Lauderdale, Roppongi

Tokyo needs more brunch places. This is manifestly true. Fujimama’s closed recently, and while Suji’s remains open, I think the food and cost performance is kinda cynical (as in, “We dare you to find another place that will serve you American-style brunch, and until you do we’re not making much effort.”). Hotels are not an […]

Waffle Cafe Y, Asakusa

Waffles and wine, wine and waffles. Sign of the times – by day we serve waffles, at night we convert to a Spanish restaurant. Y has the advantage of being one of only a few restaurants just off the Kappabashi restaurant-supply strip, in addition to the obvious advantages of being new (18 months), pleasant and […]

Very Berry Cafe, Kyoto

A few curious things here. One is that the neighborhood of Kyoto behind the city hall has an abnormal number of modern, foreign restaurants and cafes mixed in with the old vegetable shops and paper stores. It’s quite nice, especially ‘Gokomachi street’ where we stayed. Another curious thing is the trend toward hyper-American cafes in […]

Flaneur Cafe, Gaienmae

After learning that there IS one decent Mexican restaurant in Japan, it was still early. We elected to find a cafe and/or bar, and started walking in the general direction of Gaienmae. Somewhere along the way we ran across Cafe Flaneur, which is the kind of place that makes city living so nice. Tokyo style. […]