Aalawi

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

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

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?

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

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

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.