This was a great experience. And it restored my faith in humanity. Or at least my interest in finding great new places. I had a run of great luck recently and didn’t go to a bum place. Some that were maybe just OK, but nothing bad and some wonderful surprises. So it was more than […]
mid-price
- bar
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Kibouan, Ikebukuro (希紡庵 きぼうあん)
Urban hiking. I just love walking in Tokyo. Today I was out for a medium hike, starting in Shin Okubo (just north of Shinjuku) and hiking to Ikebukuro to look for a couple places I had seen online but forgot to get links or addresses for. So you could say I was hiking four stations […]
- izakaya
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Seikaiha, Tamagawagakuenmae (青海波, 玉川学園前)
The finest dining establishment in all of Tamagawagakuenmae. It’s a bold claim considering it’s the only place I’ve been to, but this is a pretty sweet izakaya, and TGGEM is a smallish, sleepy station. It’s nearly as good as Ibuki, which is at the next station, the relatively enormous Machida. So if you’re in TGGEM, […]
- izakaya
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Manaita, Takadanobaba (真菜板, 高田馬場)
After not really having much fun at Shimomiya, and not even being able to drown our sorrows due to the ordering difficulties and overall stylistic incompatibility, Bird and I were desperate to go somewhere else. Since we were up for whatever, the conversation went like this: “Hey, there was another place I attached my eye […]
- izakaya
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Fuusan, Machida (風燦 原町田店)
Tuesday night saw the team back in Machida for an away game. Woody recommended the Big Fuu to me last year after I checked in at Ibuki, but as soon as I walked up to it I realized that I had seen it last year on that Ibuki trip and decided not to go. Which […]
Kamozou, Kagurazaka (地酒喝采 かも蔵（カモゾウ 醸蔵）)
Yooooooshta. It’s official. I have now been to all of the good sake places in Tokyo. Think you know another? Nope. Not good. This is the last one. Boo-yah! Good, I’m glad we could all agree on that. Back to work. I’ve been knowing this place for a long time. I happened by on my bike, […]
Trattoria RYUDO, Roppongi (トラットリア リュウド)
My opinion of Roppongi dining isn’t great. You say ‘Roppongi’, I think ‘bad cost performance’. This place is the exception that proves the rule, as I like to say. Straight-up great cooking at great prices, only a few minutes from Nogizaka station or Roppongi crossing, at the end of a quiet street. Perfect. The maitre […]
- izakaya
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Okatte Fumoto, Tama Plaza (麓)
Out and about in Tokyo, seeing stuff, taking advantage of changing elevators on the 33rd floor on the way to a meeting…Sometimes it makes me feel immature, but I’ve never lost my wonder at heights. High floors, airplane windows, you name it. I’m the only businessman who chooses the window seat on purpose. This is […]
- izakaya
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Tsuchi to Ao, Chofu (居酒屋 土と青)
If you need a capsule review, let me just say “Not going to get any better than this in Chofu, and probably not any other Western suburb, and this is really as good as it gets in the genre”. But backtracking a bit, looking out the train windows at dusk makes me melancholy and nostalgic. […]
Lockhart Smokehouse, Dallas
I got kind compulsive about blogging for a while, basically between 2009 and 2011. Or I got compulsive about food. I mean, I was always compulsive about food, which is a running battle (and you know what they say, never get into a land war in Asia), but once I started writing about what I […]