Only on the way out did I notice that the kaba of the restaurant name was in fact 河馬 – hippopotamus! What relation does that have to fish flown in daily from various markets around Japan? Not much? With its noisy, crowded atmosphere and long, iced ‘fish market’ counter up the front, Kaba is a […]
lower-mid-price
Pui, Kiba
The whole team here at EOITwJ has done a LOT of scouting missions around the greater Monzennakacho area (the ‘metro area’ we like to call it). Outside the main regions, there isn’t usually much to see, and things don’t come and go the way they do on the Monnaka back streets either. So when we […]
- Otemachi
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Imonokura, Otemachi (芋の蔵、オアゾ６階)
The quest continues, my friends. As we enter the third week of March, marking more or less 10 weeks of Otemachi, we are proud and a little embarassed to report that EOITwJ has not, in fact, EO at the same Otemachi dining outlet twice. Unless you count the desk-lunch bento from Bamboo, but we don’t […]
Wansu, Ebisu
Well, Korean food is not one of my specialties, but this makes two Fridays in a row that EOITwJ has gotten all jiggy with the togarashi. This week’s event, organized by Shaft, was much more Korean than Karaya last week, which was a good (but not better) thing. The atmosphere and menu are too different […]
- Otemachi
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Takadaya, Otemachi (高田屋)
Y’know, for some reason I thought this was a huge chain. I feel like I’ve seen tons of them around town. Now, I’m not so sure – the card lists only 4, and a quick googling produces mainly some stores in Hokkaido (which seem like the main part of the chain, but only 6 or […]
- Otemachi
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Bamboo, Otemachi
Ladies and gentlemen… I present to you after weeks of searching a pretty good restaurant in an Otemachi basement. And it’s Ethnic! Bamboo is in the long, long, forbiddingly long and crowded corridors of the Otemachi Building (creative names abound here). It’s in a strange place where the walls of the canyon press in a […]
Sushi Sei, Otemachi
You know how the Japanese alphabet (errr, syllabary) works, right? [Actually it’s already time for a digression. Do you know the story of the Cherokee syllabary? The Cherokee had no written language until the 1820’s, when one of them decided it would be cool to have, and made up a syllabary. Only recorded instance of […]
Rinya, Otemachi
Day 14: We continue to explore. Day by day, we hack away a few more meters of jungle with our machetes, but the work is slow and we frequently have to stop so the coolies can sharpen our blades. They seem to be growing restless due to the steady diet of teishoku and Indian, and […]
Wu Shang Lu, Otemachi (五香路)
If it quacks like a duck…I dunno. Things get really crowded around Otemachi at lunch time. I mean like “If you don’t leave the office at 11:30, lots of places will have lines of people waiting outside”-full. This is one of those places (quacks) but it didn’t really taste like duck (platypus?). Going with the […]
Le Train Bleu, Kagurazaka
Special mention: stopped for a glass of wine in this charming and charmingly-named French bar-restaurant. It’s sort of around-the-corner from the main street in Kagurazaka, but seems worth seeking out for further research! Wide selection of glass wines at sensible prices (under Y1000), large bottle menu at sensible prices (all under Y10,000, most cheaper), tasty-looking […]