Ishikawa Tei is a somewhat-famous French bistro in lower Kanda (just the other side of the river from Otemachi). It’s reputed to offer the #1 tastiest-valuest lunch in the area. That’s why there was still a line outside when I tried to go at 1:45 (lunch hours are 11 – 2). Around the corner, I […]
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Kassen Ichiba, Otemachi (活洋市場の大手町２号店)
Having lunch with different friends is good, my friends, because they surprise you with destinations you wouldn’t otherwise think of. I’m in office-building-basement mode for lunch (unless Oazo is involved), but my friend Fred is decidedly not (not the one who was scared of still-twitching shrimp, but just as bald!). He’s now driving to work […]
Lion D’Or Beer Cafe, Otemachi
Have I mentioned how hard it is to find a vegetarian counter lunch place in Otemachi these days? It’s hard. The basement of the Otemachi Building is massive. At a guess I’d say there are 50 restaurants down there, and at 12:00 sharp, when I went today, many of them were packed. A few places […]
Gokumen, Otemachi (新浪漫亭)
Late lunch, limited time…I still don’t want to let a day go by without trying something new. After all, I’ll probably only work in Otemachi for another…oh, 300 business days (pleasant thought!) so I have to make the most of it. There’s a row of restaurants under the Yamanote sen / Chuo Honsen tracks just […]
En, Marunouchi (だし茶漬け えん, 新丸ビル)
I swear that the current boom products are ochazuke and tsukemen. Both of these are, for me, in a class of “nice, but a little too subtle”, and for some reason I want to describe ochazuke as ‘pallid’. It’s a very gentle sort of snack. Anyway, En is a counter fast food ochazuke place that […]
- Asakusa
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Sake no Daimasu Wine Kan, Asakusa
Wow, there’s not a lot to do in Asakusa on New Year’s. I thought all the junk vendors on Nakamise Dori would stay open all night, but they were closing up around 8. There were an amazing number of yatai around and behind the temple, but we all know what they sell. Walking around a […]
- Other treats
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Tobishima, Sakata (酒田、山形県)
One dangerous thing about having a car is that you’ll tend to drive it. So when faced with the prospect of nothing to do in Akita and a train late in the day, we looked at the map and set out semi-randomly for the coast. Sakata in Yamagata was the nearest city, and 2 hours […]
Sato Yosuke, Yuzawa (秋田県。本当。)
Sato Yosuke is a fairly good-sized chain of udon shops, with their spiritual home in the Yuzawa region – the town of Inaniwa, source of the eponymous udon (there’s also a Ginza branch, making this review genuinely relevant). Pictured at left, I kid you not, is Inaniwa Castle, though you could be forgiven if you […]
Tucano’s, Shibuya (Shi-Boo-Yah!)
I was asked several times during this end-of-an-era team dinner if I was going to remember everything the next day. And I remember now exactly what I said I was going to remember when asked: MEAT. That’s not very original, but we don’t claim or strive to be original every day, folks. It’s not original […]
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Shioya, Roppongi
In the basement of this building you’ll find the famous grilled-pork specialist Tontokoton. Upstairs there’s a very dignified-looking sushi place, and a very un-dignified-looking Okinawa place specializing in salt-grilling. We went the undignified route! Not a lot of options at lunch – today there was sanma (I thought the season was over! O’Hara served us […]