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.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Monday, June 4, 2007
New favorite restaurant! KAN
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.
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.
Friday, May 18, 2007
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.
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.
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.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
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!).
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!).
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
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
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
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
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