Gourmet Burger Pakutch

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.