“I want Indian.”“I want to eat a lot.”“Let’s go to Aladdin.”These things go together. Aladdin’s Y1200 lunch buffet is the thing to do when you want to eat a lot of mediocre curry and tasty lamb (used to be Y1000 but has increased due to ‘rising food costs’). Let me skip the service and atmosphere […]
mid-price
Derriere, Nishi Azabu
After a large pizza lunch, what do you need? Coffee and cake! Derriere is a cute little cafe, ideal for ladies who lunch with their kids and bankers who don’t work on Tuesday afternoons. They have a big cooler full of beautiful, traditional-style cakes (4 types of chiffon! see the web site) and serve coffee […]
- Italian
- ...
Pizza Salvatore Cuomo, Nishi Azabu
I had to wait very very late for lunch (thanks chief), and it’s hard to find much that’s open at 2:30. Fortunately the Salvatore on Nizhi Azabu’s fabled ‘restaurant street’ was still open (last order at 2:30, closing at 3. They were pretty keen that we not dally.). My friend announced in advance that the […]
Rick’s Spain Bar, Kayabacho
I’ll do my best to resist all urges to make stupid jokes. Rick’s is a Spain Bar (what is it with Spain Bars in the last year or two? Why can’t we have Italian Bars or French Bars?) mildly tucked away in Kayabacho (but near Miyakawa, and near Talo the Belgian beer place, oh and […]
- French
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L’Oasina, Minami Aoyama
Typically, the phrase “Homeopathy and Natural Food Kitchen down the street from the cemetery” is not one to make me come running. It fails on so many levels… On a random night when you weren’t expecting to go out to dinner, weren’t expecting rain, and can’t see the homeopathy or cemetery from the front of […]
Il Pacioccone, Aoyama
A November 2009 update from my September 2008 post below: having gone for dinner in the company of others, I still recommend this place. While we had some mussels (fresh, plump), a caprese (cheese a little too solid, but still good), and a bagna cauda (very good balance of anchovies and garlic but somewhat limited supply of […]
Moti, Roppongi
Nothing says love like a succession of massive days in the office over the weekend, toiling away for your failed firm. And nothing puts the cherry on the icing on the cake like a big glutinous mass of Indian food plus some hot ‘n’ fresh naan. As an aside, in 1998 when I was working […]
Baggio, Roppongi
One of the happiest days of my life was when I learned Baggio was doing lunches. Until then they were hit-or-miss, mostly miss, with no pizzas, only pasta, and some months no lunch at all. Frankly not so interesting; pasta doesn’t pay the bills. So when I found out a few months ago that they’d […]
- Italian
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Ammirare Firenze, Kamakura
Well off the beaten path for this one, but I was joining my friend for a (pretty terrible) sort of community-themed live music event near his house in Kamakura. And when venturing into the wilderness like that, I always figure one should make the most of it and explore some local fare. After hours of […]
- Other treats
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Teppanyaki Aoyama, Roppongi
Newish-contender in the give-me-your-lunch-dollar stakes, offering a very refined and expensive-looking environment in which to enjoy teppan lunch sets that are, I kid you not, good value for Y1400 or Y2000. In a nice building (strange narrow concrete front, tucked away down Imoraizaka, large running water feature and spiral starecase in the dark, cool lobby. […]