I’m afraid it’s Rude About Food time again. Vegetarian Indian in an Aoyama basement. I have no problem with vegetarian food – I often order dhal even if other things are available. What I DO have a problem with is bland vegetarian food made with mediocre ingredients. It should be a good indication of flavors […]
Month: November 2008
- Other treats
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Saji Sushi, Jiyugaoka (鮨どころ佐治)
Jiyugaoka is a nice place. Have you noticed that? Perhaps you’ve seen it featured in every magazine and food/shopping TV show in Japan? No? Then I recommend it. Lots of fun little shops, quiet backstreets, restaurants. Really good. Waaaaay down the road (walking) from the station, the feeling of being in town dies out. In […]
l’Auberge de l’Ill, Roppongi
Well, now I have some inkling what 3 stars in France would mean. The recently-released Michelin guide rates l’Auberge at 1 hoshi, which feels distinctly miserly after today’s lunch. I can imagine taking today, amping it up, adding some courses and doubling the price, and then we’d be about right. This will sound weird, but […]
- Other treats
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Sakura Shokudou, Roppongi (Sakura 食堂. Really.)
This pleasant place opened during the ‘renewal open’ period a while back (errr, it may be 6 months already, but the last 6 months have been kinda surreal as you may have read). It has all the elements of a ‘healthy cafe’ that you might expect to find in a side street of Shibuya or […]
Ichiriki, Monzennakachououou (一力)
[Jan 2011: This closed ages ago. It’s a shame, really.] 幸せ. I’m really not sure what prevented me from going into this place over 4 years of walking by it. I have a feeling it was the lack of menu outside, which is of course a frequent problem in Japan and one that any self-respecting […]
Goroku, Monzennakacho (伍六)
It’s a hard job, being a famous food writer, and my liver bears the scars for it. But I feel a responsibility to my fan, so I keep going. Tuesday night found us shlepping home (in the royal plural sense) from work, in the rain, remembering that the new restaurant we had spotted the day […]
Kurosawa, Roppongi
Man, I really feel like I wrote this before. We’ve all been to Kurosawa, right? Shifting set of lunch options anchored by soba as well as buta-don, slightly interesting and slightly expensive dinners? Sure, we’ve all been. This is the Roppongi Kurosawa. It does that sorta ‘country Japanese’ ambience quite well, managing to feel homey […]
- Italian
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Boschetta, Shiroganedai
Boschetta will likely sound very good to you based on the following:– Located in quiet Shirokanedai, in an even-quieter back street, down at the end, just before it dead-ends at someone’s house.– Located, in fact, in what clearly used to be someone’s very expensive house. The entryway feels like an entryway. The stairs feel like […]
- Italian
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Kavach, Tokyo (カバチェ)
Well, if you’re going to have 4 work dinners in a month, some of them might as well be in decent locations. Kavach is the Yaesu branch of a 3-restaurant Italian chain specializing in reasonable-if-dull repetitions of Italian classics. In fairness, I was in a group of 30, and I think that even the best […]
- Other treats
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Outback Steakhouse, Roppongi
Good lord, what was I thinking, missing Outback? I shudder to think of all the places I’ve been in Roppongi that I won’t be able to get back to in time to post legitimately on them before shuffling off to Buffalotemachi, but at least this one’s out of the way. After the menu revamp a […]