Chez Andre, or Chez to his friends, has been making homey bistro fare ever since immigrating from his native Bangladesh following the poultry riots of ’89. He’s managed to put together a long-standing restaurant that captures a little bit of the magic of the Sacre Coeur, which is a Bangladeshi ritual involving chicken hearts and […]
Author: Jon
Mazeru ramen, Akihabara (麺処 マゼル)
Mazeru? Yes, yes I will. With an offer like that, how could you not get excited? It means ‘stir’, and the implication of the name and the sign is that you’re going to get maze-soba (pronounced mah-zay), a lot like the junk from Junk Garage, for example. And that is a gooood thing. I’m fond […]
- izakaya
- ...
Inonaka, Kinshicho (井のなか)
Yooooooshta. It’s official. I have now been to all of the good sake places in Tokyo. Think you know another? Nope. Not good. This is the last one. Boo-yah! Good, I’m glad we could all agree on that. Back to work. A few months ago, I spent a chilly evening on the bike exploring Kinshicho […]
- Ginza
- ...
Bernini pizza, Ginza (ピッツェリアロマーナベルニーニ)
Someone came up with the idea that we needed Roman-style pizza after our slightly life-changing visit to Il Tamburello. Have you noticed, gentle reader, that food is the last thing I should need at this point, and yet also the first thing on my mind? By which I mean, who’s to say no? There are […]
- French
- ...
Les Enfants Gates, Daikanyama (レザンファン ギャテ)
The style and food at the now-departed Les Enfants Terrible in Juban were both good; didn’t you always wonder what the main shop was like? Wonder no longer. It’s s stylish place, pitched a bit to appeal to stylish women, but with food good enough to keep anyone happy. And terrines. The point here is […]
- Ginza
- ...
La Balance, Ginza (ラ・バランス銀座)
Despite their booming popularity in Japan, I still think macarons are a great thing. The king of pastry, if you will. There aren’t a lot of places that make good ones – you often see them wrapped individually in plastic, and that just can’t be a positive sign. Still, I’m always willing to try a […]
- coffee
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Cafe de l’Ambre, Ginza (カフェ・ド・ランブル)
Coffee only. Only coffee. While things like that ordinarily make me want to request a danish on the side, maybe a sugar cookie, I feel a lot of respect for this place and have always wanted to go. It’s just down the street from my Ginza bar of choice, Fal, so it’s weird that it […]
Narita sushi, Monzen Nakacho (すし 成田)
A couple years ago, this place Sushi Yata popped up south of the river in Monnaka. I went there and got really excited, because I thought it was reasonably-priced, sorta creative, and really delicious. Over time, I came to feel like the master was weird, uncomfortably so, and that he had a solid habit of […]
Fish Center, Misaki (三崎さかなセンター)
Misaki is one of the two famous fresh-tuna ports of Japan, along with Oma in the north. But today we were here for other reasons. You had arranged a schedule that included lunch, some sightseeing, and now a trip to the Misaki fish center. Here, I’m pondering what made us come here, and why his […]
- izakaya
- ...
Kamotsuru, Kamoi (鴨鶴,鴨居)
You got transferred out of our team a couple months ago and became the manager of the branch down near the navy base in Kanagawa. He’s gotten pretty into the area, and invited me down to check it out for a day. He took the day off, brought his car over from home (it’s too […]