well," I asked carefully, "how much do the courses run?" (one must always be careful talking too explicitly about money here). "Our cheapest course is 7000 yen" came the reply.

Hmm, that's probably more than most of my companions had banked on. But hey, they're visiting Japan, right? "Sure," I said, "we'll take the course."

As always with SIGGRAPH or SIGGRAPH Asia, the day was chaotic and there was some fluctation in the group. Patrick Lin out, a couple other friends in -- we ended up at 10 people. I warned everybody about the course price, which everybody took in stride. We split into 3 taxis, I made sure all the taxi drivers knew where we were going, and off we went.

Well, actually, almost all the taxi drivers knew where we were going. The first two drivers knew exactly where Hatsuyoshi-zushi was (as we were to gather, it's an institution), but our driver in the third cab had no idea, as a result of which he did the most blatant red-light-running I've ever seen in Japan to keep up with the first two cabs. I was seriously wishing I had buckled my seat belt earlier...

Anyway, we all got to Hatsuyoshi without incident and found it to be a old-ish Japanese building. The first-timers in Japan were quite fascinating with the red-light district (love hotel and something that looked to be a soapland) across the street, but we corralled them into the restaurant.

Indeed we got a private room. Hatsuyoshi was a perfect experience for the visitors, in that it was very Japanese-style (tatami mat room with a low table made from one gigantic piece of wood, sliding doors) and yet it isn't fancy -- as I said, many many Japanese businessmen had spent happy evenings there before us, it was very nice but not all pristine and prissy. It also was fun because we were the only foreigners in the place.

We settled down and the first drama started. One of our group loves sashimi and sushi but has a shellfish allergy (allergy with a capital A, as in, he carries an EpiPen at all times). Fortunately, he had the foresight to have a friend write out a card in Japanese explaining exactly what his condition was. For those of you not from Japan, restaurants here are really not used to dealing with food preferences or restrictions of any kind, so when I first explained it to the waitress (who was very efficient, consistent with the fact it looked like she had worked there for 40 years), she got very flustered and insisted there was nothing they could do. I tried to explain that he was happy to eat fish, just not shellfish, but between the general lack of experience with this sort of thing and the fact that the words don't work the same way they do in English, it dramafied. Eventually she said she would need to check with the chef -- at which point it suddently became a non-issue (presumably the chef read the card and said, "oh, OK"). In the end, I think he ended up getting an even better mail than the rest of us, which is saying something.

Once that drama had played out, we got a yummy tataki appetizer and our toriaezu-biiru ("toriaezu biiru" means "First of all, I'll have a beer" and is sort of the default response to the question, "What would you like to drink?"). We were settling in to wait when it happened.

They opened up the sliding doors to their maximum width and brought in not one but two giant one-meter-across platters covered with sashimi.

One meter across. Covered. with. sashimi. Two. of. them. Topping off each platter was a giant lobster (really, it's not a lobster, it's a huge shrimp properly called ise-ebi, which was a word I learned that night) that had had the rear shell removed to reveal the tail meat... and which was still wriggling it's antenna a little bit, meaning it had alive in the kitchen when they started making our platters. They take this fresh food idea seriously.

And it's not like this was cheap-ass sashimi, either. It was a feast. Even for me it was the first time to eat ise-ebi that way, and it was really very good). The rest of the plate was covered with stacks and stacks of tai, maguro, hamachi, tako, ika... Unlike tako (octopus) in the US, which I find rubbery and tasteless, the tako here in Japan is delicious -- as was the ika (squid).

Our shellfish-challenged member -- lest the two meter-wide platters be insufficient -- got a separate plate of fish sashimi only, which included several things we didn't get.

OK, this was a Really Good Thing. So, ten foreigners were doing their best to make their way through all the fish (bad night for mercury content), and it looked like we had a good chance to finish it (except for the compressed loaves of herring roe, which produced reactions ranging from "eh" to "bleh"). And then came... the broiled tai (snapper) heads.

	The platter is so thick, and the servings of sashimi so big, it's hard to get a sense of how much food this was. Look at the pitcher of beer for scale refrence. We had already been eating for quite some time by now.
From SIGGRAPH Asia 2009

While most things in a sushi restaurant will of course be raw, the head of the tai is often broiled like this, and is considered a real delicacy, including the fat surrounding the eye (no need to eat the eyeball itself, the lens is hard). These tai heads certainly lived up to the reputation, they were absolutely delicious. Well, that made for another eating challenge, to work on the tai heads while finishing off the sashimi. At this point, they had cleared away the ise-ebi carcasses, so the sashimi platters were looking less imposing.

That's when they brought in the second round of broiled tai heads (I don't think this was on purpose, they probably just couldn't get all 10 ready at once). Although, I swear, we ended up getting more than 10 tai heads total between the two rounds. We were now seriously worried that we might not finish everything, but we certainly wanted to keep going because the tai heads were so good.

Oh. And then they brought in the miso soup, which was made from the remains of the ise-ebi they had taken out of the room a few minutes before. Nice touch! Miso soup had the benefit of not being too filling and providing needed water (we were continuing to drink beer and/or sake throughout the meal).

I was starting to get a bit worried. Although I had specified the 7000 yen course when making the reservation, once we arrived they hasn't asked about anything. There was a seriously large quantity of food on the table, and I was wondering whether this was really the entry-level course.

As I was pondering that, they brought two 18" or so platters filled with sushi.

We were all seriously in shock at this point. Especially after the miso (miso soup is often a final course in Japan), we thought we would be done (and we would have been full). But no, now we had two platter of sushi to work on -- and again, the sushi was almost all nigiri (only 2-3 rolls), and was delicious, and included chu-toro. And, our shellfish-challenged member again got his own separate fish-only sushi assortment.

Now I was seriously worried about exactly what course we were getting. We kept doing our best to work down the sashimi, the tai heads, and the sushi, but seriously even 10 foreigners could not finish completely any one of the three. I felt pretty bad about that, because it was all great (unfortunately, not only do they not have a doggie bag tradition in Japan, sushi doesn't work out so well with that anyway...). We came very close to finishing each of the three, but there was still some left.

With some trepidation I asked for the check. The pre-meal calculations involved who had how much cash (like most restaurants in Japan, Hatsuyoshi takes only cash), so if we really were on some more expensive course, we might run short. And, of course, there was the non-trivial matter of all the beer and sake we had been drinking.

The check came. For 10 people, it was 70,000 yen -- exactly, precisely, 10 times 7000 yen. Not only was the massive amount of food covered under the 7000 yen course, that course was also nomihoudai (all-you-can-drink). At that point, this was an extraordinarily good value for a sushi meal here in Japan. Everyone stumbled out of the restaurant in a fish coma, amazed at the fantastic sashimi, sushi, and tai heads, and the incredible experience. We were talking about it all week.

Needless to say, I heartily recommend Hatsuyoshi for a group in Yokohama. I don't know what it would be like to eat there as 2 or 4 people, but it's certainly fantastic for a group. And -- get the course!

Get Yer Belgian On

2009-11-06T20:48:00.000-08:00

Name: Delirium Cafe
Neighborhood: Kasumigaseki
Style: Belgian Beer Cafe
Website: http://www.deliriumcafe.jp/

Wow, I'm really behind on the blogging. I went with my friend Manny to Delirium months ago, and had forgotten to write it up until I found the business card today.

Delirium is located in the very business-y district of Kasumigaseki; fortunately, that's easy for me to get to since it's on the Hibiya line. It claims to be a branch of the famous Delirium Cafe from Brussels, which got into the Guinness book in 2004 for having the most varieties of beer commercially available (also 2,004). It's pretty plausible, since even the Tokyo branch has a huge selection of beers.

Most of them are indeed of the Belgian variety -- sweeter Trappist-style ales. It's going to take you a while to make your pick from the beer menu, and if you're not familiar with the Belgian beers they really are quite different (certainly all different from a Japanese lager). I don't remember everything I ordered, but I got a slightly off-the-Beligan-path doppelbock here that was delicious. We were here for awhile so I got to try a couple other ales as well.

Unlike the very light food at most beer cafes, the food at Delirium as fairly substantial. Full entrees as well as the expected euro-esque snacks are available, and there's usually a course menu available from 3000-4000 yen.

Like most Belgian or craft beer cafes in Tokyo, this selection doesn't come cheap. You should expect to be shelling out 800 to 1000 yen for each full-size beer you get here.

Delirium is definitely a more upscale option than some of the other beer bars, with its European-park decor. If you're near Kasumigaseki and want something more interesting than Kirin, check it out; I'm sure I'll be back from time to time.

Magic Spice

2009-11-06T19:34:00.001-08:00

Name: Magic Spice
Neighborhood: Shimokitazawa
Style: Curry
Website: www.magicspice.net

Magic Spice is tucked away near the Shimokitazawa Town Hall, but it's easy to find once you're close: look for the line of people waiting outside. In general, there's not much of a waiting culture here; I'm always surprised by the fact that the default response when a restaurant is full is not, "Can I put my name in?" but rather "Ok, bye." However, at Magic Spice, they don't take reservations so if it's a weekend, you're gonna be waiting a while.

In this as in many other ways, it feels like a bit of a hippy hangover place. It's all Tibetan-themed decorations applied several layers of brocade thick and overlaid with flyers advertising various local yoga classes, and of course peridically they feature live music as well. A quick trip to the website will give you a good sense of the vibe.

But, people wouldn't be there for the decorations alone, it's all about the curries. And thankfully, unlike the canonical Japanese "curry house" that serves overly sweet, completely mild, thick curries, these are Indonesian-style, awesomely spicy, thin soup-like curries bursting with fresh ingredients. They're even spicy enough to give a San Franciscan pause, so don't rush to order the maximum spice level like you would in most places in Japan.

I went here with a group of 7 and we spread ourselves out around the menu trying various of their specialty curries, and every single one was delicious (there was a lot of sampling going on around the table). So take your time to work through the menu (an English menu is available but as is often the case, may not have the specials on it) and pick something, but don't sweat it too much cuz they're all good (you can do the sweating after the curry arrives).

The prices are all pretty reasonable -- I don't have the menu anymore but I recall it was 1000ish yen for food -- and a bowl of curry here will keep you nicely filled up. A couple draft beers and you've had a dinner that made the wait well worthwhile.

Russian Restaurant Rogovski

2009-11-06T19:13:00.000-08:00

Name: Russian Restaurant Rogovski
Neighborhood: Shibuya
Style: Russian (duh)
Website: http://www.rogovski.co.jp/

I can't believe I haven't blogged about this restaurant yet! My friend Sonoko's family are the operators of this Russian restaurant right in the middle of Shibuya as a result of which I've eaten there two or three times. Rogovski has been around for a good long time, so they have a stream of regular patrons but it's still fairly easy to get in.

Russian food always conjures up images for me of overwhelmingly heavy stews and borscht, so Rogovski was a pleasnt surprise by providing reasonably light Russian fare (it helps that Japanese portion sizes mean that you don't get too much of any one thing). I've never actually seen Borscht here but they have a lot of Russian standards, including Piroshki, Chicken Kiev, nd the highly recommended Pickled Herring (I know you might not immediately rush to order Pickled Herring, but seriously, it's good).

If you ordered a course meal (I never have because Sonoko's family is always consulting on the items for the evening) they range from 4000 to 7000 yen, which gives a good idea of the price range for the place. They have plenty of drinks to choose from including various Russian beers and of course Stoli, in addition to the standard Japanese beer on tap.

Because the Chogayas are really enthusiasts for Russian cooking, there's also a selection of Russian mixes and canned goods you can buy to take home. If I heard the story right, the original way that the family got involved in Russian cooking involved WWII and a POW camp. I often forget to think of this place when I'm in Shibuya, which is a shame because it's actually easy to find: it's on the 9th floor of the Tokyu Plaza, in the same building with the Kinokuniya (south exit from Shibuya-eki).

Nagatacho Kurosawa

2009-11-06T19:06:00.000-08:00

Name: Nagatacho Kurosawa
Neighborhood: Nagatacho. Around the corner from the PM's house.
Style: Shabu-shabu
Website: http://www.9638.net/eng/Nagatacho/index.html

The son of the famous film director Akira Kurosawa runs several restaurants, of which the flagship is Nagatacho Kurosawa. We ended up coming here for our big Saturday night meal during the SIGGRAPH Asia CAF Jury meeting.

The restaurant is a spectacular old Japanese building in Nagatacho, the seat of Japanese government. It really looks like its been here a couple hundred years, though that's probably not the case in actuality. The service is excellent, as is the shabu-shabu. Unfortunately, I don't eat pork so I couldn't join in on eating the kurobuta (Black Berkshire Pork) which is one of the specialties of the house.

There's no one thing I would rave about at this place, but it's very well-executed in all regards and is commensurate with the price. Course dinners starts at about 5500 yen and range upwards depending on what you order; kaiseki is also available.

They're used to foreign guests, so going here without a Japanese speaker is basically fine.

Sausage #1

2009-07-22T05:53:00.000-07:00

Name: Salsiccia Uno
Neighborhood: Hiro-o / 広尾
Style: Italian
Website: http://www.kiwa-group.co.jp/restaurant/a100457.html

For our first round of SIGGRAPH Asia Jury meetings, we were at Polygon Pictures, so we needed to arrange a reasonably-priced dinner somewhere close by. As most of the folks in the first round were Japanese, we weren't constrained to Japanese food as we are when we have out-of-town guests, so our first plan was to go to Plates, a nice Italian place in Hiro-o.

However, I noticed a few days before the event that there was a new Italian place almost across the street called Salsicca Uno, and since they were new even three days ahead of time they could accommodate a big group on a Saturday night.

As you'd guess from the name if you spoke Italian, this is a meat, and in particular sausage, oriented restaurant. We had enough people that we got a course, but since they had a decent and decently priced Italian winelist we skipped the 飲み放題／nomihoudai/all-you-can-drink and ordered bottles of wine instead.

We had a good time with a very mixed group. As I said we were mostly Japanese and so was most of the conversation, but there were a few English-only speakers and a fair number of bilinguals. I guess as I've been here longer that's becoming the norm for me...

The antipasti was yummy and the salad was generous, but the standout of the evening was definitely the sausages: lots of tezukuri (handmade) sausages of various sorts. I didn't have any (I don't eat pork) but the assembled crew pronounced them awesome. Advised that I didn't eat pork, the chef Koji Asakura 浅倉　康治 whipped up a beef plate for me on the spot which was awesome. Great improvisation on their part.

Even with wine off the winelist, the whole bill was about Y4500 per person, very reasonable for an excellent night out in Tokyo. And we got everybody back to the station in time for their last trains, even Julian. This place is in Hiro-o so gaijin are no big deal, you don't particularly need to worry about speaking Japanese.

Completely at random, Salsiccia Uno turns out to be from the Kiwa Corporation group, which runs a couple dozen restaurants in Tokyo. My friends Nick and Naoco swear by any of the restaurants in the group, although it had nothing to do with decided to try out Salsiccia Uno! Honest!

It's Italian, no wait it's European, no wait...

2009-05-31T05:57:00.000-07:00

Name: bigote
Neighborhood: Shinjuku Sanchome 新宿三丁目
Style: Well, that's a complicated question
Website: http://bigote-placer.com/

After coming out of Star Trek Saturday night, we were looking for somewhere to eat, and after the usual wander through the entertainment district (in this case through Shinjuku Sanchome) we picked bigote due to its appealling second-story corner location.

Going in we found just as interesting as it looked: a combination of bare concrete and visible fittings, but with unfinished wood tables and a very summer-camp-looking table for six in the far corner.

The menu -- which we initially thought to be Italian due to the pizza and pasta -- was actually quite a bit more interesting than that. We did have a pizza, and they did a good job with the ingredients -- soft salami with mozzarella and ricotta cheese -- but they don't have a pizza oven, so it might be more accurate to call the resulting product flatbread (not that there's anything wrong with warm flatbread with salami and cheese).

However, the next couple dishes we got were non-Italian and extraordinary. The grilled New Zealand lamb was a pair of delicate lamb chops grilled to perfection, topped with a sprig of rosemary and accompanied by a couple slices of braised squash and a healthy dollop of potato... salad? puree? paste? Picking up the chop by the bone and taking a first bite, it was clear this was the hit of the night. Every last piece of meat got gnawed off of those bones, and we seriously considered ordering two more immediately (amazingly, the lamb dish was only 600 yen).

Fortunately, our sense of variety prevailed and instead we checked out the Japanese side of the menu by ordering the Katsuo tataki. Memories of the lamb were greatly dulled as this in turn became the hit of the evening. Raw katsuo grilled oh so slightly and served as sashimi... that's what I was talking about.

Going along with all of that, bigote has not only a very full bar and a set of house cocktails, but a great wine selection by the glass -- seven red wines by the glass, and none of them were refrigerated to boot! (many Japanese restaurants still serve red wine chilled... sigh). After a couple glasses of it, I no longer remember the name of the spicy medium-bodied red I had, but it complemented the pizza and lamb perfectly (it was a bit much for the katsuo, so I had to refrain from having any while the katsuo was on the palette. Of course, the katsuo was so good, that wasn't very long!).

Towards the end of the evening, the owner, Tetsuhiro Ichimura 市村　哲宏 stopped by the table to chat a bit. His other job is a record buyer for DJs, so he makes a trip to New York about once a year to pick up new records, and try a few restaurants while he's there. bigote was specially designed to be hard to categorize: they try to incorporate appropriate dishes from all over the world. I thought they were doing pretty good at it!

So, if you're in Shinjuku Sanchome for a pilgrammae to Sekaido, try stopping by bigote afterwards.

New Hamburger King?

2009-05-10T00:38:00.000-07:00

Name: AS Classics Diner
Neighborhood: Near Komazawa Koen 駒沢公園, in between Jiyugaoka 自由が丘 and Komazawa Daigaku 駒沢大学
Style: American Diner / Burgers
Website: http://www.asclassics.com/

I still love the meat patties at Pakutch in Shibuya (and it's a good deal more conveniently located), but I think AS Classics is the new standard for Tokyo burgers. I had noticed the writeup for AS Classics in Metropolis' coverage of Tokyo burger stands, and so it's been on my to-do list for awhile.

It's a beautiful weekend in Tokyo, so I was out for a bike ride along the Tamagawa. Usually I get out to the Tama by riding out Komazawa-dori from my house in Nakameguro, and on the way back today I noticed that's where AS Classics is. It's right near the corner of Komazawa-dori and Jiyuu-dori, by Komazawa Olympic Park (I have no idea why the park is called that, does anyone know?), so it's not particularly convenient to any train lines.

Unlike any of the other burger places in Tokyo, AS Classics is going for the whole American diner thing, so they have stainless steel and a lot of vintage American ads all over the place. For this time of year, they have a few outdoor tables, which is a bonus. Like most of the customers I saw there, I ignored the other menu options and went straight for the burger: cheeseburger straight up -- I love Teriyaki Burgers but I figured I should give the new restaurant a chance to present their default.

First off, AS Classics makes their own buns, and it shows -- they're oh-so-slightly crunchy on the outside, none of the bad squishiness. Secondly, they've got the fixins' part of a hamburger down: Full slices of tomato, lettuce, and onion come with the burger.

None of that would matter if the meat was substandard, but no worries there: it was well-cooked (medium but not medium well), and super-juicy, which is of course a key for hamburgers. My patty actually had a little bit of not-fully-ground meat left in it, suggesting the hamburger is being locally ground (I haven't waded through the Japanese of the website to know for sure).

Unlike most burger places in Japan, AS Classics serves the burger directly on a plate: none of the V-shaped paper dripping catchers you get at most places. Thus, the plate got pretty drippy by the time the burger was gone a few minutes later, which is always a good sign.

They have lots of drink options, both non-alcoholic (shakes, natch) and beery (a nice selection of American and Mexican beers, plus Budweiser).

The only negative regarding AS Classics concerns the fries. They were cooked nicely, but even for Tokyo the portion is pretty small. Worse yet, unlike the care lavished on the buns, fixins', and patties, they were clearly from frozen: slightly mealy on the inside. They could do with some lessons from In'n'Out about how to make the fries match up to the burgers.

Sign-ing On

2009-04-26T08:40:00.001-07:00

Name: Sign
Neighborhood: Daikanyama
Style: Western-oriented cafe
Website: http://www.transit-web.com/shop/cafe/sign-daikanyama/index.html

Today I went to Sign, a cafe right outside the station in Daikanyama, and I had two things I had never had before, both of which were really good:

A Shandy Gaff is a drink that's half beer and half ginger ale. I've known about them for a long time, but I had never actually had one, in large part because most American ginger ale is too sweeet for me. Fortunately, ginger ale in Japan is usually quite dry, and so when I saw this on the menu at Sign I went for it. On a warm sunny spring day, a Shandy Gaff is just the thing! I'm a convert.

The second item doesn't have a name, but it was great nonetheless: gravilox with potato pancakes. This appetizer was three small silver-dollar-sized potato pancakes, and a generous amount of gravilox covered with olive oil, salt, and pepper, with a side of sour cream. You put a little sour cream on the potato pancake, plopped a piece of gravilox on top, and enjoyed! It all felt vaguely Jewish. The only bummer is that Japanese sour cream isn't very good. It's too hard and not sour enough, some good old Quality Checkd from Safeway would have been an improvement.

Portugal in Tokyo

2009-04-05T16:55:00.000-07:00

Name: Manuel Marunouchi
Neighborhood: Marunouchi
Style: Portuguese
Website: http://www.manuelm.com/marunouchi/

The last night all of my SIGGRAPH Asia friends & Co-workers were in town, Kanako organized a get-together of friends at this basement restaurant. It's a small personally-run place in the basement of one of the giant buildings in Marunouchi, and Portuguese food turns out to be a similar take on Iberia to its Spanish neighbor -- lots of small plates, with highly varying spices.

The standout dish of the evening was the beef stew, which we ended up ordering three times (we were a big group of about 12 by the time everyone made it), but there was lots to love here -- pork dishes, vegetable sides, and of course an excellent wine list.

We would have been remiss if we didn't finish with a glass of port, so I had the Tawny -- pleasure I haven't had in Tokyo for quite awhile. This place isn't expensive for what it is, but that's still to say you're not going to get out for less than 5000yen per person unless you totally abstain from the alcohol. And with a winelist like this, that would be wrong.

Classy Wine Bar

2009-03-07T03:27:00.000-08:00

Name: Acqua Gradita
Style: Wine Bar
Neighborhood: Ohashi (btw Shibuya and Sangenjaya)
Website: None, but I put it on my Google Maps here. Phone is 03-3461-0424.

At the izakaya I had mentioned I loved wine, so for our second stop we grabbed a cab over to Acqua Gradita, since Asami knows the master from his previous job.

This is a very nice wine bar in Japanese style, meaning you come in and sit at the counter where you chitchat with the master as well as with your friends. Every glass of wine is a new adventure, which begins with a negotiation with the master as to what kind of wine you feel like right now.

In truth, the wine list isn't that big -- if there's a group and you have a couple glasses each, you'll start to see the limits -- but the conversation always makes a brief stop worthwhile, especially since the selections mostly change over time.

The master (Tetsuya Fuijta) is pretty English-friendly, but as far as I could tell it wouldn't be right to say he speaks English. Expect to conduct yourself mostly in Japanese here.

Being Okinawan in Shimokitazawa

2009-03-07T00:59:00.000-08:00

Name: Champ-rouse / チャンプル〜
Style: Okinawan / 沖縄の料理
Neighborhood: Shimokitazawa / 下北沢
Website: None but Tablelog entry is here

Before I came to Japan I didn't even know there was such a thing as Okinawan cuisine. Now it's one of my favorite things to eat here! Last weekend I got to introduce my friend MJ to one of my regular Okinawan places, Champuru~ (they write it with a tilde to indicate the last sound is extra-long).

Okinawa used to be an quasi-independent kingdom called the Ryuukyuu Islands until the late 19th century (for comparison, it was only about 30 years later that Japan took control of Taiwan). The culture there has a lot of non-Japanese influence through Taiwan, various Polynesian ties, and China, and that shows in the cuisine. While a lot of the ingredients are similar Japanese food, there are also a lot of different elements (and as MJ pointed out, less shoyu overall). Because of the old name, Okinawan food is also called Ryuukyuu cuisine (琉球の料理).

The classic Okinawan dish is what the restaurant is named after: Goya Champuru. Goya is an extremely bitter melon that's common in Okinawan cuisine, and Goya Champuru is sliced bitter melon with seasoning, pork and eggs (when I get it, I ask if they can make it with fish to avoid the pork). It's yummy and warm, but not heavy like a nabemono. You can get Goya Champuru (frequently referred to as "Goya Jumble" by English speaker, although the word's origin is different) in a lot of izakaya in Japan, but Okinawan restaurants do it best.

Another classic item that's not on the printed menu, but is often available as a daily item, is sea grapes (that's a literal transation of the name: 海ぶどう / "umi budou"). If you don't speak Japanese, write that one down so you can ask for it. They're an edible seaweed that looks like a miniature bunch of grapes. They have a fascinating crunchy texture and are really fun to eat.

The only downside of Champuru~ is that it's a bit difficult if you don't speak Japanese. I almost always chat with the staff to find out what's on special that day and make most of the choices from that (the last time we got not one but two awesome tofu dishes), with the result that I don't really remember what any of them were called. And, the staff doesn't speak English, so it's best to go with someone who's at least at the level of negotiating food orders.

Shimokitazawa is one of my favorite neighborhoods, so I'm grateful to Makino-san for introducing me to this place. If you're thirsty afterwards, be sure to head over to Ushi-tora for a Japanese craft beer!

Down-home Izakaya, in the shadow of Midtown

2009-03-07T00:14:00.000-08:00

Name: Sushi Izakaya Matsu-chan / すし居酒屋松ちゃん
Style: Izakaya
Neighborhood: Roppongi / 六本木
Website: None but Yahoo Gourmet page is here

My friend Jill was in town a few weeks ago and some acquaintances took her to an izakaya she was raving about. I tried to meet up with them but due to some cellphone troubles on Jill's end we didn't connect. Fortunately, I met up with her acquaintances for a night out and we went back to Sushi Izakaya Matsu-chan.

This is a classic Japanese izakaya, with cheap prices no less, even though it's in the middle of Roppongi (it's very near Tokyo Midtown). It definitely is not a tourist place, most of the customers were Sabiro-wearing Sararimen, and I didn't notice any other gaijin at all on a busy Friday night. And when I say cheap, I mean pretty cheap: on Friday night draft beers were 290yen for a good-sized glass; if you come between 5-9pm on weeknights, they run a special for 180yen!

The food we had was all good, classic Izakaya fare like karaage (Japanese fried chicken), agedashi tofu, edamame, saba (mackeral) shioyaki. The standout, though, was wakadori yuzu shozou yaki, grilled young chicken with spicy yuzu sauce. Completely yummy!

The place is very busy on prime hours Friday and Saturday so you might want to make a reservation: phone number is 03-5775-7707. Be sure to have a link to the map as well: this place is really, really difficult to find if you haven't been there before. It's on a side street of a side street, even though you're only 2 minutes from Midtown!

Katsu, and so close to work!

2009-03-06T23:49:00.000-08:00

Name: Daigo 大五
Style: Tonkatsu 豚カツ
Neighborhood: Shirokane 白金
Website: None

So I finally tried the Tonkatsu place near work. Man, I've been missing out! Daigo is a tonkatsu/steak restaurant about 7-8 minutes' walk from Polygon's offices. Their lunch specials are 800 yen for the Chicken Katsu (that's what I got, since I don't eat pork) or 1000 yen for the Tonkatsu. It's the standard Japanese katsu set, with sauce and lots of cabbage on the side, but it's well-done. The miracle of good Japanese fried food persists: even though katsu is deep-fried (that's pretty much what the word means), it's not particularly greasy. You can experience the same thing at a good Tempura place here as well.

Anyway, Daigo is a strong lunch recommendation. I've heard dinner (including their steaks) is really good as well, although as with many Japanese restaurants dinner is quite a bit more expensive than lunch.

Since they don't have a website, here's some more information on Daigo:

Address: Tokyo-to Minato-ku Shirokane 1-25-21
住所: 東京都港区白金１−２５−２１
Phone / 電話番号: 03-3444-2941
Hours: 11:30-14:00, 17:30-21:00

Awesome but pricey coffeeshop in Hiro-o

2009-02-28T20:32:00.000-08:00

Name: Macchinesti
Style: Western-style coffeeshop
Neighborhood: Hiro-o / 広尾
Website: http://www.macchinesti.com/

Macchinesti is a chain of three aggressively western-style coffeeshops, which has a branch in Hiro-o near my office. They are absolutely the most westernized place I've been into, clearly targeting an international clientele. Not only are the menus bilingual, they have this week's copy of the Economist sitting out on the counter!

In keeping with that theme, they have awesome coffee. Besides a variety of espresso drinks, you can get French Press coffee by the individual pot -- definitely the best way to brew coffee. As a fairly new place, the staff wasn't really familiar with the procedures so it took time to get my coffee, but it was as yummy as expected afterwards.

The atmosphere is remarkably western; since you can't see outside very well, once you're indoors you could easily be in a cafe on the US West Coast. Tasteful wooden appointments, light-color walls and ceiling, the advertised WiFi (didn't try it out), and various decoration all make this a great place to while away a couple hours.

Baked goods selection (the other primary criteria I use for picking breakfast spots) wasn't so great. I was late for work on a weekday so I didn't sample, but they had a couple good-looking options in the muffin vein. Overall a cut below their coffee selection. The light lunch options a couple of western women picked out right behind me in line looked more compelling, quantities were in line with Japanese rather than Western expectations of course.

The downside to Maccinesti is cost; it's just an expensive coffee place no matter how you look at it. My French Press pot (kind of small at that) set me back 500 yen and was appreciably smaller than the Starbuck's grande around the corner. From what I've seen the place is usually pretty thinly populated, so they're clearly having a hard time competing with the social-center coffeeshop a few doors towards National Azabu.

Best. Soba. Ever.

2008-11-23T22:22:00.000-08:00

Name: Soba no Mi / そばの実 / "The Reality of Soba"
Style: Soba
Neighborhood: Togakushi Village in Nagano Prefecture, between Chuusha and Okusha
Website: None

As I mentioned in the last post, Himanshu and I were up in Nagano this weekend. We hiked around in a small village called Togakushi which is famous for Ninjas, and Soba. We didn't get a chance to try any Ninjutsu while we were there, but we did stop into a great Soba restaurant called Soba no Mi.

Soba no Mi is by the side of the road in between two of the famous shrines in Togakushi, Chuusha and Okusha. Like a lot of places in non-Tokyo Japan, it's primarily intended to be accessed by car, so there was a lively parking lot. We saw it while we were hiking up the road towards Okusha; after hiking over the snow to see the cedar trees and shrine there, we came back down and stopped at Soba no Mi for lunch.

Like several dozen other restaurants in Togakushi, Soba no Mi makes their own Soba noodles from scratch, in this case in the front window where you can watch from the waiting room. Togakushi soba is rolled out into a big, flat circle before being cut up, which was indeed pretty entertaining to watch. Maybe because the restaurant is not near anything else, they, unlike restaurants in Tokyo, had a waiting list; we had to wait about ten minutes for a table.

I got Pheasant Soba, which was on the o-susume (daily recommendations). It came with the broth in a small iron pot over a flame, with a plate of pieces of wild pheasant meat. You put the meat in the broth (yourself) and let it cook to your taste before ladling the broth into the bowl and dipping your noodles in it. The wild meat really flavored the broth, and both it and the noodles were fantastic to start with. The single best thing in my plate, though, was actually the Tamanegi (green onions, more or less), which were completely suffused with the broth and incredibly delicious. Himanshu had a similar reaction to his Mushroom Soba.

This yumminess was pretty cheap, Y1200 for the pheasant and Y900 for the mushroom. The snack they brought at the beginning of the meal was also a standout: soba noodles deep-friend and seasoned. Unfortunately they didn't sell that at the souvenir stand or I would be eating some right now!

Just your friendly neighborhood Ninja Restauranteur

2008-11-23T21:59:00.001-08:00

Name: Gotoku-tei
Style: Japanese (general)
Neighborhood: Near the station in Nagano / 長野駅に近い
Website: None, but here a Google Maps link to the address:
380-0801 Nagano City, Hakoshimizu 3-24-19 026-234-3277

This weekend my friend from Singapore was in town and he wanted to get out of Tokyo, so we wriggled our way through the JR reservation system to book a trip to Nagano. When we got in we asked where we could get some soba, since Nagano is famous for Soba (see next post). He directed us to Gotoku.

As is usual these days, I greeted the staff in Japanese and we sat down to puzzle out the menu. They then brought by an English menu -- I was surprised since Gotoku doesn't look like the kind of place to have an English menu. When we tried to actually *order* from the English menu, we found out it was left over from the 1998 Nagano Olympics, and had the selections from 10 years ago! A little negotiating in Japanese and we sent in our order.

The food is Gotoku was good, straightforward Japanese food. It's a safe choice if you're looking to eat near Nagano station. But the most interesting part of the trip was when we went up to pay. The round-faced proprietor started ringing up the check, and casually asked, "So where are you from?" Seeing our surprise, he added, "I speak English too! I lived in Philadelphia for eight years." What a goldbricker, he hadn't let on that he spoke English at all during the entire mail. His English was excellent, too - he hadn't lost any of his ability since he came back. We explained where we were from and added we were going to the village called Togakushi the next day. "Oh!" he said as his face brightened. "For the Ninjas!"

"Yes, so I've read," I said. The guidebook had mentioned that Togakushi is a center for the study of Ninjutsu, the martial art associated with ninjas. And so began a long conversation with Miyashita-san about ninjutsu. He had studied many martial arts over the years, but had eventually settled on studying ninjutsu because, he said, unlike the other martial arts, it has no rules. He goes to Togakushi once a week (it's about an hours' drive from Nagano) to study at the Dojo there, run by the famous ninjutsu master. He proudly showed off his handwritten letter from the master, kept carefully framed.

It was really fun to talk, we ended up standing at the checkout stand for over half an hour (I think slightly annoying the other staff in the process). Miyashita-san said that traditionally, only the ninjutsu master really knew who was a ninja and who wasn't; apparently things aren't quite so secret now since his card list three affiliations: Gotoku, a hotel called Yamanokami, and "Togakushi Ninja." So, if you're looking for a friendly place near Nagano station, look up Gotoku and say hi to Miyashita-san. But don't tell him I let out that he's a ninja... just say you're going to Togakushi, he'll know what you mean ;-).

Hawaiian Tsunami

2008-10-04T03:08:00.000-07:00

Name: Dining Cafe Tsunami
Style: Asian Fusion
Neighborhood: Ebisu
Website: http://www.tsunami.co.jp/east

Determined to find somewhere new to eat one night, I explored the streets to the east of Ebisu-eki and found Tsunami because they serve a little later than the other restuarants there (last order is 24:00). Tsunami is a Hawaiian-themed Asian Fusion restaurant (there's another Hawaii-themed bar on the same street... not sure what the connection between Hawaii and Ebisu is though). Normally, I don't consider that kind of strong theme a real recommendation, but in August I ate at the new Roy's in Los Angeles and they're not only Hawaiian-themed but a chain, and they were still great, so Tsunami got a test.

Unfortunately, I'm been slow about posting, so I don't remember exactly what I ate at Tsunami, however I remember that they lived up to billing. I avoided some of the overly themed items on the menu (Spam Omeraisu) and got a salad and some sort of fish entree. Both were well-executed, and the place had a good complement of beers from stateside as well, which was a plus. Tsunami is well set-up for parties or groups, and it does have a mellow atmosphere (as oyu'd hope with a Hawaiian theme!). The entree was around 1500 yen, and beers were 800 yen or so.

Sweating out Tuk Tuk

2008-10-04T02:50:00.000-07:00

Name: Tuk Tuk Italian Thai Restaurant
Style: Thai
Neighborhood: Meguro
Website: http://r.gnavi.co.jp/g405800

In general, Japanese people don't like spicy food. This can kind of get in the way when it comes to Mexican, definitely affects the relative paucity of Szechuan places here, and takes some of the enjoyment out of Indian food; but the time it totally changes the eating experience is with Thai food. If you can't get spicy Thai food, it can't be real, can it?

Last week I tried out Meguro's "Tuk Tuk Italian Thai Restaurant." I have no idea how a half-Italian, half-Thai restaurant came to be, but it's the first place I've eaten since coming to Japan where I actually had food that was so hot, I took the first bite and went, "Uh-oh."

Tuk Tuk is 3-4 minutes east of Meguro-eki's east gate towards Shirokanedai. It's actually next door to Meguro Kitchen Bar, a place I've been meaning to try for awhile, which is why I went there. But I saw Tuk Tuk's menu and concept and couldn't resist checking it out. It is, indeed, a half-Italian, half-Thai resturant; there are full Italian and Thai menus with daily specials off both sides.

I got Spring Rolls (the o-susume salad was sold out), and a green curry. The spring rolls were fine, but didn't prepare me for the green curry. Literally the moment I put the first spoonful in my mouth, my lips puckered, my heartrate increased, I flushed, and I instantly ordered a beer because I knew I would need it! The curry was really good, but what caused the reaction is that, unexpectedly, it was just as hot as I wold expect at a Thai restaurant in the Bay Area. Most Tokyo restaurants are a very much mild experience by comparison.

I don't know whether the Tuk Tuk staff sized me up and brought me the extra-spicy or whether everything they serve is like that, but it was a joyous experience. I ate slowly, used lots of rice, and cooled down with the beer when needed. Ah, the sweat of a good Thai meal! If you're looking for that, give Tuk Tuk a try.

Prices are moderate, I think the curry was 1200 yen and the spring rolls 700 or so.

Harajuku's Mexican Hangout

2008-10-04T02:45:00.001-07:00

Name: Tacos del Amigo
Style: Mexican (if you couldn't tell from the name)
Neighborhood: Harajuku/Omotesando
Website: n/a

Yoichi introduced Earl and I to Tacos del Amigo a year or two ago with the introduction, "There's this really cheap Mexican place along Omotesando..." That highly improbable leadoff took us to a B1 restuarant which was indeed just off the tony shopping area but sported affordable prices and a character-filled, disjoint interior. Unfortunately, we learned they were losing their lease and not likely to be there for long.

That building has since been demolished, but Tacos del Amigo managed to find another B1 storefront to operate out of (right now, there's a sign at the old place -- aka the construction site -- but it probably won't survive the winter). They're now downstairs on Takeshita-dori (they're on the part farther away from Harajuku station, not the intense shopping street part). They're still pretty cheap! Most dishes are 780yen and Mexican beers are 550yen. I wouldn't say this is the most authentic Mexican in Tokyo but it certainly will do if you're looking for a pile of cheap Mexican food. They even have Machaca!

I couldn't find any traces of a website, but you can call 03-3405-9996 if you're lost. They're open 7 days from 17:00, last order is at 23:00.

Steak House Satou

2008-05-31T19:44:00.000-07:00

Name: ステーキハウスサトウ / Steak House Satou
Style: Wagyuu (Japanese beef) steak
Neighborhood: Kichijouji
Website: None but Yahoo gourmet listing is here

Michael Chang, a friend from Polygon, had heard about something called "Matsuzaka Beef" (I think ) that's supposedley a step up from even Kobe beef. He found a listing for a place out in Kichijouji so we trooped out there for lunch this Saturday.

Steak House Satou is just a couple minutes from the north exit (aka "Central Exit") of Kichijouji station, and it's primarily a butcher shop. It looks like the truly popular option for this place is buying take-out from the first floor -- the entire time we were out in Kichijouji there was a long line of people waiting to buy take-out, for upwards of 30 minutes.

The restaurant is an incredibly 狭い (narrow) second floor over the butcher shop. There's no reservations, so the line goes up one of those frighteningly-narrow-and-steep Japanese stairways. I sure hope the handrails are securely bolted to the wall, because they're surely necessary sometimes.

We showed up purposely late for lunch on a Saturday -- the line was about 20 minutes when we arrived at 1:30, but by the time our last party member made it at 2:00, we could ascend the stairs and sit down directly (the take-out line downstairs was still going strong, though).

Ordering consists of picking which level of set menu you want. There are 1250円 and 2500円 lunch sets which provide a really good deal. Matt and Atsu went for that option, which is very good but largely equivalent to eating at a place like Kennedy's steakhouse. Michael and I, figuring we don't get out to Kichijouji too often, splurged on the お勧め (daily recommendation) 5300円ロース set (ロース is kind of like saying Roast Beef, but I think it actually corresponds to Sirloin?). That was really good wagyuu, juicy and rich and a noticeable step up from Kennedy's (albeit at a price up as well).

There's no reason to stop there, Steak House Satou has several higher-end options as well. The Matsu set was around 8400円 and the highest-end set meal reach 121000円. The difference is just the quality of beef; all of the sets come with the same bottomless rice, salad, and beverage of choice. There are also (as in almost all Japanese steak houses) a big pile of grilled bean sprouts served with your steak, it's somehow tradition here.

I enjoyed Steak House Satou, although I'm not sure I'll ride the Inokashira-sen out to Kichijouji every weekend for it. I am, though, really curious about what's so good about the take-out to keep all those folks in the 30-minute line!

Modernist Kaiseki

2008-04-22T05:44:00.000-07:00

When my friend Thierry was in town last weekend, we stopped into Belgo, a nice Belgian beer bar in Shibuya, and met Larry and Keiko, who we chatted with for some time. Among other things, they recommended we meet for dinner later that week at a favorite restaurant of theirs between Shibuya and Harajuku. Keiko's work intervened and although they couldn't join us, Thierry and I took up their recommendation.

Located almost exactly halfway between Harajuku and Shibuya, Setsugekka is a small-plates restaurant, which in traditional set-menu form is called kaiseki / 懐石. Setsugekka does have chef's choice set menus / omakase / お任せ which are traditional for kaiseki, but we chose to order individually. We did, however, heavily favor some of the seasonal choices on the daily menu in omakase style.

Initially, I was a bit worried since Setsugekka has a relentlessly modernist interior. Not the Japanese-influenced modernist, straight out I-could-be-in-Denmark modernist, which is emphasized by the cool 1950s jazz playing. It's also quite cleverly laid out for private dining; it wasn't a particularly busy night, but in fact we saw zero other diners other than a few coming and going. The room is just arranged such that you don't see anyone else.

When it got to the food though, Setsugekka held up the Japanese end quite well. They rearranged our orders nicely into a more traditional form, meaning that we started with a seasonal vegatable dish and then moved to the Sashimi course of a delicious tataki. A couple of the standouts were the tempura course, which had besides the more traditional options a Japanese-specifc leafy spring vegetable done as tempura. Like truly good tempura in Japan (and unlike all tempura I had ever tried in the US), this was barely greasy at all; when you're done eating, you look at the paper that came under the food and there's only a tiny discolored area from oil.

Kaiseki can be very hard on the wallet, but by the standards of that sort of Japanese restaurant Setsgekka's not bad; dinner, including a couple drinks per person (they have a reasonable selection of sake / nihonshu / 日本酒) was around Y7000. I still prefer Kan overall -- but it's good to have another option for that sort of meal.

(report from Singapore) Indian Tapas

2008-04-22T05:39:00.000-07:00

Name: Ghangothree Vegetarian Restaurant "House of Chaats and Shakes"
Style: Indian Street Hawker Food
Address: 5 Hindoo Road, Singapore (honest, that's how the street name is spelled)
Website: www.tasteourfood.com (sweet domain name, huh?)

Chaat seems to be basically be the Indian word for tapas, and the thing to do at Ghaangothree is to ignore all the Indian food you've ever heard of (yes, Naan and Curry are available and not bad, but that's not the point). Instead, key off of the restaurant's subtitle as the "House of Chaats & Shakes" and order lots of small plates (Chaats) and a generous amount of the various delicious drinks. The standout -- everyone should start with it -- is the house special Lime drink. Lime juice is a staple in Singapore for dealing with the hot climate, and Ghaangothree takes it up a notch by blending various spices and thickeners into it to make an amazingly cooling drink for the heat (which, in Singapore, is a constant -- it's 30C / 85F almost year-round). We also sampled one of their smoothies and their Mint Lassi at various points during the meal, which were all awesome (my friends starting joking about my "liquid diet").

But the heart of the meal is to, at your own leisurely pace, order various Chaats. Happily, like True Blue, I spent most of the meal eating foods I had never heard of before; unhappily, that means I don't remember the names of most of them. Pani Puri is the one I do remember unaided: Pani means 'water', and 'puri' (or 'poori' is it's usually spelled in Indian restaurants in America) is a puffy, deep-fried bread. For Pani Puri, the puri is tiny -- only 3-4cm across -- and has a whole in the top. You take a spoon and fill the puri first with a watery tamarind-flavored sauce, and finally with a little bit of spicy red sauce. It leaks a little, but don't worry, that's part of the point -- once it's filled, you pop the whole thing in your mouth and eat it in one bite! The liquid all sloshes around in your mouth, making a delectable taste mix. My friend Himanshu described the result as "an Indian Popper".

Another particularly good Chaat I think was called Samosa Chaat. Instead of the dumpling-like Samosa I know, this Chaat was a small, deep-friend pastry base with various ingredients heaped on top, almost like an Indian nacho in structure. Those went fast! We tried a lot of other Chaats (we had the advantage of a rolling 10-person group to keep various food flowing across the table), but the other category of food to try at Ghaangothree is Indian Chinese.

Over the years the Singaporeans have developed a few interesting mixes of Chinese and Indian foods, and the Ghaangothree it's represented as "Indian Chinese Side Dishes". These are curries, and since the restuarant is all vegetarian, your choices are to pick Manchurian, Chilli, or Sichuan; and "dry" or "gravy". The "dry" curries are pastelike and need a spoon or fork to spread them on your Naan; the gravy ones are more similar to North Indian curries. Either one is good but I recommend the Dry; it's yet another chance to try something different and uniquely Singaporean.

Last but not least, Ghaangothree is pretty easy on the wallet. Even a totally orgiastic bout of eating will only set you back S$20 or so. Take a walk back through Little India to work it off -- we went on a Sunday and so the area was packed with Indian workers on their day off.

(report from Singapore) What rhymes with Peranakan?

2008-04-22T05:36:00.001-07:00

So, I was in Singapore for the last five days and as always when in Singapore, it's about the food. The next couple posts are some fantastic places I ate in the land of multi-ethnic food. Besides these places, if you go to Singapore, be sure to try Jumbo Seafood for Chili Crab or Pepper Crab, and of course any hawker place for Chicken Rice!

Leo
----------------------------------
Name: True Blue
Address: 117 East Coast Road Singapore
Style: Peranakan
Website: None, but you can Google quite a few reviews with "True Blue Singapore"

Peranakan is the word in Singapore for the culture also known as Straits Chinese. In a sentiment that seems sensible to Americans (but unusual in Asia), Peranakans happily relate that theirs is a culture resulting from the blending and intermarriage of migrant Chinese with the Malays found on both sides of the Straits of Malacca, and now settled in Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Peranakan culture has a lot of the decorative motifs of Chinese culture, but incorporates Malay manners of dress, and, significantly, cooking!

On Saturday night in Singapore we went to a great Peranakan restaurant called True Blue. It's located in a beautiful traditional building (117 East Coast Rd. for any Singaporeans reading!) that includes a display of lots of Peranakan antiques and arts. The proprietress clearly kept the house in order as we assembled our array of dishes. Happily, twice on this trip to Singapore, I went to dinner and did not know the names of hardly anything I ate! At True Blue, we shared around about 8 dishes; the only dish I had ever heard of before was the delicious version of Beef Rendang, which was good but not the highlight of the meal.

The standout was probably the chicken-nut dish (like most of the food, I've forgotten the real name). It's made with a black Malay nut, resulting in a very dark brown appearance not unlike a Mole sauce. The taste is as deep a taste as a Mexican Mole but with more earthiness, and since this is infused in a slow-cooked piece of chicken-on-the-bone, the dish comes with a tiny spoon that you use to essentially scrape the chicken meat off of the bone.

However, every dish we got at True Blue was absolutely delectable. We actually chose to try wine with our dinner, but truth to tell the food is probably better served by Singaporean juice drinks or beer. Prices were reasonable though this is no hawker restaurant! The only downside I can list for True Blue is that if you don't have someone who knows Peranakan cooking with you, it may be hard to order -- even though you can read the menu, you just won't know what any of the dishes are! Just ask the staff, who are very friendly.

Our friend David Hook's birthday happened to be the day we went, so we asked the staff and from somewhere they consed up a birthday cake for the confused honoree.

The picture also gives you some idea what the interior of True Blue is like.

Yum! Yakiniku!

2008-03-22T02:35:00.001-07:00

Name: Maritan / まりたん
Neighborhood: Shimokitazawa / 下北沢
Style: Yakiniku
Website: None, but there's a Yahoo Gourmet page

At the recommendation of Polygon's head of Human Resources, Kikuchi-san, we trekked north from Shimokitazawa on Friday night to this allegedly superior yakiniku restaurant.

Yakiniku is the style of Japanese eating with a charcoal pit in the center of the table. The raw meat is brought thinly sliced on separate plates -- usually they'll try to bring as many slices as you have people at your table, roughly -- and diners grill the meat themselves, followed with dipping in ponzu, shoyu, or lemon sauces.

Yakiniku is always pretty good, we actually have a yummy place right next to work with very reasonably priced lunch yakiniku set (Y1000). But Kikuchi-san attested that Maritan was special in that regard, and so we found ourselves trekking north from Shimokitazawa station.

Unlike the extremely nigayakana (lively) south side of Shimakitazawa, the north side is actually very quiet, and it took a little backtracking to find Maritan, especially because we were distracted by the barkers for the restaurant upstairs (Maritan is on B1). They were very friendly and tried their best to convince us to abandon our reservation and accompany them inside their street-level new restaurant. With diligence we pried Damien away and went down to Maritan.

The ambience of the restuarant is, frankly, nothing special; it had the expected four-person tables, that we squeezed 5 around. Drink ordering was a challenge for the non-Katakana readers, but we realized they had a selection of 3-4 French wines, one of which Damien knew the Chateau for. This led to our first disappointment: high-class yakiniku or no, they refrigerate their red wines, like most restaurants in Japan. It took plenty of persuasion to convince Damien not to try and instruct the proprietress in the error of her way (refrigerated red wine is what the Japanese customers will expect).

As we went through trying to order our meat, the proprietress wasn't looking any too happy at having a table full of gaijin in her restaurant. While I can read the names in the menu (most names are written in katakana), that doesn't help much unless you know what the words actually mean (anybody: what is horumon?), so we were asking lots of questions in Japanese, then struggling with food-word-vocabulary to understand the answers. At one point she asked, "Have you ever eaten Yakiniku before?"

We got through ordering various courses of meat and went on to the daily-special appetizer (always order the daily special in a Japanese restaurant): Yukke / ユッケ. Yukke is a lot like Steak Tartare, it's raw beef minced with various spices. However, the big difference is that Yukke is better! It was absolutely delicious. We all uttered appropriate exclamations of happiness, mostly in Japanese, which warmed up the proprietress' attitude a bit.

They started bringing our plates of meat, and the proprietress had decided that as soulless barbarians we would ruin the meat if she let us cook it ourselves. Since that absolutely would not do, she took over and started cooking the meat for us, which she continued to do for pretty much the entire meal.

We got into the main part of the meal: sliced pieces of various parts of a cow. Omigod. It. Was. Good. We actually didn't realize there could be this much variation among yakiniku places, but everything we tried was good: rohsu / ロース, which is basically short for roast beef; horumon / ホルモン, which we think is intestine although we're not sure; karupi / カルピ, etc. We exercised all of our complimentary vocabulary expressing our delight.

The highlight of the mail by universal acclamation was the hattsu / ハッつ, beef heart. It was delicious, tender, and totally came apart in your mouth. We were also pretty grateful for the lady's cooking assistance, since the heart only wanted to be cooked for a very short time; left to our own devices, we would indeed have overcooked it.

By the end of the mail, the now-friendly proprietress introduced herself as the restaurant's namesake: her name is Maritan, and she's been there since the place opened 15 years ago. They're clearly learned how to run a superior yakiniku operation in that time and we'll be back! Big thanks to Kikuchi-san!

After we left Damien went back to causing trouble with the cute barkers upstairs, but that's a story for another post ;-).

Note: The only warning I would have about Maritan is that it's really not practical to go unless you either have some Japanese speakers in your party, or know at least know the various dishes you're likely to encounter at a yakiniku restaurant by heart. You're not in Roppongi anymore.

The Oliveto's of Japan

2008-03-15T22:05:00.000-07:00

Name: Ristorante la Bisboccia
Neighborhood: Hiro-o/Ebisu 広尾／恵比寿
Style: Italian
Phone: 03-3449-1470
Website: http://www.labisboccia.com/

This is a very overdue review of a very deserving restaurant!

Last November I was leaving work on a rainy Thursday and happened to mention to Yoichi that it was my birthday. He immediately rounded me and Matt up and got us a table at La Bisboccia, which is actually just around the corner from Polygon's offices. It's just south of the Tengenjibashi 天元寺橋　intersection near Hiro-o.

It's decorated in the very conventional bistro style adopted by a lot of Japanese restaurants serving European food. However, unlike the typical overcooked pasta places found around Tokyo, La Bisboccia is a superb grill-oriented Italian restaurant. The specialties are various grilled meats -- between the three of us we tried the steak and the lamb and both were delicious, grilled darkly on the outside but still medium-rare to rare on the inside.

Even the pasta side dishes were excellent, it being almost the only time in Japan that I've actually had al dente pasta (I find restaurant pasta here typically overcooked). If that's not good enough, there was a great wine list as well, which typically for Japan focused on European wines.

Of course, this being Tokyo, that excellence didn't come cheap. We had a good quantity of wine and I believe the bill was around 12,000yen per person, and accordingly, Wiktionary translates "la bisboccia" as "the spree". Nevertheless, for a great meal on a special occasion La Bisboccia is definitely on the list!

Delightful Japan-made IPA

2007-12-02T00:28:00.000-08:00

Name: Baird Beer
Style: Beer
Neighborhood: n/a
Website: www.bairdbeer.com

OK, so this isn't exactly a restarant review, but I ended up sampling some Baird Beer due to a wonderful specialty liquor store in my neighborhood. This stuff is awesome!

As you can see at their homepage, Baird Beer is a western-style microbrewery and associated brew pub in Shizuoka. However, they also have retail distribution and best of all, will ship anywhere in Japan. Unfortunately for you California readers, they can't ship overseas (though admittedley, you have other beers to console yourselves with!).

Mexican Party Place

2007-11-30T02:07:00.000-08:00

Name: Zona Rosa
Neighborhood: Ebisu
Style: Mexican
Website: http://www.mic21.co.jp/

We had a party for all the foreign staff at work last Wednesday to celebrate the arrival of our two newest members, Ilija and Aasa. After trying unsuccessfully to arrange a trip to Ushi-tora,
we got a recommendation for this Mexican-style izakaya in Ebisu. It's very close to the East exit from Ebisu station.

While I can't say that their Mexican food will have any North American restaurants worried, Zona Rosa is a pretty good choice for an evening of fun. We got the nomihoudai / のみほうだい / 飲み放題 / all-you-can-drink along with a pre-set course for 4000円, which pretty much kept the drinks and food coming for a good two hours. Unlike a lot of places, there's actually a good selection of cocktails among the nomihoudai list so peoplel were trying all sort of Campari and Cassis options.

Nabe + Sashimi in Ebisu

2007-11-25T01:18:00.002-08:00

Name: kotoshinonushi / ことしろぬし
Style: Japanese (stew / 鍋物)
Neighborhood: Ebisu
Website: http://r.gnavi.co.jp/a718300/ but that's the website for the original shop a few blocks away; for the particular location we went to see http://www.hotpepper.jp/A_20700/strJ000003134.html

My friend Jill Smolin was in town for Interbee, the huge Japanese video equipment show that's the Japanese equivalent of NAB. She had a... difficult... eating situation with her group because doesn't eat red meat, and one of the other members of her group eats almost nothing else. One night she and her daughter Phoebe broke away so I suggested they come down to Ebisu.

Despite being a Thursday, it was a holiday evening in Tokyo since Friday was a national holiday. I was actually planning to go to Umu but when we got there it was (inexplicably) closed! And here I had been worrying we wouldn't get a seat...

We wandered around a bit and chose Kotoshironushi. They had nabe and oden, both popular foods among Japanese in winter, as well as sashimi courses (Jill had a jones for raw fish after the various group arrangements). We didn't get any oden (I don't really like Oden, which is various things cooked in hot water for a long time). However, the nabe at this place was awesome. We got a big pot of various vegetables and seafood which was cooked at the table. Just before it's ready, you take a trencher of minced chicken and throw it into the pot. It cooks almost instantly and makes the whole thing into an approximation of chicken soup. It was awesome.

The sashimi course we got was also delicious, saba (mackeral) was a standout. We got a few things to add on to that (the house salad is very recommended) but the nabe fills you up pretty well.

I'm glad Jill got a chance to experience a full-on Japanese meal, and that I got to find another good place in Ebisu!

2007-11-25T01:18:00.001-08:00

Japanese Microbrew Heaven

2007-10-26T20:33:00.001-07:00

Name: 牛虎/Ushi-tora
Style: Beer specialty restaurant
Neighborhood: 下北沢/Shimokitazawa
Website: http://blog.ushitora.jp/

I found this place through a notice in Metropolis, the English-language free weekly here in Tokyo. It's a godsend.

You see, Japanese beer is just fine. There's really nothing wrong with it. Except. It's all absolutely the same. Sapporo, Kirin, Asahi, and Ebisu are all light lagers, and they all come on basic, dry, and lite varieties. And in Japan, it's unheard of to stock something that's not one of those four.

Sure, occasionally a bar will "branch out" and stock a light lager from Mexico (always Corona) or Europe (usually Heineken). But outside of the "Belgian Beer Bar" specialty bars (which are cool, don't get me wrong), there's very little of the sort of tastier, hoppier, or more full-bodied beers I grew to love living in Northern California.

Thus, when I saw "over 100 beers" in the description of this Shimokitazawa establishment, I knew we had to go. One night after an installment of the Kurosawa film festival, we stopped in.

It lived up to billing! Of course, most of the 100 beers were in bottles, but in fact about 17 were on tap including, unheard of for Japan, 3 India Pale Ales! I was in heaven since IPAs are my favorite type of beer and are unheard of here.

The next pleasant surprise was that the food was yummy. It's pretty much the kind of small food orders available at many Japanese eateries, but very well-prepared and a couple dishes were standouts.

To finish off the evening, we tried a small glass of their Brandywine. If you've never tried a Brandywine before, they're a treat (my friend John Brown used to brew his own). It's a sweeter and *much* stronger beer; the name is because of the strength. Delicious, although it made a head-clearing walk home pretty much di rigeur.

Like most places in Shimokitazawa, Ushi-tora is easy to get to but hard to explain how to get to. The top right link on the website is the map, be sure to print it out and bring it along; Ushi-tora in on the second floor of a building, entrance from the balcony.

Singapore in Tokyo

2007-10-17T17:10:00.000-07:00

Name: Hawker-style Chinese Canteen / 海南鶏飯食堂 (literally, "Hunan Chicken Rice Cafeteria")
Neighborhood: Ebisu / 恵比寿
Style: Singaporean
Website: http://www.route9g.com/map.html#2

After our trip to Singapore this June, we're always on the lookout for Singaporean food! Although this place isn't quite the equal of the venerable Straits Cafe in SF, it's pretty good!

Their signature dish is Chicken Rice, the ubiquitous hawker food in Singapore. Boiled chicken is served along with rice made from the leftover water from boiling the chicken, and of course a selection of yummy sauces. You can choose several serving sizes from ¥750 to ¥1200.

It was good to try some chicken rice, but frankly the highlight of the restaurant was the curries. This restaurant is quite a bit more upscale than the hawkers they take after, so their version of "Fish Head Curry" is "Fish Curry," made with actual meat.　IIRC, it was ¥850.

Even more important, they have the delicious Singaporean panbread called Roti Prata. Unlike many Singaporean places where it's an appetizer with its own dipping sauce, here it's a rice substitute. So get several (they're priced at ¥180 per) and soak up that yummy fish curry.

We also had a vegetable dish, whose Oyster Sauce wasn't what I was expecting -- but my Chinese food expectations have been set by San Francisco, so I'm reluctant to call their version wrong.

I'll be back! Good date restaurant, open-air windows in the summer.

Gyoza and Nothing but Gyoza

2007-09-21T20:14:00.000-07:00

Name: Hakone Gyoza Center / 箱根餃子センター
Style: Gyoza!
Neighborhood: Choukoku no Mori in Hakone / 箱根の彫刻の森嬖
Website: http://www.gyozacenter.com/

Thanks to Ben's guidebook reading and persistent reminders, after we finished up at the Hakone Open Air Museum, we decided to walk a few minutes uphill to find a Gyoza specialty restaurant he had read about.

It was fun! We had to wait about 20 minutes for a table (it was a holiday weekend, after all), but then we sat down and selected from among the 20 or so kinds of Gyoza available (happily for me, including chicken and beef Gyoza). Everything we had was good, including the local Hakone-san / 箱根山 sake that Hunter tried!

While munching through all the food, we decided that a Gyoza specialty restaurant would do just fine in SF -- any restaurant investors out there?

Finally, decent Italian

2007-08-27T07:17:00.000-07:00

Name: Pizzeria D'oro
Style: Italian
Neighborhood: Ebisu / 恵比寿
Website: http://www.metius-foods.com/

On Shuzo's recommendation, I checked out this Italian restaurant about 20 minutes from work. It's pretty good, possibly the best Italian I've had yet in Tokyo. I'm told even better Italian is available -- for a price -- but this will do. The mista antipasta was great, lots of yummy bite just like antipasta should be, and the pasta main course was good (Carbonara).

Of course, it's not cheap enough for everyday eating, but at least I know somewhere to go when Italian is needed now!

Do the Cha Cha, Hana

2007-07-21T20:04:00.000-07:00

Name: Cha Cha Hana / 茶茶花
Style: Japanese
Neighborhood: Shinjuku/Kabukicho
Website: None, but reviews of it are at Jellyfish, Yahoo Gourmet, and so forth. Google茶茶花.

After watching the disappointing Kagemusha (how that film was a co-winner of the Palme D'Or at Cannes I cannot say; perhaps it just illustrates the difference between a newly released film and having a couple decades of perspective on it), the good news was that any restaurant would have been good!

Cha Cha Hana is tucked away on a nice tree-lined walkway that curves through Shinjuku Sanchome (there's probably a story as to how this pleasant path came to be, too!). If you can ignore the occasional homeless person camped along the path, you'll eventually use your sharp eyes to spot the sign with a hand-written 花 kanji on it that shows were you step on the steppingstones, then across a narrow parallel path to find the restaurant door. If you've never been here before, even with a map, I would suggest scheduling a little extra time to find it!

The best part about 茶茶花 is the atmosphere; it has a very Japanese feel to it even though many of the materials are modern. The pictures on Jellyfish in particular give a good sense of what it's like.

This is billed as a 'dining bar', which it would be fair to interpret as meaning "upscale izakaya". You order smallish dishes individually, most of which range from ¥700-¥1300. Of course, as with any such place, the bill can add up; the good news is that it's largely under you control.

The sashimi course was excellent, and was probably the highlight of the evening. Sake, Saba, and Maguro were all melt-in-mouth fresh and tender. There was also an excellent vegetable course with kabocha (Japanese pumpkin) with a delicious white sauce, nagaiimo (Mountain Potato) in a sweet sauce, and tsukemono. Some of the other dishes were competent but lackluster, such as the beef nigiri (our local izakaya in San Mateo was better at that one).

Definitely a good option for a night in Shinjuku. On weekends, it's best to make a reservation; they were booked the whole night we were there (a Saturday).

New! Favorite! Kind of Restaurant! 卯夢

2007-06-15T20:00:00.000-07:00

Name: Umu / 卯夢
Style: Chicken
Neighborhood: Ebisu / 恵比寿
Website: http://r.gnavi.co.jp/g752305/

So, right near work there's a restaurant that doesn't serve lunch. Instead, a nice woman (usually with her son) sells really good bentos (Japanese box lunch) out of the front door. In the evening, I see people in there though, and when I asked people what it was, they said, "Oh, it's a chicken restaurant."

I've been wanting to find out what a chicken restaurant is for awhile, so on Friday night Yoichi, Atsushi and I decided to go. We walked over and... we couldn't get in. I did, however, get to watch a group of young women in heels energetically flattening a dozen or so cardboard packing boxes while dolled up in their Friday evening finery (Tokyo moment). While the women strutted triumphantly away holding their vanquished boxes, we debated the next step.

Yoichi said there were plenty of such places up in Ebisu, and a typical Tokyo logistics comedy ensued. I was on my bike, Atsushi on his scooter which was parked near Azabu-Juban, and Yoichi was moving via taxi. It took about 35 min. for the three of us to reassemble in front of the Wendy's in Ebisu (a common meeting point), by which time Yoichi had already scouted out some likely candidates.

The first restaurant we went to was playing jazz classics painfully loud (standards and smoky grilled meat restaurants aren't an obvious combination). We decided to abort, and that was just as well because next door Atsushi spotted Umu (卯夢, which roughly translates as "Dream of the Rabbit", the rabbit being the fourth sign in the Chinese zodiac).

So, when we order I got to learn more about what a "Chicken Restaurant" is. As you'd guess it's basically a lot of different ways to prepare chicken meat. They had the obvious Japanese items: Karaage (Japanese fried chicken), which came with a really thick breading but like all good Japanese fried food was actually not particularly greasy; Yakitori (you frequently order, as we did, a big assortment of chicken yakitori); a dish that's a lot like the Chinese "Salt-fried Chicken"; Tamago; a Katsuo salad.

They also had a couple particularly notable dishes. Chicken Sashimi (now there's a dish I wouldn't order at a street vendor in China). It was, to be more exact, chicken tataki: raw chicken seared on the outside but still raw inside. You could eat it either with the traditional shoyu & wasabi or with an amazingly tart plum sauce. And, there was some sort of special, small squid served whole. It had an interesting texture but as I put it afterwards, "daisuki ja nai".

And, they had some nice sakes (日本酒). Although I started with an Otokoyama (男山, literally "Man Mountain"), which is a dry sake of the type I usually like, after a bit of discussion with the waiter I tried an Akitora (安芸虎) from Kouchiken on Shikoku. It was great, not as dry as Otokoyama but with a lot more interesting flavors underneath. Yoichi tried a couple of sweeter sakes (and told an amusing story about how his dad, like myself, likes only super-dry sakes, so his rebellion is to always drink sweet ones), and Atsushi indulged in his preferred beverage, umeshu (梅酒), plum wine, which they also had a selection of.

The atmosphere at Umu was really nice, you enter on a stone path and sit in black-wood booths, usually separated from the booth on the other side by a light gridded curtain (we could hear the two couples in the other booth practicing their English). The rakuna kimochi (easy feeling) meant that we lingered there until about 2:30. Atsushi and I just walked our respective pieces of two-wheeled transportation back to the apartment here in Nakmeguro; unfortunately, Yoichi hadn't intended to stay out past last train, since he had to use a fairly expensive cab ride home at that point.

New favorite restaurant! KAN

2007-06-04T07:05:00.001-07:00

My friend Onny from LA was in town this weekend, just finishing off a two-month (!) vacation in Thailand, China, and Indonesia after wrapping on Surf's Up. Onny loves Japan and Japanese food so he stopped by for a few days of hangin' out on the way back.

Last night, on the recommendations of my friends Makino-san and Kondo-san, we went to Kan, a Japanese restaurant in the area between Nakameguro and Shibuya. Specifically, it's in the neighborhood called Higashiyama, although what's better is that the building called the "Oriental Higashiyama."

Since we didn't have much notice, I took advantage of Kondo-san's assistance to get a conditional reservation. At about 9:10pm they called and said we could have a table at 9:30. Since Onny was nowhere near Nakameguro at the time, it was touch and go, but we got there almost on time... right.

It's a very sparse, modern-Japanese interior, and all seats are counter seats. As suggested, we ordered the chef's course, which turned out to be about nine AWESOME courses of various assorted Japanese food. I remember several: the sashimi course was excellent and included horsemeat sashimi (no, I don't object to it). There was a separate course which was beef tataki (tenderloin seared on the outside but raw on the inside), a vegatable course, a soup course. Surprisingly, there was an entire course that was just Edamame. Tomatoes are totally in season here now, so tomato was the "magic ingredient" for the night; about five of the courses had tomato in them, including (I kid thee not) lovely tomato sherbert for dessert. Just prior to desert was the rice course; I had an awesome onigiri with mixed barley and rice; Onny had the namatamagodon, raw egg mixed into rice.

Other than the organic-foods restaurant I've been to with Shuzo, this is the best place I've been to in Tokyo! And the price is merely expensive, rather than heinously expensive: including a fair amount of alcohol, dinner was Y7000 per person, which is about U$60.

Also, we were chitchatting with the manager all night (he was our chef -- that all-seats-are-counter-seats thing), Hayashi Kohtaro (林　高太郎). And best of all, since Kan is on Makino-san and Kondo-san's way home, they stopped by at the end of the meal, and we got to earn them kudo points with Hayashi-san for sending us his way!

Kan doesn't have a website, but this blog post gives you a good idea what our meal was like, including a blurry picture of the restuarant itself at the bottom.

Aalawi

2007-05-18T08:25:00.000-07:00

Neighborhood: Ebisu
Style: Jamaican
Kanji Name: none
Website: None, but search for "aalawi" on Google and most of the hits are reviews of this place

There's actually a good, cheap, Jamaican jerk chicken place on my way home from work! One night while exploring the infinite number of small streets by which I can bike from Minami-azabu back to Nakameguro I found this moderate-sized restaurant. ¥700 for the Jamaican Jerk Chicken set with cole slaw and roll? In Tokyo? Sign me up. It's not the absolute best Jerk Chicken I've ever had but it's pretty good and for this price, who's complaining?

And they have Red Stripe.

El Rincon de Sam

2007-05-18T08:15:00.001-07:00

Neighborhood: Ebisu
Style: Mexican
Kanji Name: none (エル・リンコン・デ・サム）
Website: http://www.sambra.jp/

Believe it or not, this cheesy name adorns the best Mexican I've found so far in Tokyo.

El Rincon de Sam is a traditional sit-down Mexican (i.e., not Burritos) restaurant in Ebisu. The real sign that this is a labor of live is in the subtitle though: "El Rincon de Sam: Mexican Food and Music." After you've been there for a little while, someone (I assume it's Sam) puts down his apron and starts playing Mexican music on the guitar (passably, I might add). I tried the Molé which was good, but they had a number of other yummy-sounding dishes on the (changing) menu. And of course they have a full selection of Mexican beers!

All these loveliness doesn't come cheap. If you and your dining-mates have an appetizer, an entrée and a beer or two, you're looking at ¥3500-4000 apiece.

Local India

2007-03-21T06:26:00.000-07:00

Appropriately named, this restaurant is downstairs from Arriva Otra in Ebisu, and as such it fell under the "must try all restaurants in the 'hood" rule.

Alas, not a super-interesting review: it's a competent but not extraordinary Indian restuarant. It's medium-priced, maybe Y1800 for the Thali. I'll go again, but I won't go out of my way (which is the point: it's not out of my way!).

You mean that Kurosawa?

2007-03-14T08:32:00.000-07:00

Neighborhood: Nishi-azabu
Style: Soba
Kanji Name: くろさわ
Website: none

So the head of Polygon, Shuzo, definitely gets ideas into his head. Tday I ran into him about scheduling a meeting and then said, "Hey, you headed out for lunch?" On the way out of the building he said, "Let's go this way today. I haven't explored over near Azabu-juban."

We ended up walking about 35 minutes looking for something along the cool, neighborhoody lines. We really weren't doing too well at it, with the result that we got almost all the way to Roppongi before Shuzo said, "Hey, I think there's a noodle place up ahead," thus heralding our arrival at Kurosawa.

Kurosawa has primarily soba noodles, the thinner buckwheat noodles (which are actually my preference over Ramen or Udon). I got Kamo (duck) Soba. Like almost all soba dishes, the noodles come on a separate bamboo tray, and you dip them in the sauce before slurping them into your mouth (in Japan, slurping is a compliment to the chef). The Kamo Soba has a few slices of deliciously fatty duck floating in the sauce.

When you're done, you take the pitcher of soba-yu (the leftover juice from making soba) and mix it with the leftover sauce in order to drink it down like soup.

All in all, Kurosawa was a pretty competent execution of soba. The only thing I'd say against it is that it's not cheap as noodle places go; Y1350 for soba only.

By the way, the full name of this restaurant is "XX dining kurosawa", where "XX" is two Kanji I can't read yet.

Dining Kurosawa Tokyo-to Minato-ku Nishi-azabu 3-2-15
03 5775 9638

Arriva Otra

2007-03-14T08:23:00.000-07:00

Neighborhood: Ebisu
Style: Tex-Mex
Kanji Name: オトラ
Website: none

So, on the theory that you have to try all the restaurants in your own neighborhood, I checked out the "Tex Mex Dining Bar" called Otra tonight. It's right next to the America-bashi bridge at Ebisu.

Like so many restaurants in Japan, it's good... but not great. The best thing was a wide selection of Mexican beers (Negra Modelo, Bohemia, and my fave, Tecate) as well as some truly hot food (which is almost unheard of here). The prices weren't high, but even for Tokyo the serving portions were small, so it added up.

Still, probably it's the best "mekushiko no ryori" restaurant I've been to here. I just won't stop looking for the pinnacle :-)

Otra American Bridge Bldg. 3F 1-23-8 Ebisuminami

Gourmet Burger Pakutch

2007-02-06T21:54:00.000-08:00

I finally found a truly good hamburger in Japan... It's a place in Shibuya near the east end of Shibuya Mark City called "Gourmet Burger Pakutch." In the best traditions of bizarre cartoon character mascots, they give it their all, as you can see at right.

Better yet, their hamburgers are actually good! About 1/3 lb., juicy, and lots of fillin's: slice of grilled onion, tomato, lettuce, chesse if you want it, and as McDonald's would say, "Special sauce." They do a decent job of (thin-cut) fries too.

If yer a westerner yearnin' fer home, or an Asian who wants to understand why people like hamburgers (something you can never learn from makudonarudo's), check out Pakutch.

Burger Cravings

2007-01-20T03:41:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking about hamburgers off and on for the last week. I'm not the canonical American who eats hamburgers every day, but I do like 'em. So today, I was intrigued when I saw a Hawaiian hamburger place along Aoyama-dori between Omotesando and Shibuya.

From Tokyo

I gave it a shot, and it's not a great hamburger but boy is it a step up from the "Freshness Burger" and "Mos Burger" chains that dot Japan. It was good-sized (they have 1/3 lb. and 1/2 lb., I got the smaller burger) and came with lettuce, tomato, and a beautifully presented grilled onion slice, with a substantial bun (not the extra-light bready ones you often get in Japan). On the downside, it was a little overcooked so the meat itself wasn't especially flavorful. Probably a B, but that still makes it the best one I've had here.

Comme a la Maison

2007-01-15T09:52:00.000-08:00

Yoichi, Shuzo and I went to this high-quality French restaurant. It was definitely good and very French-provincial (the night we went it featured southwestern French food). The prices did add up, especially with the two bottles of wine we consumed, so watch out for that, but still a goo dplace to know about. Very small.

From Tokyo

Festa Karaoke

2006-12-30T04:46:00.000-08:00

Neighborhood: Roppongi/Azabu 六本木／麻布
Style: Karaoke rooms
Kanji Name: フェスタ飯倉
Website: http://www.festa-iikura.com/

This place bills itself as a "Gourmet & Karaoke Room" - I'm not sure I can stand behind the "gourmet" aspect, but it's a great Karaoke room!

Unlike U.S. karaoke bars, karaoke in Japan (like the rest of Asia) is "karaoke box" -- you get a small-ish room, just big enough for your party, and you can order in food and drink while singing away the night (or morning, as the case may be). The food is usually somewhat sub-par, in fact BYOB is not a bad practice (although officially frowned on). Festa, happily, is up to snuff enough that it isn't needed. There were four of us, and we wiled away the evening with decent food and good sake (actually Shuzo switched us to the cheap stuff after the second round -- probably a good plan) for about six hours. The bill was ¥5000 / person, not incredibly expensive by Tokyo standards.

Festa also has a bunch of costumes available for those who want a little cosplay with their karaoke -- check out http://www.festa-iikura.com/cos.html.

Festa is about halfway between Roppongi and Azabu-Juban on Gaienhigashi-dori, not particularly convienent to any one station, but walkable from either of the above (or, like all Tokyo locations, taxi-able).

Grotta Azzurra

2006-12-30T04:29:00.000-08:00

Neighborhood: Azabu-juban 麻布十番
Style: Italian
Kanji Name: n/a
Website: none

Finally! A decent Italian place in Tokyo.

I've started exploring Azabu-Juban, inspired both by having to walk home late at night a few weeks ago and by the Shot department party there. Grotta Azzurra looks similar to a host of other Italian restaurants in Japan, and shares a lot of characteristics with them, but of the ones I've sampled so far it's above average.

As is true with almost everywhere I've been here, it's best to avoid the pasta and stick to the pizza unless you're desparate. Japanese pizza in an Italian place is OK -- it's the thin-crust, Margherita-style, not the U.S.-style, but it's not bad. I had the sausage-et-al version at Azzurra and they do a good job.

They also have a decent Caeser salad (getting a good salad here is a continuing challenge) and fair Italian wine by the glass (not the usual dreck of Japanese house wines).

They don't list a website, but they're just north of Azabu-Juban, on the east side of the main north-south street. Here's the Google maps entry.

Naru

2006-12-30T04:25:00.000-08:00

Neighborhood: Shibuya 渋谷
Style: Japanese
Kanji Name: 成る
Website: http://www.asia-kitchen.co.jp/naru.html

This is my favorite of the places I've discovered in Tokyo. Naru is right near Shibuya-eki, and it's subtitle is "fusion cuisine". To be honest, I'm not sure what it's a fusion between -- the food seems entirely Japanese -- but we had a good time there anyway. I found this with Sveta and her crew one night, it's on a second floor as you leave Shibuya-eki headed towards Ebisu (i.e., it's on the South-east side of the station, not where most of the stores/nightlife are).

They had a whole variety of Japanese food, which ranged from good to very good with our limited palettes. We ordered two of the daily set, plus two other combos off the menu. That was all good, and the sake that we ordered after a conversation with the waiter was awesome as well (alas, we didn't have the presence of mind to take a picture of the bottle).

I'll definitely be back to Naru! The best place to sit is the "private room" -- see the rightmost picture on the website.

Tan

2006-12-30T04:17:00.000-08:00

Neighborhood: Akasaka
Style: Wine bar
Kanji Name: 丹
Website: none

Tan is a wine bar in Akasake run by Kim Tan A, a Korean who came to Japan for language study and never left! Like a lot of small bars, it only has appetizers for food, and really they're nothing special. I like Tan though, basically because a decent glass of wine is tricky to come by here and also because it's usually not busy, so it's a good place for conversation.

Tan is on "third street" in Akasaka (aka the third small street in from the Akasake-mitsuke metro stop) very close to Aoyama-dori. It's on the B1 level of its building.

Tori-jyaa honmaru

2006-12-27T07:29:00.000-08:00

Neighborhood: Shinjuku
Style: Japanese
Kanji name: 鶏じゃあ本丸
Website: http://r.gnavi.co.jp/g808901/

So, Sam, Kathleen, Cliff, and I were looking for somewhere to eat in Shinjuku and a street busker came up and convinced us to try Tori-jyaa Honmaru. He asked me if I could speak Japanese, and my reply was convincing enough for him to radio ahead, "gaijin da kedo nihongo mo daijyoubu" ("They're foreigners, but Japanese is also OK").

It turned out pretty well! It's a take-off-your-shoes place, and like a lot of group-oriented restaurants, they have the hole in the floor so that you sit on a tatami but in fact your feet are below "ground" level (honesty compells me to admit I like this a lot better than actually sitting on tatami).

They specialize in keichan-yaki, which I hadn't heard of before. It's a fun kind of cook-at-your-table meal (the Japanese have a bunch of these) where they bring the gas-fired griddle to your table, but it has a spherical bulge in the middle. They put a piece of waxed paper over that, then there's a bunch of vegatables and meat that go on the paper, along with sauce. It looks like the way it works is that the sauce keeps the paper from burning long enough to cook everything, and it definitely made for some yummy food.

We tried a bunch of other dishes as well, not all of them redily identifiable (I managed to avoid informing Sam and Kathleen, and especially Cliff, that one of the dishes was jellyfish). We also tried a couple sakes, and the one we liked we asked the name of. This is where my Japanese hit its limits -- we couldn't exactly make out the reply, but we thought he repeated "Swiss Kick". After a bit of research I decided it was actually "kikyuuyoi" - the more common reading of the Kanji for yoi is "sui", so the waiter was actually repeating "kikyuusui".

Recommended! Fun, even if it's not a gourmet experience.

An-an

2006-12-27T07:23:00.000-08:00

Neighborhood: Akasaka
Style: Japanese
Kanji name: あん庵
Website: They claim it's http://frontier-one.co.jp/ but that seems to be the original restaurant, not the Akasaka branch

I tried this place this week, from the menu (English available -- never a good sign) they seem to specialize in Tofu. It was OK, but a bit pricey for a light meal (¥3000/person) and really nothing was spectacluar.

It's on what I call "Second Street" in Akasaka -- Akasaka is essentially three long streets, all parallel to the avenue that connects Akasaka-Mitsuke to Tameike-Sanno. I've thus aribtrarily named them "First Street," "Second Street," and "Third Street" although in real life they have, of course, other names.

Food in Japan

2006-12-27T07:22:00.000-08:00

I'm in Japan. And I eat. And I'm trying to keep track of which restaurants I ate at... mostly for my own reference, but if I post it online maybe some other folks can use it too!

Over the next few weeks I'll try and post about all the restaurants I've tried here in Tokyo since I came... stay tuned!

Leo