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).
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Grotta Azzurra
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Tori-jyaa honmaru
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.
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
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.
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
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
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
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