Ages ago, You came back from lunch, gave me a card, and said “This curry place is really spicy! It hurt!” I didn’t believe him, because Japanese people can’t handle spicy food. But I remembered the place, because it’s in a weird location where there isn’t much else (north side of Eitai Dori between Nihonbashi […]
Nihonbashi
Kanako Hannosuke, Nihonbashi (金子半の助)
Full disclosure: Our assistant somehow picked up free lunch tickets for this place that opened mid-November. You may have noticed that I like trying new places? I like free things too. A lot. So do other folks. When You and I assayed this place last week, we found a good 20 of them in line, some of them […]
Moromiya, Nihonbashi (もろみ家)
The two masters here at Moromiya are working on their collection of sake labels. It doesn’t really need more work, does it? Actually, nothing about this place needs more work. It’s just about right, across the board. You’ll love it even as you leave lighter in the purse (or not, if you can get your […]
Line curry, Nihonbashi (らいん)
Fresh fish! Arriving tonight! Caught off the coast of Tokyo! Eat raw kawagahi, with sauce made from its liver! There are a few puzzling signs like this outside Line, which is famous in my company as ‘that curry place where the waitress used to work in our main branch’. I’m guessing the name is Line […]
Mumbai Market, Nihonbashi
First time I’ve ever been in to the Mitsukoshi honten. The lobby is old fashioned and grand, like Takashimaya, or indeed like the grand old department stores in your city, if they still exist. One thing that’s different here is this impressive, incredible sculpture in the main hall. What does it all mean? I was […]
Merveille, Nihonbashi
I left the office for lunch in a light and positive mood today. The weather has cooled by at least a few degrees, my June farewell lunch with Volleyball turned out to be only penultimate when found a few minutes in his busy schedule today…and since he was in Nihonbashi it occurred to me that I should […]
Bistro La Poupee, Ningyocho
How did I end up at this place? I’ll be up front about it – I looked at the map and picked an area I’d never been to. This dense area north of Nihonbashi (broadly Ningyocho, but well outside the more interesting area) has a lot of small offices with a few restaurants sprinkled through […]
Uoju, Kodemmacho (魚十)
Tokyo has a garment district, did you know that? Loads of cheap-looking clothing stores, and of course fabric and whatever bits ‘n’ bobs you need to, y’know, make clothes. (If you want to check it out, it’s in Bakuroyokoyama; you could walk from Kodemmacho on the Hibiya line or else there’s a direct stop on […]
Fujiya, Nihonbashi (フジヤ)
Around my place, we adhere to the ‘dirty is good’ philosophy. This may get you in trouble in, say, India or Vietnam (where I prefer to say ‘dirty is deadly’), but in Japan health standards are such that you’re never going to get sick from restaurant food. Fujiya exhibits layers of steamed-on grease from long simmering […]
Farsi Largo!, Nihonbashi
Farsi Largo is Italian for ‘big joke’ (large farce, get it?) but there’s no joke about the cooking here. Good ingredients and good preparation, very professional. The worst thing about the place is this sign on the street, and the crummy old stairwell that leads down to it. Inside is clean and modern; it could […]