As mentioned a few days ago, here’s the lunch at this slightly higher-end place in Kagurazaka (KGRZ, to the hip kids). Koala looks very prim demonstrating how to cross the street and enter the restaurant. Walking from Iidabashi B4 is your best bet since this is in the eastern corner of KGRZ. I like to think the name means the restaurant is ‘style free’, even though it’s more like ‘no pretense’.
The lack of pretense leads to a little more atmosphere than service, and the food wasn’t as good as I expected considering that I booked lunch after getting turned away before and ending up at their more casual branch down the street. On the other hand, there were empty tables until about 1:30, so maybe it was just my bad luck to get there late last time. They certainly were expecting us, which I guess means few people reserve.
The interior is very authentic, right down to the Japanese waitress’s Amélie-bobbed hair. Wait, do French restaurants in France decorate their walls with postcards and maps of France? Hmmm…
The quiche is also very…look, I don’t know from authentic, interior or otherwise. But this was delicious! Must have been the bacon that made the innards so good. The crust was rich in a dry way, and crumbly. The stick vegetables were sauteed with a spice I couldn’t place.
And the soup tasted more like cream than cauliflower, but we agreed that was no sin.
Actually you can choose from 4 or 5 things for each course, like confit chicken instead of this fish of the day. It was snapper rolled around a bit of green sauce and then rolled in potato strips before pan-frying. Not a bad idea; good fish, pretty tasty. You could choose your sauce as well, saffron or bouillabaisse. We both had safron, so you’re out of luck, viewing-wise.
Koala chose the dessert I would never get, the blancmange, but it had coconut in it and lemon sauce on it, plus good sorbets, and it was a winner. The assorted cakes were a bit dull except the fruitcake-like substance. In fact, I’m just going to leave out the picture because it looks so much the same.
But the teacups were a really cute way to finish off (in the ‘Blue Roman‘ patternway), and this is a nice choice of restaurant for a casual lunch syn-up with friends. I wouldn’t do it for dinner; might as well not pay double for the acceptable but un-exciting food above. You want the best in this price range? It’s in Shinjuku.
Hey Pierre, I’m not sure I like how you’re looking at my friend.
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