First off, Dad, don’t get all excited. This has nothing to do with resonator guitars, except in the most glancing way. You’ll remember, I’m sure, that the Dopyera brothers were from Slovakia? And ‘dobro’ means ‘good’ in their quaint native tongue, or else it’s just a contraction of ‘DOpyera BROthers’? Well, this is a Croatian […]
lunch
Bistro La Poupee, Ningyocho
How did I end up at this place? I’ll be up front about it – I looked at the map and picked an area I’d never been to. This dense area north of Nihonbashi (broadly Ningyocho, but well outside the more interesting area) has a lot of small offices with a few restaurants sprinkled through […]
Comme Ca Cafe, Shinjuku
I find myself in the curious position, dear readers, of wanting to recommend a place that really irritated me even while I had a good time. Cafe Comme Ca has a LOT of things going against it, but the cakes are incredibly beautiful and taste pretty good too. Strike 1 – it’s a clothing-branded […]
Il Ghiottone, Marunouchi
Let’s not call it a grudge match, but I’ve had an animus against Il Ghittone ever since I went there for lunch one time years and years ago (in the scale of my life; that means early 2005, I think). But plenty of people like it, and some love it, so I was pretty excited […]
- Indian
- ...
Suriya, Kodemmacho (スーリヤ)
A perfectly normal Indian restaurant…just not normal to be out in the middle of nowhere, Iwamotocho. The only things weirder than finding this place out here were that there were a bunch of Indian places in the neighborhood, and there were a bunch of white guys in this one. Seriously, there were eight customers and […]
Grill Chateau, Yaesu
Ye’ll find this elegant chateau down a narrow alley in Yaesu, the east side of Tokyo station. The crennelations and gothic woodwork are particularly striking against the backdrop of small, worn buildings that populate the rest of the region. As you cross the expansive drawbridge, you’ll be heralded by a row of trumpeters in livery, […]
Okamoto, Asakusa (岡本)
Full-screen If guts are your thing, this whole street is for you. It’s a string of little izakayas with tables on the street, cheap japanese bar food with a slight Korean slant, and a different special ‘beef stew’ at each location. The individual recipes feature varying degrees of nasty bits (if I was writing a […]
- Other treats
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Ganko ramen, Takadanobaba (がんこ)
If you’re willing to make a good effort, and you’re a little relaxed about time, you can go all sorts of places for lunch. Like Baba, home of 100 ramen shops and various college girls in costume. What’s up, sailor? Walk up toward Waseda, going with the flow of kids on their way to school. […]
Coulis, Shintomi
The photo gallery on the web site shows a range of semi-artful but fully fresh-looking dishes. Vegetables are everywhere. So are construction pictures, and the last of the series is a couple with a young child, backs to the camera, looking at the completed kitchen. No doubt, Coulis is a labor of love. With quality […]
- Indian
- ...
Mumbai Bar, Kanda
Recently the sky is so blue it’s almost comical. Anyway. Food. “This place has been on the radar for months.” Repetitious, no? But true. It’s on the main street from whence you turn to get to all the places in the north of Kanda that are featured here daily. The bright exterior is a cut […]