It would be practically impossible to walk past the dingy exterior of the Rainbow Kitchen without giving it a second look. The rusty corrugated metal and rough bleached wood that make up the facade are a carefully designed fashion statement. This funky little spot looks like it’s been rusticating for decades, but in fact it’s […]
mid-price
Kimura, Enoshima (磯料理 きむら)
With the long weekend well underway, Monday seemed like good timing for a day trip. And Enoshima has been on the list for a long time – a standard place to go, hence a somewhat glaring omission from my catalog of touristy experiences. Getting down there around lunch time, we walked on to the island […]
- Kanda
- ...
Yanone Sushi, Kanda (矢の根寿司)
Boring post, good sushi. No, really good sushi. Great value sushi. If you know some of my proclivities, you’ll know how much I like my restaurant map. And I also really enjoy seeing it fill out over time (Shinjuku recommendations very welcome!). There’s one region of the greater office area map that’s been sadly lacking in […]
Funabashiya Tempura, Marunouchi (船橋屋,新丸５)
Boring post, dead ahead. Aye aye cap’n! Hard astern!! This place is always crowded. During lunch hours they have 8 or 10 chairs outside, and a good portion of the time they’re in use. This means that the place is either really good or else is just plain popular for no good reason, which happens […]
- bistro
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Souvenir, Toritsu Daigaku
A deeply nostalgic trip, this, for several reasons. First, I used to do nothing restaurant-wise but look for places like this – reasonably-priced bistro French. Finding this took me back to those days (hey grandpa). Second, even though I’ve spent very very little time in France, the faux nostalgia created by a good bistro is […]
- Otemachi
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Sozaiya, Otemachi
This will be a boring post – for some of us. If I’m not careful, I’ll finish going to all the restaurants in the basement of the neighboring Shin Otemachi building. They’re somewhat lackluster, but that’s Otemachi for you. I hope you’ve gotten that theme as it recurred over the past 8 months and over […]
- Otemachi
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Kakoiya, Otemachi (かこいや)
It’s great to see things through other people’s eyes – today’s lunch featured some overseas guests, and the most normal things on the plate were suddenly strange and bizarre. And fishy. I got the sense that their overriding sense was a sense of fishiness. They were right, all those things did have fish in them. […]
- Otemachi
- ...
Zen, Otemachi (然)
Mmmmmmm, natural and healthy. I don’t mean that sarcastically, actually. Despite being focused on healthy food (and serving brown rice), this place was quite tasty. That’s probably why this visit marked an unheard-of third visit for Shaft (though of course a first for me). It’s in the basement of the new JA building, which I […]
- Other treats
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Takegami Ittetsu Soba, Tokyo (たけがみ 一徹)
Tokyo Station Kitchen Street is actually starting to look a little slim in terms of unexplored places. This was one of them, and I liked it. The name means something like ‘stubborn’, which I expect is meant to be a comment on their unwavering commitment to quality. Tokyo Station has a campaign on for the […]
- bar
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XEX, Daikanyama
Nothing but drinks passed my lips, but I have to say that sitting outside, near the pool, in the 3rd-floor tropical-resort environment above one of Daikanyama’s main streets, is a hell of a good way to spend an hour. Don’t be fooled by the relative darkness of the big sliding door that greets you as […]