In a funny little category of ‘Roppongi places I’ve been for both lunch and dinner’ is this Spain bar near Roppongi Hills (just outside Hollywood). There are half a dozen tables and a small counter in tiled / dark wood and metal faux-Spanish environment, and the food is what you might call ‘Spanish Bistro’ or, […]
lunch
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Harrod’s Brompton, Roppongi
When work in Roppongi is getting you down, go out to lunch. Hmmm, I prefer to go out to lunch every day…what does that say? Harrod’s is a great place to go when you want to escape – the décor is interesting and comfortable, the food is tolerable, and you can sit on stuffed leather […]
Tsubakiya, Roppongi
Visit Tsubakiya for a guaranteed shot of nostalgia that will take you straight back to the Taisho years (if you were alive and living in Japan, of which I was neither). Pleasingly, this place manages to pull off the requisite ambiance without feeling as if it hasn’t been remodeled since Taisho – which is a […]
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Café Singapura , Roppongi
For the regular lunch crowd, this used to be Golden Burning, variously known as’the Thai place’, ‘the Vietnamese place’, ‘the Asian place’ or ‘the red place’across from TV Asahi, at the bottom of Imoraizaka. ‘Red’ was a good description,what with the whole exterior being painted red and all. Now the red is gone(white, with a […]
Chartreuse, Roppongi
This is the restaurant that crystallized my views on ‘old’ food. Interestingly, it was in a book of’great lunch places’ that I picked up, intending to use for weekend dinners. When I realized howclose it was to the office (i.e., “that place with the French flag that I keep seeing on the side street”)I went […]
La Cometa, Azabu Juban
La Cometa, 2nd-floor Italian gustatory haven of no little repute…wait,that’s a different place. This one is slightly hidden on the secondfloor of a building near Azabu-juban crossing, up a curving staircase.Next to the door there’s a huge and confronting poster of an Italianpig, which should be a very good sign. But…Having now been 2 times […]
Sumiyakiya, Roppongi
Frankly, a Korean restaurant in Japan staffed by Sri Lankans sounds too good to resist, doesn’t it? It’s only some of the staff, and I’m not really sure if they’re Sri Lankan, but it does feel good to say. I love diversity. For me, the two draws at this concrete-floor, bare-wood table-kind place are 1) […]
Spice Garden, Roppongi
There’s an Indian place in my neighborhood that promises ‘One Coin Curry’. It’s pretty good, especially the fresh ‘n’ hot naan. Spice Garden is a little more expensive, the naan is just as big ‘n’ hot ‘n’ fresh, the curry is a little sweeter and less spicy (“more Japanese”, some would say), and less than […]
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Azabu-ue, Roppongi
Looks like this could be snazzy for dinner, but in keeping with my policy (“I’m done working, can I please leave Roppongi as soon as possible?”) I’m unlikely to go. For lunch, there are surprisingly tidy and tasty teishoku (either normal sakana stuff done pretty well or else rotating specials – when I went, hambagu; […]
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Tontokoton, Roppongi
Oooh, you can’t beat a place that has sides of meat hanging in a cooler in the entryway. Too bad they’re pork and not beef, but you know the meat’s gotta be fresh and they’re serious enough about it to buy ‘in bulk’ as it were. For lunch you’ll find a small set of yakibuta […]