I spent the longest time looking at this ramen place called Satou on Yasukuni Dori in the heart of the Jimbocho sporting goods area – “Have I gone here yet? It looks familiar. And I don’t think it was that good.” Ahhh, the dilemmas that haunt my lunch. It turns out that the ramen place […]
lunch
Manten curry, Jimbocho (ライスカレーまんてん)
Yo, wassup man…ten. You wouldn’t think that one of Tokyo’s most famous curry places would be a dirty little storefront in a thin alley at the north end of Jimbocho. Come to think of it, you probably should expect that – the area is famous for curry, and as far as I’m concerned, the dirtier […]
- Kanda
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Carp Okonomiyaki, Kanda (カープ お好み焼き 東京支店)
The northeast corner of Kanda continues to yield occasional delights, despite years (years, I say) of exploration and (recently) relatively frequent bouts of despair at finding new, good things. Carp is obviously not new – it’s well-used and a bit greasy. But you’d be greasy too if your main feature was a griddle, and all […]
MaMa, Kanda (中国料理 媽媽)
There are days when I just think “Chinese”. They are few, and they are far between – only twice a year, maybe. This was one of them. After a lot of walking around in a dangerously dithering state (all the untried places looked crappy), I came upon MaMa. And it turned out really well! I […]
Aarti, Akihabara (アールティ,神田佐久間河岸)
Cast a wide net, that’s what I always say. Actually I never say that, but it was well worth walking the 20+ minutes up north to get to this place (east of Akihabara). I snapped a quick picture when I realized that the little red and yellow blob on the crappy skinny building wedged in […]
- Other treats
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Aoki Chaya, Takao (景信山山頂・青木茶屋, 高尾))
The directions for getting to Aoki are superb. They just say 景信山の山頂に登って下さい – please climb to the top of the mountain. It’s a little tricky knowing how to get started though – we took the train to Takao, saw the massive line for the bus, and jumped in a taxi to the trailhead. Bloody investment […]
- Other treats
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Junk Garage, Tokyo (ジャンクガレッジ)
Years, I’ve wanted to try this place. Years. About the same length of time since they moved from southern Tokyo to a location way out in the Saitama suburbs (Omiya). Now they’ve brought the magic to Tokyo. Look at the skull-and-crossbones-with-ears pig logo. When I say they’ve brought the magic, I really think they’ve done […]
- Other treats
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Shichisai ramen, Tokyo (麺や 七彩)
The Tokyo Ramen Street re-open is a major improvement, and well worth the wait. Before, the options were frankly uninspiring (except Rokurinsha, and that was so inspiring that there are always 30 people in line and it’s impossible for a regular working guy to get in at lunch). Now they’ve got Honda (ramendb’s 2011 #1 […]
Tenman Tempura, Nihonbashi (天ぷら 天万)
You could convince me that this was a 4th-generation, 100+-year shop if you wanted. Wouldn’t be hard. It’s harder to understand how they can stay in business. The reason I ended up here is pretty simple – they’re right around the corner from absolute greatness, and I’ve been trying to eat tempura at that absolutely […]
- Kanda
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Yoshimuraya ramen, Kanda (麺処 吉村家)
You know I like to bring you the latest restaurants, the ‘hottest things’ on the ‘Tokyo scene’. Well, with the summer shaping up the way it is – low/no-air conditioning policies to save power for those in need – every restaurant is going to be hot soon. It wasn’t even sunny today, but with the […]