This is a puzzlement – I didn’t expect to find a decent French place right near the station in Tamagawa (not Niko-tama, the one farther south). But there it is – walk toward the river, cross the tracks, and there’s a very palatable, brick-fronted restaurant. If you live there, I’m sure you already know. The Denenchofu-Tamagawa area is too short on good restaurants for people not to know this one.
It being a busy day (753 kids at the nearby shrine), they seemed to be working largely off set menus. In fact we weren’t allowed to choose mains, but got equal plates of fish and meat which we could then draw straws for, but here’s the starter. It’s smoked potato terrine (sato imo, I think). A bit sticky and gooey, some novelty value by virture of being pressed into terrine shape and then cut, and interspersed with some spicy shrimp and spicy mussels (both cold) that were quite nice.
Soup of chestnut and pumpkin was OK but boring – smooth texture loses interest for me after a few spoonfuls, and the bread and negi on top didn’t go very far. I also thought it was unnecessarily coy to include both typical autumn soup items in this.
Fish main; I can’t remember what it was, but the vegetables were nice. It’s always a good surprise to get romanesco, even when it’s small pieces and not dramatically purple. This was very much in the ‘healthy housewife’ mold.
Whereas the beef was meant to be the manly dish, with lots of mushrooms in addition to the romanescos. While cut ans seared like steak, I think this was brisket or something, based on the texture. Again, it was surprisingly good.
Dessert was forgettable; the egg cup was some kind of white chocolate, the fruits were…maybe persimmons, but definitely stewed in syrup, and I don’t remember the ice cream. See. Forgettable. Still, if you had to eat in Tamagawa, you could do much worse than here. If you could find anything!
Overcoming appearances.
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