So I was wandering around Takasaki in the afternoon, and I saw this quaint old store with a big (unreadable) banner outside, but it looked like it wasn’t really selling anything. Then I noticed the sign over the banner that said “Malt’s beer sold here” and I thought, hot damn, this place has beer! That […]
lower-mid-price
One’s Drive, Marunouchi (新丸B1)
It’s marvelously open-ended, isn’t it? One’s drive to…succeed? the mall? master English? the green? That plus the incredibly cryptic and referential pop-culture columns I’ve been reading today leads me to say ‘On da gween!!!’ in hopes that someone will get it (but hopes are low). And with burgers, hope still persists. Hope dies last, they […]
- Kanda
- ...
Nocchi, Kanda
[This place has been closed for a while, but there wasn’t any reason to go in the first place. As of Feb ’11, the new noodle shop in their space is pretty good.] The one thing that comes through as a consistent theme to me after nearly 12 months of visiting a different restaurant near […]
Torajiro Soba, Monzennakacho (寅次郎)
Just as another thing to try on the way to TCAT and the airport bus, Jake and I stopped by this newish soba place. It was late in the afternoon, so there was no one there, and in fact the master took some time to arrive at the counter – napping? He was up for […]
Tacos del Amigo, Harajuku
Ole! Oye como va! I’ve exhausted my Spanish! Obviously Eating Out In Tokyo With Jake was a series of loosely-connected visits to strange choices of eating and drinking establishments…Venturing into this Mexican place on the Omotesando side of Harajuku was just the earliest in the succession, before we went down to Shibuya for a look […]
- izakaya
- ...
Wadaya, Kayabacho (和田家)
Before I get into this one, do you think it’s possible that the best guitar rock song of the 70’s is Bachmann Turner Overdrive’s “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet”? I think it contains a little sample of all the elements that made the era great, and present the case as follows: Not too long – […]
Chinmaya, Otemachi （陳麻家）
This place seems to specialize in tantanmen (spicy sesame-and-pork noodles) and mapo tofu (tofu and pork in sauce heavily spiced with red pepper and prickly ash). I sense some thematic similarities there. In keeping with my recent capsule reviews of noodles places: – I like noodles like this in ramen – thin, straight, light. They’re […]
- French
- ...
Comme d’Habitude, Sangenjaya
As the latest in our series of neighborhood explorations, Sangenjaya had a few things against it. I’m unreasonably biased against the Denentoshi line (dunno why), and as far as I could tell, Sancha was a bit too…industrial. Finally, the weather was gloomy all day. but after a late start we persevered and headed there. It […]
Hong Fu Gyoza (紅虎餃子房)
Perfectly meeting the requirements of today – a place that’s a decent walk from the office, but all underground (if desirable), offering spicy noodles and fried dumplings. Yesterday’s spicy noodles got me thinking about having ‘spicy noodle week’ but I don’t think I have enough stamina to do that every day. And I missed Monday, […]
Xian, Kanda （西安刀削麺 酒楼）
Well, if you can read those kanji you’ll know that I had toushoumen for lunch today. I was pretty happy about it too – I thought this place was good. Toushoumen are a sort of performance-art food, a little like the picci that were on the menu at Il Pacioccone last Friday night. By this […]