Huit, Nakameguro

Cafe Life (in capitals) appeals to me, but I’ve never been able to relax for hours in cafes. It’s always something – the chairs are too hard, or too soft, or there’s not enough to read…and I can’t just sit and stare. The police told me that if I get picked up for that again, […]

La Loggia, Roppongi

Ahhh, La Loggia. Just the name conjures up visions of centuries-old houses, quaint streets, shady corners, authentic pizza, espresso counters, naan and curry. La Loggia used to be a very mediocre Italian restaurant behind Roppongi Hills, near Aladdin or Cafe Eight or Gato Nero, depending on your perspective. It was mildly famous in my mind […]

Del Sole, Roppongi

Del Sole is a pretty standard Italian place near the end of Imoraizaka (also near Asahi TV and the old Golden Burning). It has two nice points – the spacious patio with umbrellas, which is great on a nice day (like today!), and the store-made gelato, which comes included in the lunch sets. Mysteriously, the […]

Kyutoku, Roppongi

There’s a whole raft of restaurants in Roppongi Hills that I haven’t been to recently and thus haven’t written about. Now that I’ve been to it recently, here’s one of ’em. Kyutoku is commonly known as ‘the three-bowls’ place, because the normal lunch is three varieties of udon (or donburi) chosen from 10 or 12, […]

Ostrea, Roppongi

Coming out of the office after work and trying to think of a place to go (that wasn’t Heartland) we were greeted by the puzzling sight of a new and attractive-looking restaurant where previously there was only…I’m not even sure, but it sure wasn’t an oyster bar with a big beverage selection. Almost directly across […]

Antwerp Six, Yurakucho

Once, several years ago, I tried to go to this Spain Bar called Pero in far-west Ginza, really more Yurakucho. This was before Spain bars got all mysteriously popular (which to me remains a mysterious phenomenon). I was puzzled to see when I got there that it was full, and while putting my name on […]