This became a really long post, so I’ll spare lazy readers and say up front “Excellent. Good value if you’re an enthusiast for this style. Book 3-7 days ahead.” Arakicho is a neat place, tucked in between Shinjuku and Yotsuya, full of back streets and dark stairs and clubs and Japanese and French and everything else. […]
dinner
Brasserie Gus, Kagurazaka
If you can’t handle some self-satisfaction in a post, now’s a good time to stop reading. Today’s lunch, both format and destination, is so amusing that there’s sure to be smugness in the offing. After last Friday’s disastrous lunch in Iidabashi followed by a tantalizing walk in Kagurazaka, my longstanding regret at not being an […]
Toutouan, Higashi Akiru (燈々庵,東秋留)
Big day, eh? If you read the preceding posts, you’ll realize that Woodrow and I got up early, took the train way out west, did a solid hike, went to an onsen, browsed around, and then took several other trains to end up at this wonderful restaurant of his acquaintance. It’s really nowhere, and they […]
- Other treats
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Iseya, Kichijoji (いせや)
After spending a long, long day in Kichijoji last summer, I didn’t feel a tremendous need to go back – not that it’s not nice, but it’s pretty far away. So imagine my surprise when a trip to my new friend Beach’s pottery exhibition and lecture east of Ikebukuro turned into an invitation to yakitori […]
En, Monzennakacho (えん)
Clearly I’m not spending enough time walking the streets of Monnaka at night; there were several new places since the last time I got around, and that’s a rarity. This one looked really nice on Friday night when Mayu and I were binging on my old favorite places, so when we found ourselves with time […]
- izakaya
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Kitayama, Otsuka (きたやま)
Recently I wrote something about how my friends and I have been to all the good places. I’m not going to link to that post. I just wanted to say I’m sorry. That was a really stupid thing to say, and I’m very embareassed. It won’t happen again. Here’s another good place. Actually a whole […]
- izakaya
- ...
Shiba no Ura, Tamachi (芝の浦)
Recently I’ve been feeling like we’ve ‘done all the good stuff’ regarding sake in Tokyo, i.e., visited all the famous izakayas and even the hidden gems. With that in mind, I consulted my ‘targets’ map for something a bit more out of the way for Poshand and me to try this evening. Being sorta between […]
- bar
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, Ikejiri Ohashi
Stop me if you’ve read this one before. Several years ago I saw a post by a foreign visitor that talked about a restaurant he’d visitied and how aMAZing it was. But, he said, the owner’s wife had asked him not to blog about it. Too secret. Too great. So he just posted a picture of […]
- Kyoto
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Kinmata, Kyoto (近又)
One kaiseki course in a day just isn’t enough. I came down to Kyoto with a simple restaurant strategy: Open Tabelog Kyoto. Call restaurant #1. Call restaurant #2. Et cetera. Of course I got rejected from some very lovely-looking places. But I booked the ones that were #8 and #9 on the day (it changes […]
- Asakusa
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Otafuku, Iriya (大多福)
Otafuku is an institution. The Woodsman has been here several times over his comings and going vis a vis Japan (something like 15 years since the first arrival, no?) and positioned it as one of those ‘You haven’t been?!’ experiences. Plus the horse stew place I wanted to try was closed when we got there. […]