Brasserie Saint Martin, Kagurazaka

Today’s trip to Kagurazaka with You let us inspect this ‘American beef’ themed subway train. Every one of the posters hanging down the center aisle showed an ‘American steak’. This is the ‘New York steak’ – looks to me like a piece of seared wagyu with chopped tomatoes and onions. This has nothing to do with New York; I would expect to see a strip steak, charred outside, bloody inside, on a white plate with nothing around it but spatters of grease (I’m thinking Peter Luger). The Chicago and Florida steaks were similarly puzzling. Ah well.

Lookee, it’s another Kagurazaka bistro! Actually this one’s a brasserie by name, and it’s the sister of the much fancier San Facon just down the street (packed solid at 1 PM). The exterior here is wonderfully quaint.

The interior isn’t bad either, but more modern. The chairs could be accused of being hard. The dinner menu, as pictured here, could be accused of being interesting – for example the bottom three on the second panel are your choice of game birds. I’m not sure if half a bird for Y5k+ is a good thing though.

The lunch menu is dull; only 5 or 6 choices, no course option, lame little salad, no drink, Y1050. This is the brandade de morue, which you and I know better as salt cod and potato mousse. Huge serving, nice that it’s baked and brown on top, mixture heavily slanted toward potatoes. Combined with the mediocre bread, left me feeling bloated.

I might have been happier with You’s roast pork, which was soft and flavorful but a paradoxically tiny serving. I coveted the beans, at any rate.

Definitely a loser in the neighborhood lunch stakes. I feel like this could be better for dinner, but the lack of investment in lunch doesn’t make me want to find out.