Ciappucino, Yoyogi

A funny little place that looks like a bistro but in fact specializes in…tea and pancakes. Like 20 varieties of tea, which you can get all afternoon as a set with a cupcake, and a large number of pancake varieties, for example the daily special of Caprese – pancakes with mozarella, basil and tomato. Ooooo-kei. […]

Le Cafe du Coin, Kanda

Full of odd contrivances, but I liked this place quite a bit. I think if you’re in the area it’s a good lunch; at night it could be good and would certainly be cheap. Foodologically, they concentrate on simple bistro dishes, and winistically, the focus is on les biodynamiques (shizenba?) at normal prices. The coffee […]

Kisaku, Kanda (吉作)

Still plenty of things hiding in plain sight in Kanda…this place is across the street from the chirashidon place of 2 weeks ago; somehow I never looked at it before. They have half a dozen lunch sets, all of which are normal and yet diverse. For example, I had the sashimi set, which came with […]

Luck, Otemachi

Once, many moons ago, I went to a nifty exhibit of Japanese postcards culled from the collection of a rich Bostonian who had a yen for taking home thousands of Japanese art objects (I bought the exhibition catalog too; it’s on the bookshelf in the bedroom, bottom right). I never really understood where the museum […]

Beer Restaurant Old Station

Before I ate, I was all set to write a snarky post about this place, but I kinda enjoyed the ‘fried curry udon’, which is their speciality item and comes on a sizzling skillet which rapidly cool, letting the curry congeal, which is a little gross but significantly better than sizzling, spitting, and thoroughly threatening […]

Lauderdale, Roppongi

Tokyo needs more brunch places. This is manifestly true. Fujimama’s closed recently, and while Suji’s remains open, I think the food and cost performance is kinda cynical (as in, “We dare you to find another place that will serve you American-style brunch, and until you do we’re not making much effort.”). Hotels are not an […]