My friends, I know I’ve maligned Kanda in the past. But today the sun is shining, the sky is clear, the weather is warm, and even the salarymen look a little less gray. With no intended sarcasm, it’s nice to be alive, employed in Tokyo and able to walk to Kanda for a late lunch. […]
lunch
- Ginza
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Enoteca Pinchiorri, Ginza
We all have our maxims for life (whether we realize it or not, I think). Let’s not talk just now about what mine are, but my good friend Greg told me last year that one of his is ‘you get what you pay for’. This will make sense presently. Enoteca Pinchiorri is one of the […]
- beer
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Drunk Bears, Otemachi
Not quite sure what to say about Drunk Bears. First, you’re not misreading and I’m not mistyping – the name is Drunk Bears. It’s situated about halfway along the Otemachi Building, but at ground level rather than in the pack-em-in basement concourse. This means that for today’s lunch it wasn’t even full – somehow people […]
Ikkon Buta, Kanda (一献豚、神田洞門)
Hitsumabushi is a unique dish of eel that’s famous in Nagoya (along with miso katsu!). ‘Famous in Nagoya’ is actually enough of a tipoff in my book that it’s not good, because (I’m prepared for backlash here) there’s really nothing interesting in Nagoya (please prove me wrong. I’ll visit any time.). The point of the […]
Mieux Dominus, Kanda
I’d like to use this intermediate post (between yesterday’s lunch and dinner) as a mechanism for discussing several dimensions that interest me within the socio-psychological framework of restaurant selection, including the relative importance assigned by the customer to aspects within the restaurant’s value dialogue and also the proper identification and typification of restaurants based on […]
Konami Sports Club, Otemachi
What do you look for in a restaurant, my friends? Is it good food? Service? Affordable prices? Attractive environment? Nice views? Sakura ebi? Today my good friend Volleyball (named, I promise, for his predilection for the sport and not the resemblance of his cranium to said object) introduced me to a charming little place that […]
Saikai, Otemachi (西海、神田)
Kanda is a confusing grid of streets north of Otemachi – not quite a restaurant desination, but every street seems to hold one or two surprises (OK, zero or one). (The confusion comes from the fact that it is, again, set off at a slight angle from Chuo-dori and the adjacent grid). Walking around today […]
Asuka, Otemachi (明日香)
Nothing like some nice grilled eel, is there? Gives you stamina. Power. That’s why I had the chicken at this underground eel specialist; wouldn’t want too much power to interfere with the afternoon… The creatively-named Japan Building features a whole set of odd little places underground. My current target is actually not Asuka, but rather […]
- Otemachi
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Komatsuan, Otemachi (小松庵、オアゾ５階)
I’ll tell ya, it’s been a long time since I enjoyed soba this much. Usually I want to like it, because I like the handmade soba ethic, and the whole ‘pure mountain grain and water’ sort of thing that goes along with it. But the noodles often come out…how can I put this…boring? Yep. The […]
Ashi Mashi, Otemachi (阿詩瑪石,大手町センタービル)
A slightly mysterious and not-that-well-traveled byway leads to the dining floors of the Otemachi Center Building. It’s mysterious for several reasons – there aren’t that many places to eat, and many of them are quite ordinary destinations (cheap chain izakaya Ootoya?). Furthermore, some of them have massive lines at 11:35, so maybe the byway’s not […]