You know I like to bring you the latest restaurants, the ‘hottest things’ on the ‘Tokyo scene’. Well, with the summer shaping up the way it is – low/no-air conditioning policies to save power for those in need – every restaurant is going to be hot soon. It wasn’t even sunny today, but with the […]
Other treats
- bar
- ...
Bar Martha, Ebisu
There’s a whole genre of ‘music bars’ in Tokyo. The basic thing is the sound system, and then they’ll play a certain genre of music. In the case of Martha, located on a small but exciting street on the southeast side of Ebisu, the stereo is massive and old-fashioned. In this picture you can see […]
- Italian
- ...
Tharros, Shibuya (タロス 渋谷・中目黒)
The original of this post was lost in The Great Blogger Crash of Last Week, wherein they rolled back a day-and-a-half of edits. It wasn’t that good in the first place, so little harm done. Years ago, I used to read Tokyo Calendar all the time. It’s a dangerous habit – the restaurants are mostly […]
- bistro
- ...
Aila, Ebisu (アイラ 恵比寿店)
Aila is a French Colonial restaurant. Or so they say. You say ‘French Colonial’, I think ‘Le Colonial’, and I like that atmosphere. (Of course, if you say ‘black’, I say ‘white’, and if you say ‘bark’, I say ‘bite’.) The exterior here is very much ‘converted house’, with ivy and discrete lighting (or ‘le lighting […]
Azuma An soba, Mashiko (お食事処 あづま庵, 栃木県 益子町)
Oh hey, are you still there? You wouldn’t believe the drop-off in visitations that this blog suffered after the whole ‘earthquake’ ‘sunmi’ ‘ radiation’ thing. It’s almost like all the foreigners left Japan and no one wanted to vacation here. Well, you’re in good company – others are coming back too. Thanks. But Golden Week […]
Shukuzu, Ningyocho (酒喰洲)
For a sizable segment of the Japanese population, the definition of ‘heaven’ would be ‘cheap drinks and cheaper fish’. Quality doesn’t necessarily enter into it, and standing up is fine too. So if you can offer decent produce across the board like Shukuzu, that’s a winner. Standing isn’t really my thing, but I was here […]
- Other treats
- ...
Kawachiya, Shibamata (川千家, 柴又)
You’ve heard of Shibamata, right? Even the most hardened pretend-we-still-live-in-America sort of expat has been told of the “It’s Hard to be a Man” movie series, wherein the main character Tora san hails from a quaint, old-fashioned neighborhood of Tokyo called Shibamata. Then again, they probably don’t discuss such things at TAC. It IS indeed […]
- Chinese
- ...
Emmado, Kanda (炎麻堂)
Another lunch, another chain store. Only this was the last day before Golden Week, and I felt festive. Really wanted ramen, but didn’t find anything, and when I saw a mapo tofu specialty store, I was hooked. Spicy is almost as good as ramen, and sort of healthier if you neglect to mention the pork […]
- Kanda
- ...
Morihachi, Kanda (森八 室町店)
It’s always tempting to think you’ve tried something great and unique; I was pretty happy that I finally went in to Morihachi, but it was pretty apparent that it wasn’t a family-run operation. Not that this is a terrible thing. There’s little difference between this place and a family shop – the old woman at […]
- curry
- ...
Crown Ace Curry, Kanda
Very indecisive today. That can tend to happen, either because I’m genuinely indecisive on the day or because I feel like going somewhere new and end up going to an area with few unexplored options left. In this case I rounded a corner after 20 minutes aimless wander, saw ‘curry’ and thought ‘bing!’ Plus, ‘Crown […]